November 12th 2023.
Did you know that almost 80% of businesses around the world have an affiliate program? This makes affiliate marketing an incredibly effective business model for aspiring entrepreneurs and new ventures.
Affiliate marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years, and it has helped countless businesses generate leads and capture quality traffic for their sales funnel.
Companies are willing to pay generous commissions for these results, as they often exceed their expectations. When you become an affiliate, you promote a brand's solutions through affiliate links. These links drive traffic to the websites you're promoting and help you generate revenue through commissions.
It's essential to make sure that your affiliate links are always working. Over time, you may run into issues such as expired or broken links. In this case, you'll need to take the necessary steps to fix the problem.
The causes
The causes of broken or expired affiliate links can be divided into two main categories. The first cause relates to the company offering the affiliate program. If the company makes any changes or modifications to the page URL you link to, this can result in a broken link.
The same issue can occur when the company's current affiliate campaign you are promoting ends, or if the company decides to shut down its affiliate program altogether. These changes may render your affiliate links inoperable.
The second cause of the problem lies on your end. Most of the time, the issue is caused by carelessness when linking to the respective URL. Even a simple typo can lead to your links not working. Additionally, there may be issues with your website's code, so you should consider that as well.
Why do you need a fix?
When you run a business that relies on the affiliate model, having broken links is like bleeding money. If your links are not working, you won't be sending any traffic to the brands you're promoting. When someone clicks on your links, they'll be met with an annoying "404 page not found" message.
Not only will you lose an opportunity to generate revenue, but you'll also leave a bad impression on your visitors. You attracted the right audience with well-thought-out content, only to fail to keep your promise. This is likely to deter those visitors from visiting your website again.
Broken affiliate links can give the impression that your website is outdated or not maintained, which is not good for your brand image. In addition, they may have a negative impact on your search engine rankings. Google is a giant in the industry with over 93% of the market share, and when it crawls your website, it tests every link on your pages. If some of these links don't work, it's a huge red flag for the search engine, which may lead to a drop in your rankings.
As you can see, broken or expired affiliate links can cause a number of problems. It's essential to take the necessary steps to fix this issue as soon as possible.
How to fix broken or expired affiliate links
Now that you know what causes broken or expired affiliate links and why it's important to fix them, let's move on to the process. Here are the steps you need to follow:
Step 1: Find problematic links
There are two ways you can find broken or expired affiliate links. The first option is to manually check all of the links on your pages one by one to ensure they are all functional.
This process is thorough, but it is also very time-consuming. Therefore, it's best to consider the second option, which is to leverage web-based website audit tools like Broken Link Checker or Semrush.
The first website audit tool is ideal for small businesses that have a limited budget or those that are just starting out with affiliate programs. It helps you easily find the broken links and take the necessary measures to fix the issue. All you have to do is add your website's URL and click the button. Within a few minutes, the tool will crawl your website and identify the broken links.
Since it's a free tool, it has some limitations. It can only process up to 3,000 web pages. So, if your website has more pages, you may have to consider the second option.
The second option is to use a paid website audit tool like Semrush. To find the broken links, log into the tool, click 'Backlinks Analytics', enter your website, and click 'Search'. Now scroll down and look for the affiliate links tagged as 'Lost: Broken Page'. These are the links that need to be fixed.
Step 2: Identify the cause
As mentioned earlier, there are two possible causes for your affiliate links to be inoperable. It may be due to the company offering the affiliate program, or due to a problem on your end.
Your links may not work because the affiliate campaign has come to an end, or because the affiliate program no longer exists. This often leads to a broken or expired link issue.
You may also encounter an issue with your links when there is a problem with your website's code, or when you use incorrect URLs when promoting the solutions. It's important to identify what is causing the issue before you take the necessary steps to fix it.
Step 3: Reach out to the company
This step is optional and only applies if the problem with your affiliate links is caused by the company itself.
Usually, companies will notify their affiliates when their campaign is coming to an end, or when they no longer want affiliates to promote their products. But if they don't, feel free to reach out to them and communicate your concern. Just make sure that everything is working properly on your end before you do so.
Step 4: Update affiliate links
If the problem is on the company's end and the affiliate program is still active, they will provide you with updated links. If the issue lies on your end, compare the links you are using with the ones that were provided to you by the company.
In either case, you'll have to replace the inoperable links with working ones in order to fix the broken or expired links.
Step 5: Set up redirects
Once you have replaced the old affiliate URLs with the new ones, make sure to set up 301 redirects. This way, even when someone clicks on the old affiliate link, they will be redirected to the updated page. This will help you avoid losing clicks and keep generating income, even if someone stumbles upon an old URL.
Step 6: Test the updated links
To avoid making the same mistake twice, it's best to test the updated links before making the changes live on your website. All you have to do is click on the new links and make sure that they route you to the intended product pages.
Step 7: Publish the changes
Once you have completed all of these steps, all that's left is to publish the changes. And that wraps up the process.
Final words
Having a well-maintained website is like having a sturdy foundation for a business, protecting it from the pitfalls of broken or expired affiliate links, which can otherwise disrupt the path for emerging ventures.
If you are dealing with such issues, just follow the steps outlined in this article to fix the problem in no time.
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