How to cloak affiliate links in WordPress

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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.

Step 1 - How to cloak affiliate links in WordPress

2) Go to “Settings” – “Permalinks“. Click the “Save Changes” button. This must be done for the forwarding to start working.

Step 2 - How to mask affiliate links in WordPress

3) Go to “Redirects” – “Add New“. Add a title and external affiliate URL. Click the “Publish” button.

Step 3 - How to hide affiliate links in WordPress

4) Go to “Redirects“. Copy the resulting forward URL.

Step 4 - How to cloak affiliate links

Now you can use this URL on your website or blog.

Video Tutorial

Photo by Christian Holzinger on Unsplash