Amazon affiliate links are known for being too long and ugly. But: who cares?
Despite looking scrambled, Amazon associates links usually include sufficient keywords that describe the content of the product page as you can see below.
http://www.amazon.com/Lego-Batman-Xbox-360/dp/B000ZKBJY6%3FSubscriptionId%3D06EH56NFMA60CCNVHN02%26tag%3Dms084d-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000ZKBJY6
So, if Google sees the link above, it’ll understand that you’re linking to a Lego Batman thingy for Xbox 360. And because the linked page is probably already indexed by Google, it’ll also know that you’re linking to a video game.
How much more SEO friendly do you wanna get?
Truth is: the only other thing that you can probably do to improve the search engine friendliness of your Amazon affiliate links is creating redirects.
Link redirects will let you insert strategically chosen keywords in the URLs and it’ll allow you to track the number of clicks you got.
Redirect Amazon Affiliate Links to Improve and Track Them
Using certain Amazon plugins for WordPress, you can shorten (and track) Amazon affiliate links.
For example, if you use ReviewAZON or WP Zon Builder to build your Amazon store, you can turn links like
http://www.amazon.com/Lego-Batman-Xbox-360/dp/B000ZKBJY6%3FSubscriptionId%3D06EH56NFMA60CCNVHN02%26tag%3Dms084d-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000ZKBJY6
Into more manageable links such as
http://example.com/your-keyword/B000ZKBJY6/
With this, you can also track the number times the link got clicked on. This kind of analytics can give you valuable insight into your best performing links.
Thanks for the thoughts. I just found out that Amazon don’t want us to use a link shortening service that makes it unclear we are linking to Amazon. So my WordPress plugin is out.
I could just use the normal (long) Amazon link though. What I really need is a plugin that lets you use http://example.com/my-amazon-product/ (but not to build an amazon store as you mention above – just for WordPress). Hmmm back to the drawing board. Thanks – Martin
Martoons, What you need is a redirection plugin. One option is my own WinkPress Affiliate Links Manager.