Definition

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.

Cloaking's real benefit is maintainability: when a program changes, you update one redirect instead of every post and video that used it. Its cost is a second failure layer — the redirect itself can break, and a dead redirect plugin kills every cloaked link on the site simultaneously.