Free check
Your old rover.ebay.com links earn £0
eBay retired the rover.ebay.com tracking format years ago. Any rover link still in your posts forwards readers to eBay without crediting you — a working link, paying nothing. If your site predates the eBay Partner Network migration, you almost certainly have some.
What rover links were
Under eBay's old affiliate system, every tracked link routed through a redirect domain:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=...&campid=...&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fitm%2F...The click hit rover.ebay.com, the tracking was recorded there, and the reader was forwarded to the listing in the mpre parameter. When eBay moved the Partner Network to its current tracking, that schema was retired. Modern EPN links are direct eBay URLs carrying the credit in the query string:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123456789?campid=your-campaign-id&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&mkevt=1The cruel part: many rover URLs still redirect. Readers land on eBay, nothing 404s, no plugin complains. The link is functionally alive and commercially dead — which is why rover links survive for years in old posts.
Find them yourself: the grep guide
Rover links are easy to hunt because the domain is distinctive. Depending on how your site is built:
- Static site / repo: from your project root,
Every file that matches contains at least one dead placement.grep -ri "rover.ebay" . - WordPress: search the post content table directly (adjust the table prefix if yours isn't
wp_):
No database access? A plugin like Better Search Replace can run the same search — just search, don't replace blindly.SELECT ID, post_title FROM wp_posts WHERE post_content LIKE '%rover.ebay%' AND post_status = 'publish'; - Any site, no tooling: open your older eBay-heavy pages, view source (
Ctrl+U/Cmd+Option+U) and search forrover. Slower, but it checks exactly what readers receive.
For each hit, rebuild the link: recover the destination from the URL-encoded mpre parameter (or find the listing again), then generate a fresh link in the EPN portal — or append your campid, mkcid=1, mkrid and mkevt=1 to the direct eBay URL. There's no bulk auto-upgrade; each placement needs replacing once.
Or scan for them free — rover links are an instant finding
LinkWatch crawls your live pages and recognises affiliate links across networks — here's the full pipeline. Because the rover schema is retired, there's no ambiguity to confirm: every rover.ebay.com link found is flagged immediately as a dead-credit placement, alongside anything else quietly costing you — stripped Amazon tags, broken redirects, dead products. First scan is free, no signup, nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
What was a rover.ebay.com link?
rover.ebay.com was the redirect domain used by eBay's old affiliate tracking system. Links looked like rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?...&mpre=<destination>. The click bounced through rover, which set the tracking, then forwarded the reader to the eBay listing.
Do rover links still work for readers?
Mostly, yes — and that's the trap. Many rover URLs still forward to eBay, so the link doesn't look broken. But the retired tracking schema means the click isn't credited to your eBay Partner Network account. The reader gets there; you don't get paid.
What does a modern eBay Partner Network link look like?
Current EPN links are direct ebay.com (or ebay.co.uk etc.) URLs with tracking parameters in the query string: campid= (your campaign ID), mkcid=1, mkrid= (the rotation ID), and mkevt=1. No redirect domain — the credit travels on the eBay URL itself.
How do I find rover links on my own site?
If you can search your site's files or database, grep for 'rover.ebay': for example grep -ri "rover.ebay" . on a static site, or a LIKE '%rover.ebay%' query against wp_posts on WordPress. Otherwise use view-source on your older money pages and search for 'rover'. Every hit is a placement earning nothing.
How do I fix a rover link once I've found it?
Rebuild it as a modern EPN link: take the destination listing (often visible URL-encoded in the rover link's mpre parameter), then generate a fresh tracking link for it in the EPN portal or append your campid/mkcid/mkrid/mkevt parameters. There is no automatic upgrade — each placement needs replacing.
Can LinkWatch find these automatically?
Yes. Any rover.ebay.com link is a retired schema, so LinkWatch flags every one it finds on your pages as a confirmed dead-credit finding — no waiting, no ambiguity. The first scan is free and takes about a minute.