How to Create an Affiliate Link on WooCommerce

WooCommerce gives you the tools to sell products through your WordPress site, but it does not include a built-in system for generating affiliate links.

That means you can create product pages, accept payments, process orders, and manage customers with WooCommerce. However, if you want affiliates to promote your products on other sites using trackable referral links, you need to add that functionality with an affiliate plugin.

What an Affiliate Link Does

An affiliate link is more than just a URL to your store. It contains a unique identifier that might look something like this:

https://yourstore.com/?ref=affiliateID

When someone clicks that link and later buys from your WooCommerce store, the affiliate system uses that unique identifier to track the path all the way from referral to purchase.

This is why affiliate links need to be part of a complete tracking system. A link by itself is not enough. It must connect to WooCommerce order data so that referrals and commissions are handled accurately.

Choosing a Plugin to Create WooCommerce Affiliate Links

To create affiliate links for your WooCommerce store, you’ll need a plugin that can manage the full affiliate workflow.

A good WooCommerce affiliate plugin should include:

• Affiliate registration and approval
• Automatic referral link creation
• Unique affiliate IDs or custom slugs
• Click and conversion tracking
• Commission rules
• WooCommerce order integration
• Payout management
• Affiliate reporting

The most important feature is WooCommerce integration. The plugin should be able to tell when a referred visitor places an order, calculate commissions from real order data, and adjust for refunds, cancellations, or order changes.

If your affiliate plugin does not connect properly with WooCommerce, you may end up manually reviewing orders, checking referrals, or adjusting commissions by hand.

Creating Affiliate Links With Solid Affiliate

Our recommended affiliate plugin is Solid Affiliate:

Solid Affiliate is built specifically for WooCommerce store owners who want to create and manage an affiliate program.

Once installed, Solid Affiliate gives your store the ability to generate affiliate links, track referrals, calculate commissions, and manage affiliate activity from inside WordPress.

The process works like this:

• An affiliate signs up for your program.
• You approve the affiliate manually or automatically, depending on your settings.
• Solid Affiliate creates a unique referral link for that affiliate.
• The affiliate shares the link through a blog, email list, social media account, review page, or other channel.
• When someone clicks the link and buys from your store, Solid Affiliate records the referral.
• The commission is calculated automatically.

This allows you to create affiliate links without relying on an external affiliate platform or manual tracking system.

Where Affiliates Find Their Links

With Solid Affiliate, affiliates can find their referral links on the Affiliate Links page, which is accessed through the Affiliate Portal:

You enter the target URL in the URL Generator, and Solid Affiliate automatically generates your referral link.

If you don’t like the appearance of the referral link, you can modify it in the custom slugs section to make it easier to identify and share.

Final Thoughts

WooCommerce does not create affiliate links for your products by default. To give affiliates trackable referral links, you need a dedicated affiliate plugin.

Solid Affiliate is our recommended option because it generates affiliate links, tracks visits and referrals, calculates commissions, manages payouts, and provides extensive reporting to store owners and affiliates alike.

For more options, see The 5 Best Affiliate Plugins for WooCommerce.