Glossary
The affiliate link glossary
Every term you'll meet working with affiliate links — defined precisely, with the link-health implications spelled out.
Affiliate link
An affiliate link is a URL containing tracking information that attributes a visitor — and any purchase they make — to the specific marketer who referred them, so the merchant can pay commission. The tracking lives in query parameters, path segments, or a redirect through an affiliate network's server.
Link rot
Link rot is the gradual failure of published hyperlinks over time as their destinations are deleted, moved, or restructured. For affiliate links it includes commercial failure too: a link whose program closed "rots" even though the URL still loads.
Deep link
A deep link is an affiliate link pointing to a specific page — a product, plan, or offer — rather than the merchant's homepage. Deep links convert dramatically better because visitors land on exactly what was recommended.
Deep link decay
Deep link decay is when an affiliate deep link stops reaching its specific target page and instead lands on a homepage, category page, or search results — usually because the product was discontinued or the site restructured. Tracking often still works; conversion collapses.
Link cloaking
Link cloaking is wrapping an affiliate link behind a cleaner URL on your own domain — yoursite.com/go/product instead of awin1.com/cread.php?awinmid=… — via a redirect. Done transparently with disclosure, it is standard practice, not deception.
Vanity redirect
A vanity redirect is a branded short URL on your own domain or subdomain (go.yoursite.com/product) that forwards to an affiliate link. It exists to be memorable, speakable, and — critically — editable after publication.
Tracking parameter
A tracking parameter is a query-string key/value in an affiliate URL that carries attribution data — who referred the click (awinaffid, aff_id), which campaign (offer_id, camref), or the click itself (awc, irclickid, cjevent).
Click ID
A click ID is a unique identifier an affiliate network generates when it registers a click, usually appended to the merchant URL — awc (Awin), irclickid (Impact), cjevent (CJ), sscid (ShareASale), tduid (Tradedoubler). Its presence on the landing page is near-proof that tracking fired.
Sub-ID (SubID)
A sub-ID is a publisher-defined tracking value added to an affiliate link — clickref (Awin), sharedid (Impact), afftrack (ShareASale), aff_sub (TUNE) — that the network echoes back in conversion reports, letting you attribute revenue to specific content or placements.
Cookie window (attribution window)
The cookie window is how long after a click a purchase still credits the referring affiliate — commonly 30 days, but set per program from 24 hours to 90+ days. A purchase inside the window pays; one outside it doesn't.
Attribution
Attribution is the process of crediting a conversion to the marketing touchpoint that caused it. In affiliate marketing it is typically last-click: the most recent affiliate whose link the buyer clicked (within the cookie window) gets the commission.
Click registration
Click registration is the moment an affiliate network's server records your click — at the tracking hop (awin1.com, pxf.io, shareasale.com), before the visitor reaches the merchant. It is the anchor event of affiliate attribution.
Parameter stripping
Parameter stripping is the loss of query parameters as a URL passes through redirects or client-side URL cleanup — merchants' https/www/locale rewrites and history.replaceState calls routinely remove tracking parameters from the visible URL.
Redirect chain
A redirect chain is the sequence of hops a click passes through between the published URL and the final page — shortener → vanity redirect → network hop → merchant, in the fullest case. Each hop can independently fail, and diagnosing a link means walking the whole chain.
Soft 404
A soft 404 is a page that returns HTTP 200 ("success") while its content says the page doesn't exist — "product no longer available", "page not found" — so status-code-based checkers see a healthy page where a human sees an error.
Network bounce
A network bounce is when an affiliate link's click reaches the network but bounces off a closed program — landing on an error page ("advertiser not found", "this offer is no longer available") or getting forwarded to the merchant without attribution.
Affiliate network
An affiliate network is a platform sitting between merchants and publishers that handles tracking, reporting, and payments for many programs at once — Awin, Impact, CJ, Rakuten, ShareASale being the majors. Publishers join once and access all its merchants.
White-label affiliate platform
A white-label affiliate platform is tracking software a brand runs under its own domain — TUNE (HasOffers), Post Affiliate Pro, and similar — so links look like track.brand.com rather than a recognizable network domain.
Geo-redirect
A geo-redirect is a site sending visitors to a different regional version based on location — brand.com to brand.de, or a US store to its EU storefront. For affiliates it can silently break attribution when the regional site runs a different (or no) affiliate program.
Link shortener
A link shortener wraps a long URL in a compact one (bit.ly, tinyurl, geni.us) that redirects to the original. In affiliate chains, shorteners add a hop that can rate-limit, expire, or be deleted independently of the affiliate link inside.
Postback (server-to-server) tracking
Postback tracking, or server-to-server (S2S), reports conversions from the merchant's server directly to the network's server using a click ID — no browser cookies involved. It is the cookieless backbone of modern affiliate attribution.
Commission reversal
A commission reversal is a merchant cancelling a previously tracked commission — because the order was returned, cancelled, or failed the program's terms. Reversals happen in the network's reporting layer, after tracking worked correctly.
Affiliate disclosure
An affiliate disclosure is the required statement that you may earn commission from links you share. Regulators (like the FTC in the US) and most platforms require it to be clear and placed before or near the links.
Evergreen content
Evergreen content is content that stays relevant and keeps attracting traffic for years — tutorials, reviews, "best X" roundups. It is the backbone of affiliate income and, simultaneously, where link rot does its worst damage.
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