Affiliate Marketing Tips and Advanced Strategies for Better Results

So, you’re an affiliate marketer, and you want to take your strategy to the next level. Strategy is key. Do you have a lot of competition? Probably. Do you have specific techniques you can implement on your website or with your affiliate marketing agency to leave your competition in the dust? Again, yes. 

Let’s dive right in with the 13 affiliate marketing strategies and tips that’ll help you generate even more revenue, using SE Ranking to support some of our tactics.

13 Advanced Tips for Affiliate Marketing

1. Focus your website on 1-3 related subjects

You might be interested in a lot of things. You might be well-versed in a lot of things. And as a result, you might build an affiliate marketing website that jumps between a wide variety of topics. But now’s not the time to stretch yourself too thin.

Understandably, affiliate marketers think that the more topics they cover on their website, the more money gained. This means you can include a greater variety of affiliate links, right?

Maybe. But trying to embrace too many topics actually backfires. It’s bad for your visibility on Google because search algorithms won’t be able to easily identify your area of expertise. And it’s bad for the user because they don’t really know what your site is all about, so they have a hard time getting to know, like, and trust you. You can’t position yourself as an expert of anything; you’ll, instead, come across as scattered and random. This is no way to sell products.

Instead, pick one to three topics all under the same umbrella, and focus your website on those. For example, your website might be about:

• Home decor
• Feng shui
• Home DIY projects

Or:

• Personal finance
• Investing
• Passive income

You may fear that you’re pigeonholing yourself, but it’s quite the opposite. Focusing on a narrower topic helps hone your expertise on that topic, and experts make more money than generalists, period.

2. If your niche is highly competitive, narrow your website’s focus even more

Affiliate marketers are scared to get too specific, thinking they’re limiting themselves. But as we’ve discussed, when you narrow down your niche, you stand out from the competition and position yourself as an expert with authority.

One of the best affiliate marketing tips we offer is to get specific! For example, maybe you originally picked DIY home decor as a niche. But how competitive is this? One way to gauge the competition is using SE Ranking’s Keyword Research tool. Go to the Keyword Research tab, type in “DIY home decor,” and click Analyze.

The results tell us that the difficulty is 58 on a scale of 100, which is something to consider. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great. This tells us that a lot of websites are already fighting and ranking for this keyword.

So, let’s look at the Keyword Ideas section. Under Similar Keywords, click View Detailed Report.

Here, we can look for topics lower in difficulty, like “modern diy home decor.”

Don’t be concerned with slightly lower traffic. The goal here is to find a less competitive niche. It will offer a significant chance of search engines discovering your website, leading to sales. You’ll still have plenty of opportunities to target higher-volume keywords.

Speaking of high-volume keywords…

3. Create separate pages on your website for high-volume keywords

The best affiliate marketing strategy includes leveraging Google to yield lots of organic traffic to your website. But how? 

You’ll want to first find high-volume, low-difficulty keywords. The goal is to find keywords you’re confident can compete for on the SERP’s top 10 positions since these are the most visible. In fact, the first page of Google gets anywhere between roughly 71% and 92% of clicks. Once you hit the second page, that number drops to just 6%.

We’ve initiated our keyword research in the previous step, but let’s go further. On that same page, let’s use filters to find keywords that have a search volume of at least 100 and a difficulty of 0-30 (0 being the least difficult). Here’s what we get: 

There are three results with 320 to 130 searches per month and difficulty of 18 to 29.

This is a good start, but we could probably find something with higher traffic, so let’s back up. We know that “DIY home decor” is a bit too competitive, but the traffic is great. Let’s set our initial search broader to “DIY home.” Then we’ll use the filters to keywords with at least 1,000 searches per month and a difficulty of 30 or less. 

Here’s what we get:

Search terms that have a higher volume and lower difficulty populate. We can use these to create specific pages on our website.

You’re still going to run into keywords that have a lower search volume. This is okay! You can use them even if you don’t want to create separate pages. Consider inserting them into product tables—more on that in a moment—FAQs, or using them as secondary keywords under a closely-related primary keyword with a higher search volume.

Remember: if they’re lower in competition, lower-volume keywords can still be a huge help. This low-hanging fruit helps you rank higher in Google more often, thus building your trust and authority with the search engine. This snowballs, meaning, over time, ranking higher will be easier, in general.

4. Create product tables

One of our best tips for affiliate marketing is to include product tables on your website.

A product table is a sort of an easy-to-read chart to compare offerings. The table should include things like:

• Features
• Applications
• Benefits
• Competitive advantages

Here’s an example from Capterra comparing two popular email marketing software:

Create a table for product categories and subjects. For example, you might make a product table comparing different wall stickers, which falls under our earlier home decor example.

Be sure to place the best converting brand at the top.

Another bonus of product tables is that they carry high commercial intent, meaning if someone is viewing this page, there’s a good chance that they’re close to making a purchase.

5. Find more brands and subtopics by consistently checking on your competitors

Competitor analysis is crucial if you want to be successful as an affiliate marketer, which is why this made our list of the top affiliate marketing tips.

Your competitors are a goldmine of information. Let’s talk about how you can use SE Ranking to “spy” on your competition—in a totally white-hat way—and get new ideas for your own affiliate marketing. With our DIY home decor example, maybe one of your competitors is Mod Podge Rocks! Drop that URL into SE Ranking’s Competitive Research tool.

On the next page, click on Keywords.

Here, we see information like:

• Keywords this site is ranking for
• What positions they’re ranking in
• The pages ranking for these terms
• How much traffic the site is getting for these terms
• The difficulty and search volume of these keywords

These are potential ideas for your website. Again, look for terms higher in traffic and lower in difficulty so that you stand a better chance of ranking. Once again, use filters to narrow down these results.

Remember: the higher the position of a keyword and the lower the competition, the better chance you have of knocking your competitor out of that position and nabbing that traffic!

6. Keep track of trends

While trends, by definition, don’t last forever, they can generate a nice surge in affiliate sales. This, in turn, can kickstart evergreen traffic from the search engines that’ll pay dividends for months and years to come. But how can you spot these trends in time to jump on them?

You want to find trending companies or individual products on the rise. But you need to get in early before things start getting too competitive. You can achieve this in several ways.

• Use Google trends to see what’s experiencing increased searches.
• Use a keyword research tool and look at search volume dynamics. In SE Ranking, you can change the time range to see how the search volume for that keyword has fluctuated over time. If it’s increasing, it might be trending.

• Check Google news or other sources to see what’s happening right now.
• Check trending hashtags, videos, sound effects, and music across the various social media platforms, like TikTok.

If you’re an avid TikToker, you might remember the pickled garlic recipe that went viral—to say the least—earlier this year. Grocery stores are still out of pickled garlic, even though, by this point, the trend has mostly died out on the social media platform. This is the power of trends. It’s had a lasting effect. 

7. Create “link magnet” pages on your website as a separate content type

Backlinks are an important part of your affiliate marketing site’s growth. However, other sites aren’t going to be all that motivated to link to your product reviews, so you need to give them something else to link to.

Think of pieces of content like case studies, infographics (which are highly shareable!), and statistic-driven blogs. Within these pages, include your affiliate links. The idea is to find another way to deliver value, which will incentivize people to link to and share your content.

If you’re ever uncertain of what kind of content to create that people will want to link to, here’s a neat hack. Back in SE Ranking’s Competitive Research tool, you’ll see a section for backlinks.

On the next page, click Backlinks again to check backlinks for a website in detail.

On the following page, you can see who is linking to this site and what specific pages they’re linking to.

This illustrates the types of content people care about and what to link to. Therefore, you’ll know what kind of content to create.

See who’s linking to your competitors and what they’re linking to, and use that as inspiration. As you grow your backlink profile, Google will increasingly view you as a trustworthy, authoritative source of information. As a reward, it will rank you better.

8. Create a brand or story behind your affiliate website

It’s obvious when your main goal is to collect that commission. Remember this, though: people don’t want to be sold to, but everybody is shopping.

Hard-selling isn’t going to make you money. All successful brands know this. Instead, you need to build a brand and a story around what you’re selling. Keep in mind the acronym EAT: expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. This is what your content needs to promote.

If you do that, then the sales will naturally follow.

I Like to Dabble is a good example of this. On the homepage, you learn that this website is a resource for people who are interested in earning money with side hustles. But go to the about page, and you learn the backstory. ILTD is the brainchild of Daniella, a “serial side hustler,” who—along with their wife—paid off $40,000 of debt with side hustles. Now, they help other people do the same. Getting to know the creator of this site (and their motivation) likely renders you more inclined to purchase one of their digital products. People relate to people, not companies.

9. Add a FAQs section or page

Many of your visitors will have the same questions. You can make the user experience better (and save yourself the hassle of answering them one by one) by including frequently asked questions (FAQs) somewhere on your site.

You don’t have to guess what these questions are, though. Google flat-out tells you. Use long-tail keywords from Google’s autocomplete in addition to Related Searches and the People Also Ask section.

Real queries produce the results in the search engine. Not only are you creating a better experience for website visitors, but you’re further optimizing your pages with relevant phrases.

You can also go back to SE Ranking’s Keyword Research tool and enter a broad search term, like “DIY home decor.” Once again, under Keyword Ideas > Similar Keywords, click on View Detailed Report. Use the filters to access SERP Features and check the box next to “People Also Ask.”

This will give you even more ideas to work with.

Less time spent answering questions + better optimization + improved user experience = a win-win-win.

10. Choose a website template tailored to your affiliate marketing needs

Some website templates are designed with specific purposes in mind. Someone creating a blog will need a template different from someone creating an online store.

The same goes for an affiliate marketer.

Let’s use REHub as an example. REHub is a WordPress template best suited for marketing strategies. The self-coined “all-in-one passive income builder” is perfect for affiliate niche blogs, making it easy to produce:

• Listings
• Product comparisons
• User reviews
• Ecommerce content
• Tutorials and demonstrations

Basically, it’s a website theme perfect for affiliate marketers. It’s optimized to get you link clicks and sell products. You kill two birds with one stone by giving the user a better experience while boosting your sales.

11. Make sure your affiliate site is mobile-friendly

This is best practice for all websites in general, especially affiliate sites, since the ultimate goal is to get people to purchase.

Do all of your affiliate links work? Are the buttons fully functioning and easy to click? Is the checkout process quick and intuitive?

Do your web page’s elements resize appropriately and load quickly? 

Test out the mobile experience to avoid losing interested shoppers. A good rule of thumb is that you want them to be able to take action in as few clicks as possible.

To check how mobile-friendly your site is, you can always use SE Ranking’s Website Audit tool. Under Issue Report, evaluate and address flagged errors.

12. Redirect your visitors to their own country-specific website

When we talk about link localization, we mean sending your visitors to a website designed for people in their own country. If this is available to them, then they should be redirected automatically rather than landing on your global website.

A localized website should be in their language and currency and thus provide a better user experience.

13. Commit to A/B testing everything

A/B testing—also called split testing—is taking one element of your site and testing two or more versions of it so that you can compare the results of each. For instance, you can A/B test:

• Page titles
• Headers
• CTAs
• Images/videos
• Links and link placement
• Content formats

The only way to ascertain your best affiliate marketing strategy is to test, test, test. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing what works, what doesn’t, what you should double down on, and what you should tweak.

When split testing, it’s best practice to only change one element at a time. For example, if you’re working on landing page A, and you split test the title, don’t change anything else for the time being. If you do, and you notice a difference in your results, you won’t know what to attribute it to.

Think of yourself as a scientist. It’s up to you to experiment and evaluate the results. This is how you’re going to find all of the right answers.

Boosting your affiliate marketing revenue

The old adage tells us that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, your affiliate marketing revenue isn’t going to skyrocket overnight, and that’s completely normal. But by following these affiliate marketing tips, you’re positioning yourself to generate more sales and increase your revenue:

1. Focus your website on a maximum of three related subjects.
2. If your niche is too competitive, zero in on a subniche.
3. Build unique pages on your site for high-volume keywords.
4. Create product tables.
5. Monitor your competitors to find new brands and subtopics.
6. Keep a close eye on trends.
7. Build “link magnet” pages.
8. Design a story behind your website.
9. Add a FAQs section or page.
10. Choose an affiliate theme that makes it easy to add links and create the content you need.
11. Make your affiliate site mobile-optimized.
12. Redirect visitors to their country-specific website.
13. A/B test various elements and compare the results.

Slow and steady wins the race. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, then pick one thing at a time and focus on that. Baby steps equate to massive progress down the line. Stay consistent with following these affiliate marketing strategies and techniques, and you’ll find success. Good luck!

Written by

Megan Grant

Megan has been writing and editing professionally since 2011. Writing is, hands down, her favorite thing to do. Her chihuahua, Peanut, often steps in to help with edits.