SEO affiliates are the partners who offer their ads products or services using search engine optimization (or SEO) strategies. SEO plays an essential role in affiliate marketing as it generates lots of free traffic to the owners of the ads, thus generating better revenue for the business and affiliates as well. 

In general, there are several steps towards successful affiliate SEO implementation: 

• Consider the winning keywords for employment: the ones which have a high search volume and less competition.
• Build a solid strategy towards content improvement.
• Track the progress and enhance the site’s page rankings with time. 

The more efforts SEO affiliates invest into the site’s improvement, the better results will be noticed after a time. One of the biggest benefits of SEO affiliates is that they sometimes have a more engaged audience with a higher interest in a specific topic. Additionally, such affiliates can drive cheaper traffic to your site with better conversion rates. 

The main downside of the SEO affiliate is that these partners sometimes can’t completely follow the advertiser requirements, or damage the reputation with their measures. Furthermore, the SEO websites can often lose their positions after the Google search engine algorithms update, thus generating way less relevant traffic to their affiliate partner. 

 Site Map

A site map is a blueprint for a website that search engines use to find, crawl, and index all of your site’s content. With site map files, search engines can recognize which pages on your site are the most important. There are four types of sitemaps:

• Normal XML Site map. This is the most common type. Usually, this site map is in the form of an XML file that links to different pages on your website.
• Video Site map. With the help of such a site map, the search engine can better understand the video content that is on your site.
• News Site map. Such a map helps Google find content on sites related to news, namely news approved for placement in Google news.
• Image Site map. With this map, the search engine can easily find all the images that have been published on your site.

A webmaster doesn’t necessarily need to submit the sitemap to the Search Console, however doing that significantly speeds up the indexing process for new pages and ensures that any changes made to the website will be noticed by search engine robots.  

 Tag

The term refers to a small piece of Javascript code, a transparent image or a small pixel that is placed on the website for tracking purposes. Webmasters place tags onto the website in order to gain important insights about the amount of visitors, their behavioral patterns and amount of conversions. Tags are most often used for tracking such kind of data:

• Event tracking
• Measuring reading depth
• Capturing visitor attention with heat-maps
• Analysis of eCommerce data
• Control of clicks through advertisements
• Campaign tracking

The main purpose of the tag can be best described as enabling third-party tracking, reporting, remarketing, in-depth analytics and optimization. 

 Webmaster Tools 

Webmaster Tools is the set of instruments search engines offer to help webmasters build search engine-friendly websites. They basically provide you with important functions to optimize your website in search engines. Companies such as Google, Yandex, Bing, Baidu, and others offer users their own set of tools for website optimization.

The definition ”Webmaster Tools” is mostly associated with Google and Bing Webmasters Tools. Search engine companies give basic free-of-charge features but still, more specific options may be available for a cost. Different providers form a different set of tools and here are the most common essential tools for webmasters:

• Website Submission is a tool that helps to submit your website to search engines and check the indexing status. Since you submit your URL, you need to wait two to four weeks to get involved in the process.
• Sitemap Submission is a navigation system that allows search engine crawlers to recognize the structure of your site.
• Crawling Information is useful to get control over the site waiting for search engine crawlers to sift through your website.
• Internal and External Link Details are the features you need to use to be aware of links connecting to your website. Internal links provide information from one page to another page of your site and external links stand for pointing to you from other pages.
• Search Queries is an option that helps you to know the number of search queries that led to great traffic to your website.

 White Hat SEO 

White Hat SEO refers to SEO practices that are considered ”good” and healthy for websites. This is the definition opposite to Black Hat SEO activities. It became bad to use black hat SEO when Google updated its algorithm so since that time many webmasters use white hat SEO practices. There is no chance to be banned from using this method as it respects the search engine’s terms of service. Here are the top tactics webmasters use to boost their website performance with white hat SEO:

• Quality content is the most essential element which will get your site to the highest searching rank positions.
• Content-relevant keywords are the main point in the process when users recognize your page. Even 2 or 3 supporting keywords will play the role of good site performance enhancers.
• Lean code is a very useful method that helps search engines to find the exact data when crawling your site.
• Authoritative inbound links are the perfect feature for increasing overall site traffic and rank in SERPs.
• Simple website navigation is working for placing your website in organic search rankings.
• Fast page loading speed is the most powerful tool which engages users to visit your fast loading website.

Thus white hat SEO is a more reliable and responsive tactic in successful website optimization.

 White Label 

White Label in marketing refers to a product or service that is created by one company in order for the other company to later rebrand and market it as their original product. The product manufacturer or service provider doesn’t label a product on purpose.  

Such an approach is beneficial for both: those who create the product and those who rebrand and sell it. 

For the company creating the original product or service white label is a great way to focus on the production itself without spending effort on marketing. On the other hand, companies who possess deep expertise in marketing but don’t want to engage in production can turn to white label products to start a profitable business. 

Businesses utilize a variety of marketing approaches in order to reach the final consumer of a white label product or service. SEO website optimization, social media marketing, inbound marketing, content marketing, email marketing and are some of the popular strategies. 

 Yield Optimization

Yield Optimization is the process of using data testing and optimization methods to increase the effectiveness and performance that is attained by influencing customer’s behavior to get better profitable output. To cut a long story short, it is simply the strategy advertisers use to get maximum in all aspects from digital advertising.

Here you will find the most vital factors to study for effective yield optimization:

• Site Optimization is the first thing you should consider. It includes data about ad sizes, ad formats, right ad placing, bounce rate, referral link, page visits, time users spend on site, and other advertising options that drive visitors’ attention.
• Demand Stack Management is important to be sure each formant is in demand. This is the key point to remember for getting great revenue.
• Technology is meant to use an ad server. Thus you can sort the advertising by format, pricing, priority, and position. Your most important ads will be shown firstly getting high CPM rate and least important will come last.
• Demand Partners is the factor you will have to choose as best suited for your site. Consider partners by their technical capabilities, demand sources, advertising type, and formats to fully maximize your optimization program.
• Seller Models are the key factor in getting high revenue. A correct monetization model will reinforce your yield optimization strategy in a profitable direction.

 Yoast

Yoast is a WordPress plug-in that allows on-page direction and optimization for high SEO rankings. With its help, you will get more visitors, increase your readability, and engage more visitors from social media. Let’s see which features Yoast offers for the customers:

• Keywords optimization. This is the function built on improving your text by finding the right keywords, keyphrases, synonyms, and related keywords. The plug-in helps to recognize whether you use them enough and in the right context.
• Internal linking. The process of identifying your site by search engines will become easier with internal linking suggestions. It analyzes your text and then gives the links to related posts.
• Structured data. This feature stands for structured data about your page for the search engines to comprehend what your page is about. Yoast is the only plug-in offering such complete information related to your website.
• Improved readability. As people mostly read between sentences, you need to write it that way it catches the viewer. Thus Yoast will give you the instruction on what to improve to be readable by more visitors.
• Technical features. If you are not into technical stuff, Yoast will take care of everything.

Yet it has more helpful features, but be aware that specific options are available only in paid Premium Yoast versions.

 .htaccess File

.htaccess File is a server configuration file that can be used to change your website’s configuration without editing server configuration files. The configuration can be made only in the directory where the .htaccess file is located. This file is available on the Apache web server.

There are three ways of getting to your .htaccess file:

• from the hosting account’s file management 
• from an sFTP or FTP client 
• in hidden files 

With the help of .htaccess file, you can make redirects for URLs, customize error pages, use HTTPS instead of HTTP, and prevent hotlinking.

While it is a very powerful tool, it also has some tricky pitfalls. Before you start to change your website configuration, you better make a backup of the .htaccess file and the site. If you don’t have enough technical knowledge, it’s better to contact a website developer not to harm the website.

 301 Redirect 

301 Redirect is the HTTP status code that takes users and search engines to a new URL while the requested URL is no longer present. This is a reliable way to get users to the correct page. This status code shows that a page moved to another location. This function will be useful in such cases:

•  if you want to make the process of moving to a new domain as seamless as it is possible 
• if your site can be reached through different URLs. Thus you need to choose one preferred URL and make 301 redirect to direct traffic from other URLs 
• if you are connecting two websites and want to know if outdated URLs direct to the right pages 

Look closer at the example. Suppose you have a site hosted on a certain subdomain. Then you decide to move this into another subfolder. By simply deleting the subdomain you will get a 404 page when reaching original URLs. And what is more, you don’t want to lose traffic. With the 303 redirect every visitor will come to the new URL and search engines will not mark it as any longer existing.

 302 Redirect

302 Redirect is a temporary redirect from one URL to another. It redirects users and search engines to a new location in a few seconds until you delete the previous URL. For users, it may be shown as 302 found or moved temporarily.

A 302 redirect is easy to set up. You just need to use a meta tag with no access to server files as it works with 301 redirect.

Consider the next example. You are running an online store and certain products are no longer available. Then you create a 302 redirect and deliver users to another page of your website. As they can’t purchase the desired product, they will see similar products and may choose from them. At this time search engines see your website as offline temporarily and its value remains the same.

Webmasters use 302 redirects for AB testing of the web page to check its design and practical sides. This helps to see whether the site is functioning well enough. With a 302 redirect, you may receive users’ feedback without influencing the site ranking.

 404 Page

404 Page is a landing page that appears when you visit a website that no longer exists or can’t be found on the server. It tells the viewers that the page was moved or deleted. When users miss the chance to get the information from your site, the provider gets it as a poor customer experience and puts your site out of high rankings.

There are common reasons why a user might meet a 404 error:

• the server doesn’t work 
• the page moved 
• the page was deleted 
• the user wrote the wrong URL 
• the URL is down 

A 404 page is important for detecting dead or broken links on your website. This page should be created as a part of your standard website setup. By the way, WordPress makes it easy to add a 404 page as a backup. But still, users see that as a distracting error and webmasters now try to make the page funnier and appealing so the visitors feel they are special guests.

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is a type of testing when one variant (group A) of a digital marketing tool such as ads, landing pages, keywords, and emails is compared to another variant(group B). The testing works for a certain period and certain audience. The results give a complete picture of how the defined testing elements work. Thus you can improve the website performance and put user experience on a higher level.

There are A/B testing benefits:

• High Website Traffic. The changes you will make based on testing results will acquire new customers, optimize the ranks, and boost traffic.
• High Conversion Rates. It helps with optimizing landing pages, advertisements, and emails to get better conversion rates and returns on investment (ROI).
• Lower Bounce Rate. As the website will be improved, fewer visitors will leave the page without interacting.
• High Opt-Ins. Opt-ins provide website users with constant information about your brand. A/B testing helps with messaging and positioning to turn more users into potential clients.

A/B testing will be effective when conducted by professionals so to make use of it, you need to use the special tools or learn by yourself.

 Ad Blocker 

Ad Blocker is a type of software created to block pop-up ads when the user visits the website. A visitor chooses what to see or skip, or none at all. Thus online ads will not be displayed on a website. This tool is helpful for users as it allows them to load the page faster and otherwise it is harmful to webmasters as they lose a piece of revenue from ads.

An ad blocker products users with various advantages: 

• it removes distracting ads 
• it makes pages easy to read 
• it keeps advertisers away from an online trip 
• it loads the page faster 
• it blocks fake news 
• it protects from malware 

Although an ad blocker is beneficial to end-users, it’s a significant problem for webmasters running ads on their websites. Ad blocker decreases the number of ad impressions and leads to lost revenue for webmasters, so publishers install advanced anti-adblockers to their websites.

 Ad Network

An ad network is an entity that connects advertisers seeking to buy high-quality traffic and publishers wanting to monetize their websites. It offers various benefits to both parties.

Ad Network for Advertisers

Through an ad network, advertisers can find the needed number of publishers with the relevant traffic. If traffic fraud is detected, all the conflicts can be handled through an ad network that guards the advertiser’s interests. 

Moreover, an ad network provides precise reports about the quality of traffic generated by publishers. So an advertiser can scale the budget for high-performing partners and stop working with the low-performing ones.

Ad Network for Publishers

Cooperation with an ad network is also highly beneficial for publishers as they can choose advertisers with the most relevant offers, highest payouts, and most suitable forms of ads available.

In the case of direct cooperation with an advertiser, a publisher might have been receiving higher payouts. However, many publishers still choose to work through an ad network because finding an advertiser with good offers on their own is a challenging process.

Tracking Software

Tracking software in affiliate marketing allows marketers to track visits to their website and clicks on advertisements. Its main purpose is to see how well the affiliate website is performing, whether it is worth the investment, or how you can improve it. It also helps marketers to automate routine processes and keep their affiliate programs well-organized. 

It may also contain the following features:

• generating the tracking code as a third-party cookie
• tracking time and location of click, view, lead, sale, etc.
• tracking traffic source 

When choosing an affiliate tracking software, it is important to find a solution that you are comfortable with. Some pieces of software require advanced skills, may have bad navigation or a dull user experience overall. The set of features and the price are important as well. Overall, it should be a balance between your preferences and functionality. Do not hesitate to request a demo or use a free version before buying a solution. 

The most popular tools are Tune, Voluum, and Tapfiliate.