Cloaking affiliate links in WordPress protects from being indexed by search engines and makes URL short and understandable. It also helps to centrally edit and replace affiliate links without changing the URL that you place on the pages of your website or blog.
An example of how this works.
Initially, an affiliate link may look like this:
https://www.shopwebsite.com/product/white_backpack_2019&affiliate_id=8906456
After masking it may look like this:
https://www.yourblog.com/go/shopwebsite/
or
https://www.yourblog.com/go/white_backpack/
How to cloak affiliate links in WordPress using the plugin
Example, how to cloak affiliate links in WordPress using the Go Redirects URL Forwarder plugin.
1) Go to “Plugins” – “Add New“. Find, install and activate the Go Redirects URL Forwarder plugin.
2) Go to “Settings” – “Permalinks“. Click the “Save Changes” button. This must be done for the forwarding to start working.
3) Go to “Redirects” – “Add New“. Add a title and external affiliate URL. Click the “Publish” button.
4) Go to “Redirects“. Copy the resulting forward URL.
Now you can use this URL on your website or blog.
Video Tutorial
Photo by Christian Holzinger on Unsplash