When you hear the term affiliate link cloaking (sometimes called link masking), it might conjure up images of shady online dealings and black-market websites.
But there’s nothing sinister about link cloaking – it’s simply a way to hide your affiliate links so they look more natural and less like, well, affiliate links!
If you’re new to affiliate marketing, you’re going to want to start cloaking affiliate links. There are a number of benefits that can help you grow your online business.
Before we go into the best affiliate link cloaking plugins, let’s dive into exactly what link cloaking is and why you’ll want to do it.
What is Affiliate Link Cloaking?
Link cloaking is simply a way to mask an affiliate link so that it looks like a link on your own website. We’ll dive into why you should use link cloaking next, but it cleans up the links on your website and makes them look a little more clickable.
Why You Should Use Affiliate Link Cloaking?
So why would someone want to cloak affiliate links? There are several reasons.
It Helps the Link Look a Little Cleaner
Here’s what I mean by this.
Instead of having my Bluehost affiliate link look like this…
https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-8358301-11351511
My affiliate link would look like this…
https://www.seanbryant.co/bluehost
It looks more professional and lets your readers know they’re clicking something that won’t take them to a shady website.
Cloaked Links Allow You to Track Performance
One of the biggest benefits of link cloaking is that you can track performance. Each time someone clicks your cloaked link, data is passed back to you. This allows you to see what page the click took place on and where a potential conversion happened.
Affiliate Link Management
Using a link cloaking plugin is also a great way to manage all your affiliate links in one place. When you use a link cloaking plugin things like updating links are much more efficient.
So what exactly do I mean by that? Let’s assume a brand you’re working with changes your affiliate link. Instead of needing to change every link on your website, you can change it once within the affiliate link cloaking plugin.
So if you’re looking to tidy up your links, improve your website’s performance, and better manage your links, link cloaking is the way to go.
Also read: 16 Best Affiliate Marketing Tools
Best Affiliate Link Cloaking Plugins
There are a few different ways to cloak affiliate links, but the most popular way is to use a WordPress plugin. This will take your visitors from your cloaked link to the destination URL (affiliate site).
Let’s take a look at six of our favorite link cloaking plugins to help you manage affiliate links.
Best Overall: Pretty Links
If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution to affiliate link cloaking, then Pretty Links is definitely worth checking out.
It’s my favorite plugin because it allows you to easily cloak, manage and track all of your affiliate links from your WordPress dashboard. Plus, it comes with some handy features like link expiration, pretty link redirection, and the ability to add nofollow tags to your links.
Pretty Links also allow you to set up different types of redirects including 301, 302, or 307 redirects.
Pretty Links has both a free and paid version. With the paid version, you’ll receive quite a few features that aren’t part of the free version. These include advance redirect types, auto-link creation, and auto keyword linking.
Pros
- Cloaks affiliate links easily
- Comes with handy features like link expiration and pretty link redirection
- Allows you to add nofollow tags to your links
Cons
- Advanced redirecting is only available with the Pro version
Pricing: Pro version starts at $79 per year
ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates is another great solution for those looking to cloak affiliate links. Because there is no complicated setup process, this has become a favorite for many bloggers.
One of my favorite ThirstyAffiliate features is how easy it is to add affiliate links to content. Similar to adding a standard link to a WordPress post, you simply click the ThirstyAffiliates button on the WordPress menu bar, choose the link you want to use, and you’re done.
There’s also an auto-link feature that will allow you to automatically add a cloaked affiliate link based on the keyword. As an example, I’m an affiliate for Bluehost. I can set it up so that each time Bluehost is mentioned, it’s hyperlinked with my affiliate link. This includes both new and existing articles.
Pros
- Automatically link cloaking based on keywords
- Advanced reporting
- Redirecting links based on location
Cons
- Doesn’t integrate with Woocommerce
Pricing: Starting at $49
Lasso
The Lasso plugin is great for cloaking affiliate links in WordPress but they are much more than that as well.
With Lasso, you can also create call-to-action boxes that allow you to highlight products you’re promoting. These can be customized to match the colors of your website and will help improve affiliate conversions.
You’ll also have the opportunity to use Lasso to boost your affiliate income. They will find links on your website that are not being monetized and they’ll turn them into an affiliate link with just a click.
Finally, Lasso allows you to create individual cloaked links for each of your affiliate links. There is also robust reporting so you can see how each link of performing.
Pros
- Manage your affiliate links from one dashboard
- Ingrates with Amazon affiliate links
- It will monitor and alert you of any broken links
- Create product boxes that convert well
- Free 14-day trial
Cons
- More expensive than link cloaking plugins on this list
Pricing: 14-day free trial and then $29/mo or $289/year.
Easy Affiliate Links
Easy Affiliate Links is an easy-to-use link cloaking plugin for WordPress. A couple of the more popular features include the ability to categorize each of your affiliate links and adding an automated text disclaimer for affiliate links.
If you’re promoting Amazon affiliate links, you can leave each of these uncloaked to make sure you stay within the guidelines of the Amazon Associates program.
While this is going to be a pretty basic link cloaking tool, it’s a free plugin and easy to use.
Pros
- Free
- Works with both the classic and Gutenberg editor as well as Elementor
Cons
- You need to upgrade to the paid version for the best features
Pricing: Free
Simple URLs
Simple URLs is a completely free link cloaking plugin. They allow you to create and manage all your affiliate links in one centralized dashboard.
Instead of setting up page-based redirects, Simple URLs will create new custom post types. This can be to your advantage when it comes to SEO because it will eliminate any potential permalink issues.
Pros
- It’s free and is great at affiliate link cloaking
- You can categorize all of your affiliate links
Cons
- Doesn’t come with any advanced features you typically get with paid products
Pricing: Free
Woocommerce Cloak Affiliate Links
If you’re running Woocommerce on your site then Woocommerce Cloak Affiliate Links is going to be a top choice.
With this free affiliate link cloaking plugin, you’ll be able to cloak links and redirect those links from your Woocommerce WordPress site.
Pros
- Free and easy to set up and use
- Helps prevent bot activity by adding a Disallow command to your Robot.txt file
Cons
- Only available on Woocommerce websites
- Limited features
Pricing: Free
Bottom Line: Choosing The Best Link Cloaking Plugin
No matter if you’ve been an affiliate marketer for years or just starting to monetize a blog for the first time, you need to know how to use cloaked links.
Not only does link cloaking make your link structure look much cleaner, but it will allow your readers to feel safe clicking your links.
But most importantly, link cloaking will allow you to track all of your affiliate links in one place.
Link Cloaking Frequently Asked Questions
How do I cloak my affiliate links?
There are a number of ways to cloak your affiliate links. The most common way is to use a plugin or script that will automatically generate cloaked links for you. There are also a number of online services that will cloak your links for you.
What are the disadvantages of cloaking my affiliate links?
The biggest disadvantage of cloaking links is that some affiliate programs don’t allow cloaking, so you’ll need to check with your program before you start cloaking your links. Amazon affiliate program is one example of a company that doesn’t allow you to use a cloaked link when promoting their products.
Is Link Cloaking Bad For SEO?
No. Link cloaking can actually be good for SEO because it can help boost the click-through rate for each link.
Should you add a ‘nofollow’ tag to your cloaked links?
Any time you have a link where you’re getting paid, you should use a nofollow tag. Many also recommend using a sponsored tag (rel=”sponsored nofollow”) with affiliate links as well.
