Affiliate links still help protect your commissions as AI checkout grows, while stronger tracking and better program choices help preserve referral credit.
This week’s Ask an SEO is about affiliate marketing, which is actually one of my favorite topics to cover.
“With Google’s UCP and checkout happening inside Gemini and AI Mode, the shopper never clicks my link. Does the affiliate model survive this, and what should I be doing now?”
Great question, and yes, affiliate links still matter, so make sure you keep using them. It is similar to Shopify having the Google Direct Checkout UCP. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to keep your Shopify store, but you also want to make sure you are protected with multiple ways to monetize and that you work with brands that focus on more than just links.
For anyone unfamiliar with the question, Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) lets retailers offer checkout directly inside AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, so a U.S. shopper can research and buy without visiting the merchant’s site. Affiliate marketing historically relied on a link click to set a cookie, then that cookie to stay through the journey to track the sale back to the partner.
This is why there is a question. If the person doesn’t make it to the link, do links matter? Yes, and this goes back to the history of links.
Cookie and link tracking became outdated technology many years ago when it became easier to browse with cellphones.
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