What is Link Cloaking?
Hiding the destination of a link by routing it through a different URL, often for affiliate or branded marketing.
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Quick Answer
Link cloaking means hiding the true destination of a URL by sending visitors through an intermediate link. The visitor sees and clicks one URL; the real destination is revealed only after the redirect. The term is mostly used in affiliate marketing, where the underlying affiliate URLs are long, ugly, or contain tracking parameters the marketer prefers to hide.
Full Definition
Link cloaking is a redirect-based technique. The visitor clicks a clean, branded URL (the cloak), and the redirect sends them to the actual destination (the cloaked URL). The cloak looks like a normal short link or a vanity URL; the destination might be an affiliate link with tracking parameters, an unbranded URL, or a long ugly URL the marketer prefers not to expose.
The term link cloaking is sometimes also called link masking, though link masking can specifically imply preserving the original URL in the address bar (often through an iframe) rather than a simple redirect. In everyday marketing use, the two terms are largely interchangeable.
The technique has legitimate uses and abusive ones. Legitimate uses include making affiliate links look professional, hiding tracking parameters that confuse readers, and putting a branded URL on a destination the marketer does not control. Abusive uses include hiding the destination to mislead the visitor about where they are going, which is how the term has picked up a slight negative connotation.
Why It Matters
For affiliate marketers, link cloaking is standard practice. Raw affiliate URLs are often long, include the marketer’s affiliate ID, and look untrustworthy. A clean short link in their place looks like a normal recommendation rather than an affiliate placement.
For marketers generally, cloaking can simply mean shortening: replacing a long ugly URL with a clean one. The line between cloaking and shortening can be blurry, and the words are sometimes used interchangeably.
How ShortifyMe Handles It
ShortifyMe creates short links that redirect to any destination, which is the mechanism behind link cloaking. The short link can use a custom domain and a custom back-half, so it looks fully branded. The destination URL, including any affiliate parameters, is preserved on the redirect. ShortifyMe does not specifically market this as “cloaking,” but the capability is the same.
Related Terms
URL Shortener
A tool that turns a long web address into a clean, short, shareable link.
Redirect
A rule that automatically sends visitors from one URL to another.
Branded Short Link
A short link built on your own domain so every link reinforces your brand.
Frequently Asked Questions
They overlap. Every URL shortener cloaks the destination, since the short link hides the long destination behind it. The term "cloaking" tends to be used in affiliate marketing; the term "shortening" is used more broadly.
Yes, when used honestly. Cloaking becomes a problem when it is used to deceive, like making a malicious link look like a trusted one. Most affiliate networks allow cloaking and many require it.
Properly implemented cloaking with standard redirects does not hurt SEO. Search engines understand redirects and follow them. The SEO problem comes from suspicious cloaking patterns, like serving different content to bots than to humans.
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