Filling your blog posts to the brim with affiliate links will hurt your SEO. But there is a way to use affiliate links to boost your SEO score. It’s all about what kind of content you’re writing.

Google wants to give people the best answer to what they are searching for. It uses artificial intelligence to help it find the best answers to every conceivable search. AI is used to analyze web content but also to make sense of what people are actually looking for when they use a particular search query.

Writing the best answer to a search is how you get boosted on Google.

That’s a lot easier said than done though.

You can’t just write an article about, for example, ‘best way to brew coffee’ and throw in dozens of affiliate links to different coffee pots.

You have to produce well researched, well put together content. That means images, videos, clear summaries and writing. It is hard work.

Google also treats affiliate links as ads. On every post you want to include as many recommendation links as possible. But that means the ad count on your post adds up quickly.

Google wants to show helpful content, not adverts. So, don’t litter your post with links, don’t make constant calls-to-action. Use one affiliate link, one CTA and make it count. Put it at the bottom of your article so you have a concrete suggestion of how to do what your post talks about.

Go through your old blog posts and remove unnecessary links. Delete fluff – that’s not helpful for readers and Google punishes it. Really think about why people are reading the post. What are they trying to solve? Lean into that and make sure your post answers that question.

Reading duration is a key factor in determining your Google ranking. Think about it. The longer a person reads, the more they are interested in the content. Google knows this and rewards posts that keep a reader’s attention.

It’s a good idea to have a content strategy with different types of posts planned for your blog. You should have short articles with no promotional links, long articles, again with no affiliate links, and only some longer articles with links. Maybe only a third of your content should include links.

You may think that limits how much you can make. But there’s a way around that: Use internal links.

Link to other blog posts which have affiliate links in them. Make sure those links add something to the post though. You can’t just throw in a link to a completely random post and expect people to click on it.

Imagine a reader of this post is given two links they can click. One is for a review of a blog post writing course and one is a review of the best places to get fireworks online. Both have promotional links. Which one are they more likely to click on?

Affiliate marketing doesn’t harm SEO, if you do it correctly. Follow the advice here and you will be fine.