How to check if your affiliate link still works (5-minute manual test)
Step-by-step guide to verify any affiliate link works: page loads, tag survives the redirect chain, product is in stock, commission tracking is active.
Quick answer
Five steps in a private browsing window. Two minutes per link. Verifies status, redirect chain, tag survival, product availability, and tracking. Or use an automated tool to do it across hundreds of links at once.
A working affiliate link is not the same as a 200-OK page. Five things have to line up: the page exists, the redirect chain delivers cleanly, your affiliate tag survives every hop, the product is actually buyable, and the network credits the click. Here is how to verify all five manually for any link in your portfolio.
The 5 most common causes
Step 1 — open the link in a private browsing window
Symptom
Why private browsing: it strips your existing cookies, browser extensions, and any cached redirects. You see what a fresh visitor sees, not what your browser remembers.
Fix
Cmd+Shift+N (Chrome) or Cmd+Shift+P (Firefox). Paste the affiliate URL in the address bar.
Step 2 — watch the address bar through every redirect
Symptom
Most affiliate links pass through 2-4 redirects before reaching the merchant. The address bar updates at each hop. If a redirect hangs, errors, or drops you on a network landing page, the chain is broken.
Fix
Note every URL the address bar shows, in order. The last URL is the one the buyer actually lands on. That is the URL you need to inspect for tag survival.
Step 3 — verify your affiliate tag is in the final URL
Symptom
Different networks use different parameter names: tag= for Amazon, awinaffid= for Awin, clickref= for Webgains and Partnerize, irclickid= for Impact. Check the URL bar on the destination page.
Fix
If your tag (or sub-id) is missing, the link is leaking — every click sends free traffic without commission. See tag stripping for why this happens and how to catch it across many links.
Step 4 — confirm the product page actually converts
Symptom
The product must be in stock, available in the visitor's region, and have a working "buy" or "add to cart" button. Soft 404s render the page fine but no purchase is possible.
Fix
Scroll to the buy button. Check it isn't greyed out or replaced with "currently unavailable." For variant products (color, size, storage), check the specific variant you linked to is available, not just the parent product.
Step 5 — repeat for every active link, on a schedule
Symptom
Manual testing one link is fine. Manual testing 200 links across YouTube, blog, and newsletter every month is unrealistic — and that's why almost no creator does it consistently.
Fix
Either set a recurring quarterly audit for your top 20 highest-earning links, or use an automated tool that does the full five-step check every day on every link. Affiliyo runs HTTP, AI page reads, and tag-survival checks daily across your whole portfolio.
Two minutes per link, multiplied by however many links you have, multiplied by however often you want to catch issues — that is the actual cost of doing this manually. The five-step check is the right diagnostic; the only question is whether you run it on a handful of links or on all of them.
Stop checking links manually.
Affiliyo monitors every affiliate link in your portfolio daily, follows the full redirect chain, and flags the silent failures most checkers miss. Free up to 10 links.
Join waitlistFAQ/People also ask
Questions, answered.
For top-earning links, monthly at minimum. For long-tail content, quarterly. In datasets from publishers, 15-25% of links break within a year — checking once a year means a quarter of your links may be dead before you find them.
Have 10 links? Start monitoring them free.
Free tier covers up to 10 active links. No credit card. Stop the silent leaks before they cost you a year of commission.