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
Hello everyone,
In response to post # 15 above.
Eric thanks for the tip.
Let me say you are correct in your assumption. Lots of clicks not many sales, yes all of my eggs are not in one basket so to speak, I have a site Wireless-home-computer.com that I have been building for a long time, this is my flag ship site.
Now people say I’m crazy, too much competition, Wow – are they correct, absolutely.
But this is my passion, this is what I do in the real world (JOB) In yahoo I have first page ranking for my domain term, even though not many people search for the term, out of 333,000,000 number 7, last check. Right under the king about.com
PPC is another train I ride, reach “100 + million people searching for stuff” If these words don’t get your attention, nothing will my friend.
If I can give some advice to all here is, don’t quit STAY FOCUSED, you will get there.
To your success,
Jim Novak
Wireless-home-computer.com
hello
i used to have a PR3 and now it’s zero
i did a lot of sponsored posts
i think that’s the reason why google took away my PR
is it possible to restore it back?
thanks
My first experience with the slap today.
3 decent campaigns, all destroyed.
My sites had resources, privacy policy, about us pages. But, not much original content.
Amit (or others who might know),
If you are still checking this blog, would it be enough to add articles, some original content, and build these sites up to a 15 to 20 page footprint?
Or, is the domain blacklisted now.?.?
Carl