A number of my readers have asked me to blog about the recent Google Slap.
For a lot of affiliates it was more like a Google Knockout Punch. A few of my friends had their campaigns, their life and blood, wiped out overnight. 
I was unscathed, and I’m still trying to fully understand why.
Based on talking to some reliable sources here’s what I can glean:
- A lot of affiliates doing dynamic keyword insertion, direct linking, or sending all their traffic to one page got slapped.
- A number of affiliate lost nearly all of their content network traffic. It seems as if Google is looking for increased relevancy between the keyword theme (of your content adgroup), your ad, and your landing page.
- Google is tightening the noose on what it considers a “quality” affiliate site.
One of my very small niches (where I was spending $90 bucks a day) got hit hard, my other niches were overall unaffected – some keywords got deactivated but my overall traffic levels are unchanged.
My slapped site was just a few landing pages with 20 or so articles thrown in to make Google happy, while my sites that were unaffected by the Google Slap were REAL sites.
What do I mean by real sites?
My unaffected sites share the following qualities :
- The sites were structured as real sites. They didn’t look like sites that was designed for ppc with a bunch of articles thrown in to make Google happy.
- The sites all have unique content added to them on a regular basis (in some cases an actively updated blog).
- The sites are actively being promoted in ways other than ppc…through article & direction submissions, press releases, etc, etc.
In other words, my sites that were unaffected do NOT resemble thin affiliate ppc sites who’s only purpose is to redirect the visitor (from Adwords) to the merchant site. I suspect Google can now smell out if you’re just adding articles to your site to make them happy.
Final Thoughts :
Focus on making real sites that add substantial value, rather than making an affiliate site that’s just crammed with content for the sole purpose of getting a good landing page quality score.
Forget automated programs that make bogus promises of protecting you against Google Slaps.
Just take the time to do it right, it will save you a lot of time, money, and stress in the long run.
PS Also check out these related posts by Adwords Experts (and Good Friends) Josh and Geordie.
google slap landing page quality score
It goes to show how important building a real business is and not to try and turn affiliate marketing into a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Quality work always takes longer, sometimes it’s even harder but the results last longer.
Thanks Amit for the info.
Andrew
from the horse’s mouth:
“one thing I did learn is that there are a number of super affiliates who are making a KILLING with direct linking, contrary to what some of the ill informed comments and feedback I got from my “How to Get Started as an Affiliate” post would suggest”
care to comment? in fact, would ANYONE care to comment on that…
Hi Amit. What do you mean “sending all their traffic to one page got slapped.”? Do you mean it was a site with only one page (hardly any outgoing links?) Or do you mean it was a site with several pages, but they were sending the traffic to just one page of site with several pages? Thanks much.
Hi Al,
Yes I’ll comment on that. Direct linking does work, and YES many super affiliates make large amounts of money from direct linking.
It comes down to the quality score of the merchant site that your promoting AND how you direct link. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.
If you still don’t believe me, then good, less competition for me (yes, I have direct linking campaigns as well)
Hi Joe,
I mean sending traffic to one page of a site that has many pages.
A – Thanks for responding. I got you.
Amit, are you sure that content now have minimum bids? I think the mininimum bids you see on adwords editor is min bids for search network. That is what a Google rep just told me. Also on google help it is stated that there are no minimum bids for content: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=50686&ctx=sibling
Amit,
Can you explain the differant ways to direct link?
Are you referring to the use of redirects?
Hi Karolis,
Thanks for clarifying this!
I’ve updated the blog post.
Sincerely,
Amit
Hi Amit,
Can you give some more insight into why direct linking campaigns may be slapped?
Are they getting slapped just because they are not splitting their campaigns into closely related keywords, adgroups, landing pages and ads but sending most traffic straight to a main page?
Are fake display URLs involved?
Thanks