Link masking (or link cloaking) is a method to hide the destination website's URL and replace it with a clean URL.


Affiliate links usually consist of tracking codes that identify vital information about the referrer and the program. This makes the affiliate links as long URLs with a lot of parameters than most shoppers think of as nonsensical information.


You want the shopping experience to be as smooth as possible with trust being a critical factor. Trust applies not only to the affiliate storefront but also to the destination affiliate links placed on the site. You don’t want to instill any doubt in a reader before they click on an affiliate link.


Short, clean links inspire trust and make the visitors more likely to click them.


As an example, consider a link from Amazon:


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JCJMZS2?dchild=1&keywords=gaming&qid=1605604583&sr=8-3&tag=gamingboyyzz-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1


Outlink will mask the above link as:


https://outpage.co/shop/5930084532378


Notice that the second link looks better and more organized. By making them look prettier people will be more inclined to click.


To activate Link Masking go to Outlink dashboard > Settings > Link Masking > Activate > Save



Note:

  • Link Masking is available for Gold Plan users only
  • If the app is uninstalled, the app will stop masking the links.