[Fitgal]

After glancing over Google's Raters Handbook, a few months ago, it is pretty clear that the G has a distaste for affiliates. Looking at the top sites in many niches I see more and more EMD's with nothing behind them, just that EMD - no page rank, few links etc.

My thinking is that Google is trying to cut out the middleman as much as possible and get straight to the source. In cases of EMD's it has not been able to qualify what is the source and what is a thin affiliate site piggy backing off the main source. (Though I reckon it will try to develop a tweakf for this ).

So my thinking is that ecommerce sites will do better, trusted sites such as Amazon and eBay pages even with NO backlinks are going to become even harder to beat and it may get worse.

What is your thinking on the algo changes of the past few months.

[melontrades]

I think google wants quality results for their users. The key to google is quality content. If you have quality no matter how many changes they make you will always win. But also for micro niche sites you can have a small site that still offers some quality and it would be providing quality.

[_Richard]

While Google may be getting better at weeding out those thin affiliate sites the thought behind removing them from the top spots is nothing new. Google has always said that they want to rank sites that offer something to visitors so the fact that they are trying to get rid of sites that do not (in their opinion) should not surprise anyone.

Really just a new version of the same game.

[BobRed]

I believe google would love to remove affiliate sites altogether, however the reality is they're not as smart as they think they are and have been trying to do so for years without success. I don't see this changing in the coming years.

[_Richard]

I believe google would love to remove affiliate sites altogether, however the reality is they're not as smart as they think they are and have been trying to do so for years without success. I don't see this changing in the coming years.

Probably always going to be a gradual process. They will target a particular criteria and work on it for awhile and then move onto the next target removing a few more from the system with each step.

The key to this is to give your site another purpose other than just funneling visitors to another site.

Even if the sole purpose of building your site is to get that affiliate income you need to make it look like a labor of love...........Faking it is ok as long as you put on a good show....

[BobRed]

Probably always going to be a gradual process. They will target a particular criteria and work on it for awhile and then move onto the next target removing a few more from the system with each step.

Agreed, and for me this is why google will never win, their obsession with algorithmic perfection means they are constantly reacting to what {marketers|link spammers} are doing and in turn we react to what google are doing. The result is that there will always be room for innovative and forward thinking marketers and despite googles wishes, in my opinion affiliate marketing will never die.

[_Richard]

Agreed, and for me this is why google will never win, their obsession with algorithmic perfection means they are constantly reacting to what {marketers|link spammers} are doing and in turn we react to what google are doing. The result is that there will always be room for innovative and forward thinking marketers and despite googles wishes, in my opinion affiliate marketing will never die.

But the question is does Google want to get rid of affiliate sites or just get rid of bad and useless affiliate sites that do not really give anything to the visitor?

While they seem to be targeting affiliate sites in general it probably is because there are so many out there that do not meet their criteria for a good site. If Google's goal is the increase the quality of the sites they are ranking and they end up getting rid of a lot of the crappy thin affiliate sites out there then they will probably call it a win. Lets face it there are still quite a few of them out there (I have a few myself) but eventually most sites that do not offer something unique to their visitors will drop down in the rankings.

The thing to do is to get ahead of the curve and improve your sites now.

[BobRed]

But the question is does Google want to get rid of affiliate sites or just get rid of bad and useless affiliate sites that do not really give anything to the visitor?

That is a good question indeed, i'm in the "google hates competitors but hides it behind a fluffy furry PR wall" camp

While they seem to be targeting affiliate sites in general it probably is because there are so many out there that do not meet their criteria for a good site. If Google's goal is the increase the quality of the sites they are ranking and they end up getting rid of a lot of the crappy thin affiliate sites out there then they will probably call it a win. Lets face it there are still quite a few of them out there (I have a few myself) but eventually most sites that do not offer something unique to their visitors will drop down in the rankings.

The thing to do is to get ahead of the curve and improve your sites now.

Well i dare say it depends on your strategy, people have and continue to make good money with churn and burn sites. Personally however i'm with you on this, i prefer to build a quality site that will stand the test of time whichever path google takes in the future (in theory anyways!).

[JVall]

I believe google would love to remove affiliate sites altogether, however the reality is they're not as smart as they think they are and have been trying to do so for years without success. I don't see this changing in the coming years.

I'm not so sure they would want to rid affiliate sites completely as they have a vested interest by owning the GAN(Google Affiliate Network). There's no doubt they want their algo smart enough to weed out the ***** affiliate sites, but it doesn't do them any good to remove ALL affiliate sites as there are many good ones out there that provide great value to visitors.

[BobRed]

I'm not so sure they would want to rid affiliate sites completely as they have a vested interest by owning the GAN(Google Affiliate Network). There's no doubt they want their algo smart enough to weed out the ***** affiliate sites, but it doesn't do them any good to remove ALL affiliate sites as there are many good ones out there that provide great value to visitors.

Sure yes, i'm probably letting my googleanoia get the better of me but i believe as a corporate entity they would love to wipe out any sites that compete with their growing interests, however there would be uproar if they banned all amazon affiliate sites for example, not to mention a number of legal cases. I don't blame them for wanting this, it's the nature of the beast. And as you say if afiiliate site A offers great value and was removed from their index but was still in bings for example then this is going to adversely effect the quality of their serps. So in short, whilst i believe they'd love to, i'm not worried in the slightest about a "war on affiliates" by google, i can't see it happening and if they do, we will still be one step ahead of them.

[ziplack]

i feel google its just protecting their on pockets coz affiliates are getting killed on the serps
adwords its wiping the user
adsense its been wipe with out reasons
new google algo its about google make more money i dont know how
buy thats the sucess on any business MONEY

[_Richard]

That is a good question indeed, i'm in the "google hates competitors but hides it behind a fluffy furry PR wall" camp

Well i dare say it depends on your strategy, people have and continue to make good money with churn and burn sites. Personally however i'm with you on this, i prefer to build a quality site that will stand the test of time whichever path google takes in the future (in theory anyways!).

You may well be right, if I was Google I would be thinking of how to keep ahead of and kill my competitors. The thing is I am not sure most affiliates really qualify in that regard.

I'm not so sure they would want to rid affiliate sites completely as they have a vested interest by owning the GAN(Google Affiliate Network). There's no doubt they want their algo smart enough to weed out the ***** affiliate sites, but it doesn't do them any good to remove ALL affiliate sites as there are many good ones out there that provide great value to visitors.

What I think they want to get rid of is all the site that only exist because of those affiliate links. The want sites that have a separate reason for existing and only have affiliate links as a secondary thing.

Think of all the MFA sites they trashed awhile back. Those sites were bringing in a fair amount of cash to Google but they still tried to remove all of them from the rankings. While I do not trust Google very far this did (at least for me) give them some creditability when they are saying they want more and better quality sites at the top.

And we always have to remember we are not Google's customers. Google's customers are the searchers and as long as the searchers are happy and getting what they want they could care less about the rest of us.

Something that gets overlooked a bit sometimes.

[Barryonline]

But the question is does Google want to get rid of affiliate sites or just get rid of bad and useless affiliate sites that do not really give anything to the visitor?

This is exactly it! Google does not have a problem with people being an affiliate, there are many very high quality and genuine affiliate sites. It's the thin, low quality crap that Google has a problem with.

Too many people have the mind set of wanting to pump out as many sites as possible to make money, it just fills the search engines with junk that Google needs to work on clearing out which brings about the creation of things like the Panda update.

For 2012 I am going to work on building up my 8 best money making sites and build them into high quality authority sites. I think this is the best direction to go in the future.

Take a look at how Google has evolved over the last 11 years - Google Algorithm History