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Affiliate links

Outbound links that pay the site a commission when the visitor buys something.

Why it matters

A recommendation that earns nothing is an opinion. A recommendation that earns a commission is a business. Affiliate links let editorial content keep its tone of disinterested advice while its links do the selling.

Readers rarely look at the end of a link address, where the tracking code lives. Respecting that is part of respecting the reader.

How Outhouse measures it

Outhouse counts links to other sites that carry affiliate parameters or pass through affiliate networks, and links marked rel=sponsored. Ten or more scores in full.

This audit counts towards Ad Load, with a weight of 1. A category is 75% its two highest-scoring audits and 25% all of its audits, weighted, so a site is judged mostly on what it does most and partly on how many things it does.

How to improve your score

Install Promote. Available on selected plans. See all products.

Related audits

• Labelled ads: Listings, results and products that appear where they do because someone paid for them to.
• Ad slots on the page: Rectangles of the page reserved for advertising.
• Ad density: The share of the whole page given over to advertising.
• Recommendation widgets: Grids of Around the web and You may like links at the foot of the content.