On July 21st, Perry Marshall published an email conversation he had with Dr.Glenn Livingston concerning the dramatic quality score devaluation of Affiliate Review Sites containing bare affiliate links.
I interviewed Glenn on the extent of this “slap”, who it affects, how to work around it and some keys to bullet proofing your business for the future…
Click play to listen to Dr.Livingston’s enlightening answers:
Here is the excerpt from Perry Marshall’s blog that started it all:
“I got word from several affiliate marketers that Google dropped the hammer today on affiliate review pages.  Many pages went from quality scores of 10 —> 1 overnight.
And these were NOT skinny sites, rather well build out, consistently updated blogs with good navigation above the fold, xml site maps, high click through, hyper-relevant keyword mapping, low bounce rates, long average time on page … everything else Google loves.
When we analyzed which pages survived, and we take it in combination with other information, it seems pretty clear they’ve added code which screens for affiliate links on the landing pages.
At the moment it seems cloaking and PHP redirects are untouched, … but I can’t imagine these are far behind. (I’m guessing they’re just avoiding this in order to decrease their server burden … takes some CPU cycles to visit every link on the page and evaluate for affiliate code)
I’d say it’s safe to conclude Google’s on the war path against affiliate review sites, and we should be advising clients towards a different business model… at minimum it seems necessary to avoid placing affiliate links on landing pages, but ideally, I think people need to move towards a deeper list building/relationship building strategy and/or a strong e-commerce model.
Time to stop “building on sand”.”
Note that Perry goes on to comment further and the article is definitely worth reading…
Here are the free Adwords Resources Glenn Livingston generously provides during the call:
- Very insightfull 90 minute presentation on negative keywords
- Quick Adwords Audio on content network secrets
- Glenn Livingston’s Blog (tons of free adwords tips)
Glenn is the CEO of Rocketclicks.com, a cutting edge search engine optimization and Pay per Click Management firm.
I will be updating this post with a full written transcript of the interview as soon as it is completed. Thanks for sharing your comments or feedback in the box below.
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[...] Excerpt from: Glenn Livingston Interviewed on Latest Adwords Slap for Affiliate Review Sites [...]
[...] Get the full details here [...]
Does this mean Google conquest is in trouble?
Thanks Alex for the heads up, very useful information. Never thought that review sites would survive long.
Alex,
Thanks for the heads up.
I’m on a lot of lists and I heard it first from you.
Is it clear whether this is a slap on affiliate review sites or affiliate sites in general? So far my review/comparison sites seem to be holding up okay. However, one of my single product affiliate sites was killed off a couple weeks ago, for reasons I have not yet been able to determine.
DW
Alex,
Thanks for sharing Glen’s interview & all the links.
Fantastic info and resources.
JerryG
Hey All,
Thanks for the feedback.
Cary, this does not affect natural search so far as anybody is able to determine, so no impact on Conquest or its methods, at least for now.
My data shows the same, zero impact on any of my sites (natural optimization, not adwords)
Hey There – I filled in the boxes for the newsletter twice,get told confirmation was sent but there is some problem. No confirmation email?
I do not have a website yet but plan to have at least a blog site next month. I already have a domain name; however I will use a different domain name than the one that I have now.
I have so much to learn and I truly appreciate all the advice and help I can get.
Thanks! God bless you.
i have not heard from any clients about loss of quality scores, but then i have always advised people not to add overt affiliate links to the pages on their sites, and i make sure that the review site software i provide cloaks any affiliate links that are added to pages. i also tell people to write their own reviews, which is not always a popular piece of advice. but now it might be more apparent why you want to do that. – Stephen
Very informative. Thanks Alex. Looks like Google is trying to shape, reshape the Internet according to their specifications yet again. I love Google, but it’s time for them to have a serious competitor and no longer be an Internet monopoly. Until this changes, we are continually beholden to their every whim.
Alex,
You may want to address this change in the near term as part of the 90 day challenge to ensure everyone is aware of what is going on. Please clarify your understanding on the impact to the methods taught in Google Conquest. My concern is if Google is going after affiliate web sites, this runs head on into the sniper site strategy. What impact does this have on building authority sites around affiliate products?
Thanks for the link and your feedback
Alex; Thanks for the heads up. Being new to the buisiness I’m not sure what to do. Forge ahead, I guess.
Thanks Alex for the great information.
Well it might be time for us affiliates to start looking at alternative ways to advertise. Have you heard of Bidvertiser? Not as powerful as Adwords but I advertise my website using text-ads and it has some nice targeting options, at a fraction of the cost of Adwords. They even give $20 in free clicks to get you started.
You can check it out here:bidvertiser.com
Hi Alex – I have been slapped silly a few days ago – while refreshing Adwords Editor my QS fell from 7 to 1 through the on three variations of a campaign I was still trying to make work. Well I don’t even have high quality Landing Pages but I was using iFraming and cloaking with supposedly state-of-the-art tools. All to no avail. I could have done a few things wrong as I am still a newbie but if other guys with proper review pages were slapped then this is VERY serious. Imagine all the GCDetective and similar systems that will have to adapt…
I still have to listen to the audio.
What about direct linking? That was already a big problem. Now does this all mean that Google does not want merchants to have affiliates? Nothing makes sense anymore.
As usual Alex you are there for us.
Being on your list is one of those things that allows me to sleep easier at night. Thanks for the trail you break for the rest of us.
Lead on.
I’m still on my learning curve starting new ..Thanks for the information it came to me just intime to keep a step ahead of the giants big boot.
Hi Alex
I should have listened to the audio first – it’s VERY good and scary… Those that don’t do what Google wants will sink.
Thanks for everything Alex and Glenn.
Thanks for the heads-up, Alex. I was just noticing in the last few days my sales were dropping and wondering shy – now I have an inkling…
Hey all
thx alex
fantastic info
kouider
Thanks for the heads up Alex. I’m just not sure of what to do anymore. I’ve been a member of Google Conquest since December of 08-haven’t made a single affiliate sale. Can’t seem to figure out why–I’ve done I thought everything you guys have suggested. So this probably won’t affect me too much, but good to know..
[...] Related Article: Latest Adwords Slap For Affiliate Review Sites [...]
[...] You can check out the Alex Goad Interview here Share and Enjoy: [...]
Alex; Great insights and thanks for taking the time to talk to Glenn, brings some more clarity. To date I have not seen any problems with my sites but I don’t us bare affiliate links.
Again thanks Alex and Glenn!
I heard about this a couple of days ago, but thanks for the link to the interview. So far this seems to only affect sites with bare affiliate links, so using link cloaking should help. Of course you should be using link cloaking anyway imo. That being said, Google can only go just so far with this, as pretty much every site has ads with affiliate links these days. It will be interesting to see what Google does with the Natural serps.
Actually I have noticed google slap on website uses affiliate links months ago, if we used an extensive naked affiliate links on every page, this will get your website slapped but I’m not referring to Adwords but in term of search engine ranking. But I think they have added these restrictions on Adwords.
Hi Alex,
Do you have any suggestions for quick fixes?
On the other hand, those having balances with Google Adwords, I was told today that they will send a credit back to you credit card if you ask for it….
[...] First off I would visit Alex Goad’s site at Frontier marketing and listen to the interview he conducted with Glenn Livingstone, owner of Rocket Clicks ( a pay per click management company) [...]
[...] Below I’ve included an interview between Alex Goad and the man who brought this slap to everyones attention Dr. Glenn Livingston. [...]
Hi Alex,
thank you for this important information. I am member of your Google Conquest Program and I want to build successful Affiliate Marketing business using your training and support. Any valuable information on this subject is very much appreciated.
I was using iFraming and cloaking with supposedly state-of-the-art tools. All to no avail. I could have done a few things wrong as I am still a newbie but if other guys with proper review pages were slapped then this is VERY serious. Imagine all the GCDetective and similar systems that will have to adapt…
A very easy solution is to remove all affiliate links on the site, and replace it with an opt-in box (with the text if you want ot see if you qualify for product X or W enter your name and email below) who will redirect those who subscribed to the affiliate page or CPA offer ! Clever and effective, and Google will only see content and no affiliate links anymore, and you will have a link building strategy, and so an asset of potential customers you can mail further in the future.