The ongoing process of checking that affiliate links in published content are still functioning correctly — pointing to live product pages, tracking correctly, and directing users to the intended destination — to prevent traffic loss, commission loss, and poor user experience from broken or redirected links. Affiliate links break for many reasons and require active monitoring to maintain. Why affiliate links break: program network changes: when a merchant moves their affiliate program from one network to another, the old network's tracking links stop working; publishers who don't update their links lose all commission from remaining traffic to that content. Product discontinuation: products that have been discontinued, retired, or removed from the merchant's catalog generate 404 errors when the affiliate deep link is followed; traffic sent to a 404 page generates no commission and poor user experience. Merchant website restructuring: URL structure changes (moving from /products/ to /shop/), domain changes, or platform migrations break affiliate deep links that point to specific URLs within the site's structure. Monitoring approaches: Link management tool built-in monitoring: tools like ThirstyAffiliates and Geniuslink have link health checking features that periodically verify that cloaked links resolve to valid pages and flag 404 errors or redirects. Manual periodic audits: quarterly review of top-traffic affiliate content to verify link functionality is a minimum standard for publishers without automated monitoring. Network program status alerts: affiliate network notifications about program changes, merchant departures, or network transitions provide advance warning of upcoming link breakage.
Related Resources