Major affiliate network
Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Link Checker
formerly LinkShare
Rakuten affiliate links route through click.linksynergy.com with the destination in a murl parameter. They break when the merchant leaves Rakuten ("merchant unavailable"), when the offer expires, or when the murl destination page dies — and because the tracking hop still fires in that last case, your dashboard looks normal while conversions quietly go to zero.
How Rakuten Advertising links work
Typical link
https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=AbC123&mid=45678&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fmerchant.com%2FproductRakuten deep links use click.linksynergy.com/deeplink with your ID, the merchant ID (mid), and the destination in murl. On click, Rakuten registers the event and redirects, appending ranMID/ranEAID/ranSiteID tracking parameters to the merchant URL.
Since the destination lives in murl, the link has two failure surfaces: the Rakuten program itself, and the murl page. Both need checking on every audit.
Link domains
click.linksynergy.com · linksynergy.com
Tracking parameters
| Parameter | Role |
|---|---|
| id | Your affiliate ID |
| mid | Merchant ID |
| murl | URL-encoded destination page |
| ranMID / ranEAID / ranSiteID | Tracking IDs appended to the merchant URL |
How Rakuten Advertising links break
Merchant leaves Rakuten
Links return "merchant unavailable" or "advertiser not found". As with all networks, Rakuten doesn’t rewrite your old links when a merchant departs.
Offer expired
Promotion-specific links can die while the merchant remains on Rakuten — "offer expired" or a redirect to a generic page.
murl destination rot
The tracked click succeeds, then the visitor lands on a 404 or homepage because the murl page was removed. This is the classic silent killer: your click counts look healthy.
Error signals Afterlink detects
These are actual failure fingerprints from Afterlink's validation engine for Rakuten Advertising links:
- ▸"merchant unavailable"
- ▸"offer expired" / "offer not found"
- ▸"advertiser not found"
- ▸murl destination returning 404 or redirecting to homepage
How Afterlink checks Rakuten Advertising links
Afterlink extracts every link from your YouTube channel or website, recognizes Rakuten Advertising links by domain and parameter signature, then runs five checks on each one: the full redirect chain (including JavaScript and meta-refresh redirects), network error-page detection, destination verification against the embedded target, tracking parameter analysis, and deep-link decay detection (product page silently replaced by a homepage). Every link gets a clear verdict — working, warning, or broken — with the evidence attached.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my Rakuten clicks show in the dashboard but sales dropped to zero?
Classic murl rot: the click registers at click.linksynergy.com before the visitor is forwarded to a dead or generic destination page. Check where the link actually lands — not just whether it loads.
Is click.linksynergy.com safe?
Yes — linksynergy.com is Rakuten Advertising’s tracking domain, inherited from LinkShare. It’s been the backbone of Rakuten links for two decades.
How do I bulk-check Rakuten links?
Each link’s murl needs decoding and independent verification. Afterlink does this automatically: it extracts the embedded destination, verifies it separately from the tracking hop, and flags both program closures and dead destinations.
Troubleshoot Rakuten Advertising
- Rakuten Advertising Links Not Working? Diagnose and Fix Them
- Rakuten Advertising Link Redirects to Homepage Instead of the Product — Fix
- Rakuten Advertising Tracking Not Working? How to Verify and Fix Attribution
- Rakuten Advertising Program Closed or Merchant Left? What Happens to Your Links
- How to Test Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Links (Complete Procedure)
Related networks
Check every affiliate link you've ever published
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