Affiliate Disclosure: What Each SEO Tool Pays Us
By Bike HawleyPrices checked October 23, 2026No test results yet
This is the SEO Tools Tested affiliate disclosure: what our affiliate links are, which programs we use or plan to use, what each one pays and which tools pay us nothing. In short, when you buy a tool through a link on this site, the vendor may pay us a commission, and that commission never changes a verdict.
What an Affiliate Link Is on SEO Tools Tested
An affiliate link on SEO Tools Tested is a link that tells a tool's vendor we sent you, so the vendor can pay us if you buy. Every link to a tool runs through an address on our site that starts with /go/ (for example, /go/se-ranking) and then forwards you to the vendor. Each of those links carries rel="sponsored nofollow" in the page code, which tells search engines the link is commercial.
The vendor tracks your click with a cookie, and if you buy within that program's window, the sale counts as ours. Windows vary: NeuronWriter's is 60 days, GoHighLevel's 90, SE Ranking's 120 and Nightwatch's 365. Clicking costs you nothing extra; you pay the vendor's normal price and the vendor pays the commission. On programs that pay for life, we keep earning for as long as the customer keeps paying.
SEO Tool Affiliate Programs We Use or Plan to Use
The SEO tool affiliate programs we use or plan to use are listed below with each vendor's published terms. A row shows the deal a vendor offers; it says nothing about how much we have earned.
| Tool | What it pays us | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking | 30% of each subscription sale | 120 days (first cookie wins) cookie, in-house |
| Nightwatch | 30% for the life of the account | 365 days cookie, in-house |
| Search Atlas | 30% recurring commission plus 5% of the earnings of affiliates you recruit | FirstPromoter (affiliates.searchatlas.com) |
| AccuRanker | Nothing | No current program: accuranker.com/affiliate returns 404 (404 in the Wayback Machine since August 2025); directories still list a stale 20% |
| SpyFu | Up to 30% | 60 days cookie, Post Affiliate Pro (spyfu.postaffiliatepro.com) |
| Mangools | 25% to 35% of every payment, by tier (up to 35%) | 30 days to register; later upgrades still pay cookie, in-house |
| Semrush | $200 to $450 per first sale of the SEO Toolkit or Semrush One (by quarterly sales tier), plus $10 per free trial | 120 days, last click cookie, Impact |
| Ahrefs | Nothing | No public affiliate program: Ahrefs' blog post 'Ahrefs Affiliate Program. We Don't Have One (& Here's Why)' (June 12, 2023, https://ahrefs.com/blog/ahrefs-affiliate-program/) says it ended the program and now makes private deals only with former top affiliates; no newer launch found (checked 2026-10-23) |
| Moz Pro | Up to $350 per Moz Pro sign-up (up to $250 per Moz Local referral) | Impact |
| NeuronWriter | 30% of every payment from the referral's first successful payment on | 60 days, last click (the referral stays yours after the first payment) cookie, in-house |
| Surfer | One-time: 75%, 100% or 125% of the first monthly payment, or 15%, 20% or 25% of the first yearly payment, rising with customers referred (0 to 10, 11 to 50, 51+) | 90 days, last click cookie, PartnerStack |
| GoHighLevel | 40% on Single Location, Agency Unlimited and Agency Pro (SaaS) accounts, the white-label mobile app, certifications, AI Employee and other recurring add-ons; 5% on second-tier affiliates | 90-day last-click window cookie, FirstPromoter |
| AgencyAnalytics | 15% to 25% of each referral's subscription (Partner 15%, Growth 20%, Elite 25%) | 90 days cookie, PartnerStack |
| Local Falcon | 10% of the first month, then 5% recurring | in-house (partners.localfalcon.com) |
| BrightLocal | Nothing | Closed to new affiliates: BrightLocal says it is not currently accepting new affiliate applications (checked 2026-10-23) |
| Whitespark | Nothing | No affiliate or partner program found: none in Whitespark's page sitemap, and /affiliates/, /affiliate-program/, /partners/ and /agency-partners/ return 404 (checked 2026-10-23) |
We say this plainly because it is the strongest pull on any affiliate site: a customer who stays for years on a lifetime program can earn us far more than a one-time bounty does. That is why our pages show what each tool costs per keyword, per analysis or per location, so you can check every pick against the numbers instead of against our enthusiasm.
SEO Tools That Pay Us Nothing
Four SEO tools we review pay us nothing: Ahrefs, BrightLocal, Whitespark and AccuRanker. Ahrefs runs no affiliate program, as its own blog explains. BrightLocal's affiliates page says it isn't accepting new affiliates, which we checked again on October 23, 2026. We found no program on Whitespark's site, where the usual affiliate and partner addresses return errors. AccuRanker's old affiliate page has returned an error since August 2025.
We cover these tools anyway, and they win picks when the facts point their way. In our local SEO tools guide, Whitespark is the cheapest local rank tracker and BrightLocal is the pick for agencies managing many locations, though neither pays us. Their links still run through /go/ addresses and still carry the sponsored label, so you never have to guess which links earn and which don't.
Our Affiliate Policy: Commissions Never Change a Verdict
Our affiliate policy is that commissions never change a verdict, and three rules hold it in place. First, picks are reasoned from published facts (prices, plan limits, trials, refund terms, update frequency and review-site scores, each with the date we read it), and every pick says it is reasoned, not tested. Second, we show the money: every Visit button carries a one-line disclosure, and every tool's spec plate lists what its program pays us. Third, every tool link is marked sponsored, whether or not it earns anything.
No tool has a test score yet. When Test 01 runs, its results go up whether a tool pays us or not, and a tool that pays well and tests badly will read that way. Our method, and what Test 01 will check, is on our how we test page.
If you think a page leans toward the tools that pay us, write to hello@seotoolstested.com and point to the sentence. We will check it against the facts and fix it if you're right, and the page will show its new date.
Where This Affiliate Disclosure Applies
This affiliate disclosure applies to every page on SEO Tools Tested: reviews, comparisons, price pages, guides and the homepage. It covers every way a tool link can appear, from Visit buttons and spec plates to plan tables and links in the text. The site runs no ads, so affiliate commissions are how it makes money. When a program changes its terms, or when we join or leave one, we update this page and its date. This version is dated October 23, 2026.
SEO Tools Tested Affiliate Disclosure Sources
The program terms in this SEO Tools Tested affiliate disclosure come from each vendor's own page, read on October 23, 2026.
- SE Ranking affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- Nightwatch affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- Search Atlas affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- Mangools affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- NeuronWriter affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- HighLevel affiliate policy, read October 23, 2026
- Local Falcon partner program, read October 23, 2026
- AgencyAnalytics affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- SpyFu affiliate portal, read October 23, 2026
- Semrush affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- Moz affiliate program, read October 23, 2026
- BrightLocal affiliates page (closed), read October 23, 2026
- Ahrefs: why it has no affiliate program, June 12, 2023, checked October 23, 2026