This factor records whether RankGear finds an Affilinet affiliate tracking link in the rendered page body. It returns a simple present-or-absent value (1 / 0) — it says nothing about whether the link is useful, current, or even points to a live destination.
| Factor ID | RG-AFF-004 |
|---|---|
| Family | Affiliate & ads |
| Measurement | Boolean presence (0 / 1) |
| Measured zone | Rendered, script-free page body |
What it measures
This factor indicates whether RankGear recognizes an Affilinet tracking URL on the page. Affilinet was a European affiliate network whose outbound click and tracking links route through the partners.webmasterplan.com domain. RankGear reports only the presence of such a link — not how many appear, how relevant they are, or where they ultimately resolve.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear scans the rendered, script-free page body and searches case-insensitively for HTTP or HTTPS links beginning with partners.webmasterplan.com/click. One or more matches score 1; no match scores 0.
What RankGear looks for
<a href="https://partners.webmasterplan.com/click/...">
<a href="http://partners.webmasterplan.com/click/...">| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | At least one Affilinet partners.webmasterplan.com/click link was found in the page body. |
| 0 | No Affilinet tracking link matched. This does not prove the page has no affiliate relationship. |
How to optimize it
Treat this as an observation, not a target — there is no ranking benefit to adding or removing an Affilinet link for its own sake. Retain affiliate links only when they support useful, transparent recommendations. Disclose compensation clearly, and use current relationship attributes on the links so they are labeled honestly for readers and crawlers.
Important considerations
- Legacy or redirected URLs may score differently, so an older Affilinet link format can read as absent.
- Presence does not validate the destination — a matched link may be dead or point somewhere unexpected.
- A score of 0 does not prove no affiliate relationship exists; other networks and link formats are outside this factor.
- Commercial usefulness of the recommendation matters far more than this factor.
- This is a correlation-based prioritization signal within a measured result set, not something that makes a page rank or guarantees a position.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.