Cloaking Affiliate Links
Discover what link cloaking is, how to do it, and best practices for using it effectively. Whether you have a WordPress site or a custom website, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to implement link cloaking in your content and affiliate marketing campaigns.
What is (affiliate) link cloaking?
Link cloaking means that you hide or disguise your (affiliate) links by using a redirect link. This redirect link will then lead the user through the affiliate link. The effect is that the user will not see the affiliate link when he hovers over the button or checks the code. It can only be seen when the cloaked redirect process is reviewed by for example a browser plugin like Redirect Path.
Do I need to cloak affiliate links?
Cloaking affiliate links is a good practice for optimizing visibility of your content, or to meet compliance standards. It essentially masks the original URL and replaces it with a link that looks more natural to both visitors and browsers. Depending on your marketing strategies, cloaking affiliate links may increase click-through rate, reduce the chances of being blocked by search engines, and improve efficiency of your campaigns. It also may help you abide by domestic and international compliance regulations. Ultimately, cloaking is up to your discretion; however, it may be beneficial to understand its full capabilities and the upsides and downsides of link cloaking.
| Upsides of Cloaking Affiliate Links | Downsides of Cloaking Affiliate Links |
|---|---|
| ✅Look more trustworthy than affiliate URLs | ❌Additional redirect involved |
| ✅Hide sensitive information | ❌Not compatible with some ad network policies |
| ✅Accepted by ad networks when root domain is used | ❌Disapproved ads if different domains are used |
Best Practices of Affiliate Link Cloaking 🚀 🪄
- Server Side Implementation
- Build User Trust
- Track and Optimise
Use a reputable link cloaking tool
Choose a reliable and secure link cloaking plugin that won’t break your tracking or interfere with affiliate attribution. Test your cloaked links regularly to ensure they work properly across all devices and browsers.
Keep URLs clean and relevant
Use short, descriptive slugs that clearly reflect the product or brand (e.g., /go/sephora instead of long or keyword-stuffed URLs). This builds trust and improves user experience.
Avoid keyword stuffing
Don’t overload your cloaked URLs with unnecessary keywords or irrelevant text. Over-optimization can trigger spam filters and negatively impact your SEO performance.
Respect affiliate program policies
Always follow each program’s rules regarding link cloaking. Some networks, like Amazon Associates, restrict it. Violating their terms can result in losing your commissions.
Monitor and optimize your performance
Track your click-through and conversion rates to understand how cloaking impacts your results. Tools like wecantrack can integrate data from multiple networks to provide accurate attribution and optimization insights.
Maintain transparency with users
Even when cloaking, make sure visitors understand they’re clicking on an affiliate link. You can include a short disclosure near the link to stay compliant and build credibility.
Different Cloaking Software for your affiliate links 🚀 🪄
Cloaking Links for free with wecantrack Plugin
If you want a simple and fast way to cloak your affiliate links, wecantrack offers a client-side cloaking option via our affiliate sales tracking wordpress plugin, with wct domains or your own subdomains. This means you can start cloaking links right away and no technical work needed. Your affiliate URLs are automatically replaced with wecantrack's domains. Perfect for affiliates who want an instant setup without managing redirects on their own domain. With a little bit of extra work, this functionality can also be set up with the affiliate's own subdomains.
Cloaking with our dedicated Affiliate Links Plugin
We also provide a dedicated plugin that lets you manage link cloaking server side and directly on your own domain. The free wecantrack Affiliate Links plugin allows you to creates short, branded URLs that redirect to your affiliate links while keeping your tracking fully functional. It’s a plug-and-play setup that takes just a few minutes to set up, install the plugin and start creating cloaked links right inside WordPress.
Cloaking on WordPress with other plugins
Apart from wecantrack, there are several other plugins available for WordPress that offer link cloaking functionality. Some of these plugins include Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates, and Easy Affiliate Links. These plugins offer different features and customization options, such as redirect types, link categorization, link rotation, and link import/export. Depending on your needs, you can choose the plugin that suits you the best and most of them are compatible with our own tracking plugin (our clickout api will be used during redirect ensuring server side click tracking).
Cloaking on custom websites
For custom-developed websites that are not on a WordPress CMS, there are different methods available for link cloaking. One option is to use server-side redirects with scripts such as PHP, which can help you create custom URLs and track clicks. You can also use standalone scripts or plugins that offer link cloaking functionality for custom websites. Additionally, via our Clickout API endpoint you can ensure that your custom cloaked URL's setup is compatible with wecantrack.
Compatible with popular WordPress plugins:
Does wecantrack work when I cloak my affiliate links?
Yes it does. We have created different methods in order to be compatible with almost every cloaking approach.
In case you are using WordPress and cloak via cloaking plugins, our system is most likely to already be compliant with it. In case you use a custom-built approach for the cloaking. We have API endpoints and a function available that will allow you to set up a connection with our system. You can find more information below.
In-house cloaking method – How to cloak affiliate links?
If you cloak your affiliate URLs through a custom-built approach, you will need to make use of our API endpoints to direct your users through affiliate URLs that contain our unique click IDs.
With each click you will send us an API request with which you send us your affiliate URL. Then we will place the necessary SubID parameter with a unique ID in that URL and send it back to you as a response. You will then need to lead the user through that affiliate URL. The whole process does only take a few milliseconds, so it won’t be noticed by your users.
You can set up a fallback function that will direct the user through your original affiliate URL if you did not receive a response from us within X milliseconds. This will ensure that the users will not experience any delays.
In the following clickout api documentation you can find all the relevant information you need to set up your API requests, it also contains sample codes.
WordPress cloaking (redirect) plugin
If you cloak your affiliate URLs through a WordPress plugin, e.g. Pretty Links or Redirection, you will need to use our wecantrack WordPress plugin. Our plugin will automatically detect your affiliate URLs, even though they are cloaked, and place the necessary SubID parameter with our unique WCT ID.
This process works with all major WordPress cloaking plugins, including Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates, Lasso, Redirection, Datafeedr, and Affiliate Links Lite. Once the wecantrack plugin is active, it hooks into the redirect flow and appends the tracking parameter before the user reaches the affiliate network. No manual configuration per link is required.
For publishers managing hundreds or thousands of affiliate links, this automated approach saves significant time. Instead of manually adding SubIDs to each cloaked link, the plugin handles attribution across your entire site. You can then view performance data for every cloaked link in the wecantrack affiliate dashboard, broken down by traffic source, landing page, and network.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between link cloaking and link shortening?
Link shortening simply creates a shorter URL that redirects to the original. Link cloaking goes further: it replaces the visible affiliate URL with a clean, branded URL on your own domain (e.g., yoursite.com/go/product). Cloaked links hide the affiliate parameters entirely, making the URL more trustworthy for visitors and harder for bots to scrape or hijack.
Does link cloaking affect my affiliate commissions?
No, properly implemented link cloaking preserves all affiliate tracking parameters. With wecantrack, the SubID and click ID are automatically injected during the redirect process, so conversions are attributed correctly. The affiliate network still receives all the data it needs to credit your commissions.
Is link cloaking allowed by all affiliate networks?
Most affiliate networks allow link cloaking, but some have specific restrictions. Amazon Associates, for example, requires that affiliate links remain transparent and does not permit cloaking. Always check your network’s terms of service before implementing cloaking. wecantrack is compatible with 450+ affiliate networks, and cloaking works with the vast majority of them.
Can I use link cloaking with wecantrack’s free WordPress plugin?
Yes. wecantrack offers a free Affiliate Links WordPress plugin specifically designed for server-side link cloaking. It creates branded redirect URLs on your own domain and integrates directly with wecantrack‘s conversion tracking. You can also use the main wecantrack WordPress plugin alongside third-party cloaking plugins like Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates.
Does link cloaking slow down my website?
The impact is minimal. Server-side redirects (301 or 302) add only a few milliseconds to the click process. wecantrack‘s API-based cloaking includes a built-in fallback: if a response is not received within a set number of milliseconds, the user is sent directly through the original affiliate URL. Visitors will not notice any delay.
