Amazon Affiliate Sites - Able to Avoid Google Slap?

[bansal]

Well I suffered some minor heartbreak yesterday. I have been for several months working on an Amazon affiliate site. After diligently doing my link building and getting to rise in the SERPs, and driving decent traffic to it my work was starting to pay off, I was starting to make decent money, and I was excited by the prospect of creating dozens more sites like it.

However when I decided to check my position for my main keyword, which had been #5, I found it was no longer in the top 100. I then decided to check my other keywords, most in the #5 to #30 position, they were all not in the top 100 any more either.

As you can imagine I was pretty upset. After manually going through the SERPs myself I finally found my site for my main keyword, on page 56. So it was clear that I had received a google slap for having a "thin affiliate site". That far of a drop, and for all my keywords, it would have to more than just a "google dance". Also my other sites, for which I had been doing similar style link building, were unaffected, so it was nothing I did link building wise.

Now my site was admittedly was a little on the thin side, but it had no duplicate or spammy content, and was converting very well.

So I write this partly to caution relative newbs like me, be careful to make sure your site is not thin. I don't think enough has been written about that. I put a lot of work into getting this site ranked. I am hoping that since it was not de-indexed that I can still salvage something by redoing the site with more content, maybe it will come back, but who knows.

Also was wondering if others were having this experience, having affiliate sites slapped? I do like the Amazon program, but obviously if Google is going to slam my sites than I don't want to waste my time.

Thanks in advance.

[allenjohn]

Yes, I think you probably need 80% review, 20% product.... all the very best, Allen

[Troy Broussard]

Originally Posted by bansal

Now my site was admittedly was a little on the thin side, but it had no duplicate or spammy content, and was converting very well.

So I write this partly to caution relative newbs like me, be careful to make sure your site is not thin. I don't think enough has been written about that. I put a lot of work into getting this site ranked. I am hoping that since it was not de-indexed that I can still salvage something by redoing the site with more content, maybe it will come back, but who knows.

Also was wondering if others were having this experience, having affiliate sites slapped? I do like the Amazon program, but obviously if Google is going to slam my sites than I don't want to waste my time.

Thanks in advance.

The "thin content" issue is really becoming more and more important as Google moves towards more "authority". We've seen this same problem on numerous clients that have come to us for SEO services and had the same thing happen to them.

We have several affiliate and review sites ourselves, but have not experienced this personally. But that's mainly because we don't have thin content. Most of our review sites are way big on the content side. 1500, 2000 - even 3000 word content rich posts.

Your advice to newbies is spot on. This issue is only getting bigger not smaller in the months to come...

[yesacpow]

Honestly I am not sure it's just a 'thin content' issue. I have several sites with tons of pages with original content which were ranking either on the first or second pages of Google only to get slapped away to God knows where.

This has happened to me several times before and usually the site comes back in a better position either after a few days or weeks. My advice is that you should not put all your eggs in one basket. try and have several sites earning you passive income so that when one gets hit, you'll have several others bringing you and income.

Good luck and hope your site comes back soon.

[Troy Broussard]

Originally Posted by yesacpow

Honestly I am not sure it's just a 'thin content' issue. I have several sites with tons of pages with original content which were ranking either on the first or second pages of Google only to get slapped away to God knows where.

This has happened to me several times before and usually the site comes back in a better position either after a few days or weeks. My advice is that you should not put all your eggs in one basket. try and have several sites earning you passive income so that when one gets hit, you'll have several others bringing you and income.

Good luck and hope your site comes back soon.

Well rankings drops, despite what people believe, are rarely attributed to just one issue. There were many adjustments made in the recent Panda and post-Panda algorithm changes. Addressing "thin content" was one of them, but there are many other factors - as you suggest - that could also be involved here.

But the advice and/or suggestion to avoid "thin content" sites is solid advice regardless...

[Hamida Harland]

I had a few of my 'thin content' sites that disappeared from the SERPs in the last update, reappear on page 1 of Google in the last 24 hours. Needless to say, I'm going to start working on them now so that hopefully they'll stay there.

It's a pain when your sites get deranked, but there's a good chance it will reappear again sometime. Just continue adding content, getting backlinks and eventually it will probably climb the ranks again.

[Clyde]

Google is just sandboxing sites for no reason at the moment.

There's really nothing you can do but build better backlinks and add some more content.

[cooler1]

Ive heard that Google are doing more manual reviews nowadays, so your site may have had one.

How much content do you need on a site for Google not to deem it as "thin"?

[Ehsan_am]

I don't think this has anything to do with thin content. For instance one of my sites with over 15 pages product reviews disappeared from results today. Another one of my amazon sites which btw uses the exact same format of reviews and same link building method gained in rankings. I just think that "Google people" are probabaly just working on the algorithm to clean up the mess from the last Panda update.

[yesacpow]

That's a great question that I would love to hear the answer for as well. I believe I can Have a website with only 5 pages that provides in-depth and quality content to whoever is looking for it. So what really classifies a site as 'thin'?

Originally Posted by cooler1

Ive heard that Google are doing more manual reviews nowadays, so your site may have had one.

How much content do you need on a site for Google not to deem it as "thin"?

[cma01]

bansai,

A lot of people are reporting a big shake-up in their SERP's today one way or the other.

I wouldn't panic yet. Just keep writing content, building backlinks, and wait until it all settles down.

[bansal]

Thanks guys, I guess I might have jumped the gun there, just the fact that it was a massive across the board drop in SERPs led me to believe it had to be a Google slap, nothing else seemed make sense, but it seems that maybe something else is going on. I guess I can back away from the ledge now, lol...

[ccd]

Originally Posted by yesacpow

I believe I can Have a website with only 5 pages that provides in-depth and quality content to whoever is looking for it. So what really classifies a site as 'thin'?

I believe that too, especially if the website is intensely focused upon a single product. Question is, does Google believe that?

[drvosjeca]

this is why i like having more baskets and not just putting all eggs in one basket.
You never know when is big G going to slap you hard!

[Fernando1954]

Its happening to a lot of sites in last 48hrs many people on different forums reporting it.

My amazon site dropped off first page yesterday couldn't find it,been there for last 6 months and it's not a thin site.

Checked this morning it's back on first page 2 places higher.

[tanero]

Same issue, but this time google help me to rank higher, all of my sites ranked better as #1 and #2. I hope it is not a temproray result.

[James-]

Was the site really dropped because it was a 'thin site' though? As long as you have lots of relevant targeted content, why would Google want to penalize that just because there isn't another 20 pages of it?

Doesn't make much sense to me.

[paulgl]

Does that mean the sites on page #57,58,59,.... received a major google slap?

Paul

[bansal]

Originally Posted by James-

Was the site really dropped because it was a 'thin site' though? As long as you have lots of relevant targeted content, why would Google want to penalize that just because there isn't another 20 pages of it?

Doesn't make much sense to me.

It's just a matter of opinion, Google's opinion. They want their search results to contain the highest quality content, if they decide your site isn't contributing enough unique content and is designed to just earn affiliate commissions they could penalize you, it's in their webmaster guidelines. Exactly what the cutoff is or an exact guideline on the difference between thin and not thin is unknown unfortunately, which is what makes it really frustrating.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by bansal

It's just a matter of opinion, Google's opinion. They want their search results to contain the highest quality content, if they decide your site isn't contributing enough unique content and is designed to just earn affiliate commissions they could penalize you, it's in their webmaster guidelines. Exactly what the cutoff is or an exact guideline on the difference between thin and not thin is unknown unfortunately, which is what makes it really frustrating.

Creating a site that is not good enough to warrant top rankings is not
a penalty. I wish people would stop calling it that.

YOU, yes, YOU decide what to do with your site.

If you don't train for a marathon and finish dead last, was that a penalty?

Gee, those mean race officials penalized me and I finished last.

No. Others just trained harder and your efforts were not worthy.

Not doing what it takes on your part is not a penalty.

It's not about thick, thin, fat, or whatever.

It's about your performance. The Lakers did not make the finals
this year. Who penalized them? Were they just a lousy team?
No, they were not a lousy team and nobody penalized them.

Paul

[bansal]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Creating a site that is not good enough to warrant top rankings is not
a penalty. I wish people would stop calling it that.

YOU, yes, YOU decide what to do with your site.

If you don't train for a marathon and finish dead last, was that a penalty?

Gee, those mean race officials penalized me and I finished last.

No. Others just trained harder and your efforts were not worthy.

Not doing what it takes on your part is not a penalty.

It's not about thick, thin, fat, or whatever.

It's about your performance. The Lakers did not make the finals
this year. Who penalized them? Were they just a lousy team?
No, they were not a lousy team and nobody penalized them.

Paul

If you were ranked on page one and then suddenly got pushed to page 56 I would call that penalty, your analogy makes no sense. And weather a site is good or bad is a matter of opinion, my site was/is great, but it doesn't have a lot of pages. It is more like the Lakers were playing in the Finals and then the NBA said they are no longer allowed to be in playoffs. Which is how it should be btw...

[bansal]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Does that mean the sites on page #57,58,59,.... received a major google slap?

Paul

Uh if they were on page one the day before then yeah...

[Ask Michael Paul]

I have had this happen to me before as well and I just had to wait approximately 6-7 days and then they were re-indexed and in a much better position.

It could be (just a theory) that Google took the site down to be reviewed by a human and once it passed the "quality content" check it was allowed to be indexed again.

Good Luck, and just wait a few more days and it might turn out better than you thought.

[Han Fan]

keep building backlinks..it will come back

Han

[gearmonkey]

My crappy amazon blog that pulls content straight from Amazon is up 400% in traffic.

While my high quality blog with unique content updated daily is down 50%.

Figure that out...

[markowe]

I can say I am seeing some unusual dancing-type activity on some quite aged affiliate review-type sites too - one day on page one, next in the abyss, then back again. Not quite the behaviour I am used to. Maybe something's going on, maybe it's not, but I do want to point out, Google has been deranking thin sites for YEARS, nothing to do with the semi-mythical Panda. Though of course, MY sites aren't thin, either

[RichardF]

While I'd love to be able to say that it's just a matter of making high-quality sites with good content, it's just not that simple. I have a few 1-page sites with crap content ranking better than ever right now, and some much beefier sites that are completely gone.

Right now I would be very hesitant to put a ton of time, effort and money into just one big site. No matter how good it is, it can still be dropped at any time, leaving you with nothing. The only real solution is to diversify, and mix it up as much as possible with some small and some big sites, all with different types of links.

[LiamP]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Creating a site that is not good enough to warrant top rankings is not
a penalty. I wish people would stop calling it that.

YOU, yes, YOU decide what to do with your site.

If you don't train for a marathon and finish dead last, was that a penalty?

Gee, those mean race officials penalized me and I finished last.

No. Others just trained harder and your efforts were not worthy.

Not doing what it takes on your part is not a penalty.

It's not about thick, thin, fat, or whatever.

It's about your performance. The Lakers did not make the finals
this year. Who penalized them? Were they just a lousy team?
No, they were not a lousy team and nobody penalized them.

Paul

I agree with you that the great majority of people who think they are being penalized by Google aren't.
But just as in sport where you can perform the best but still have the victory taken away from you (just ask Floyd Landis), a page that otherwise is Google thinks the best result for a keyword can be penalized by Google if Google concludes you to have cheated.

[Jeremy Banks]

i am still having success with my sites, but I do see a lot of this moving up and down and plummets in traffic. That is why I like to have about 20 money making sites, so if one tanks I'm not broke.

I have recovered my sites from the basement, it's just a matter of not giving up, adding more content, and building more links

[cderenberger]

I have been experiencing this with Amazon sites as well.. I recently built 4 content rich sites promoting Amazon products only.. they done VERY well for the first 1-2 months then all posts dropped from search rankings..

After about 3 weeks, they came back.. 2 weeks later, they disappeared again.. this happened about 3 times over a period of 4 months.

I recently done a test and created 3 more Amazon sites and the same thing happened. They all disappeared after a couple months. 2 came back.. 1 never did.

I can't figure out why Google is doing this with Amazon sites only. I made a couple sites on IM product and they rank very well and have never left the serps.

From my experience.. keep making posts on your sites.. but DON'T copy and paste content from Amazon, that will get you knocked out fast.

If nothing else, find a good 15-20 products on Amazon you want to promote and go to Elance or some outsourcing site to hire a writer for $50 to write at least 400 word reviews.. you will be surprised at how many bids you will get and from my experience, they are written pretty decent.

Also, make sure you NEVER put in the title of your webpage or blog post how much money the visitor can save such as "Save $34.54".. Google does NOT like it when you quote an exact amount the customer can save because they know that amount will change almost daily with Amazon and that can get your posts knocked out too..

Most of my sites are back online now. So hopefully yours will too, just keep adding content rich posts.

Anyways.. that's just my 2 cents.. or maybe 3.. lol

[bansal]

Oddly enough, a little earlier today it came back, all the rankings pretty much where they were before the "slap". Just yesterday I had noticed that my main keyword was on page 43 (up from page 56), so I thought maybe it would be a slow long climb back, but now it is back on page one. Very strange indeed, lesson learned I guess on not to panic, I had just never seen that steep of a drop before, will be interesting to see if it stays put this time...

[dagaul101]

Google has always stated that it wants unique content, ofcourse it can be argued by the affiliate that what they have is unique content, but since Google rules the roost, they make the rules

[StoneWilson]

Originally Posted by bansal

Oddly enough, a little earlier today it came back, all the rankings pretty much where they were before the "slap". Just yesterday I had noticed that my main keyword was on page 43 (up from page 56), so I thought maybe it would be a slow long climb back, but now it is back on page one. Very strange indeed, lesson learned I guess on not to panic, I had just never seen that steep of a drop before, will be interesting to see if it stays put this time...

Congrats! Google update the SERP more and more often these days, someone said Panda2.0 is near around, who knows.

[thomasdevos]

Originally Posted by yesacpow

Honestly I am not sure it's just a 'thin content' issue. I have several sites with tons of pages with original content which were ranking either on the first or second pages of Google only to get slapped away to God knows where.

This has happened to me several times before and usually the site comes back in a better position either after a few days or weeks. My advice is that you should not put all your eggs in one basket. try and have several sites earning you passive income so that when one gets hit, you'll have several others bringing you and income.

Good luck and hope your site comes back soon.

yes, i agress. site slap and come back is just one part of IM life. unless your site really grow very powerfull authoried site.

to deal with this IM think strategy is more important that tactic. not put all eggs in just one basket.

[bobbyp21]

Originally Posted by LiamP

I agree with you that the great majority of people who think they are being penalized by Google aren't.
But just as in sport where you can perform the best but still have the victory taken away from you (just ask Floyd Landis), a page that otherwise is Google thinks the best result for a keyword can be penalized by Google if Google concludes you to have cheated.

You CAN NOT be serious about Floyd Landis!!! I believed in him for so long and then he just flat admits he's a cheater. He took other peoples money for his defense and then just finally gave up and said, "I doped and have doped for a long time".

[bobbyp21]

Originally Posted by cderenberger

I have been experiencing this with Amazon sites as well.. I recently built 4 content rich sites promoting Amazon products only.. they done VERY well for the first 1-2 months then all posts dropped from search rankings..

After about 3 weeks, they came back.. 2 weeks later, they disappeared again.. this happened about 3 times over a period of 4 months.

That just sounds like the normal Google Dance to me. Just keep building backlinks and you usually bounce back stronger.

[alina albert]

Hi dude
I am also working on amazon affiliate site and suffering from the same problem and not getting good result from past 2 months and very upset about it.

[melovedogs]

Originally Posted by bansal

Well I suffered some minor heartbreak yesterday. I have been for several months working on an Amazon affiliate site. After diligently doing my link building and getting to rise in the SERPs, and driving decent traffic to it my work was starting to pay off, I was starting to make decent money, and I was excited by the prospect of creating dozens more sites like it.

However when I decided to check my position for my main keyword, which had been #5, I found it was no longer in the top 100. I then decided to check my other keywords, most in the #5 to #30 position, they were all not in the top 100 any more either.

As you can imagine I was pretty upset. After manually going through the SERPs myself I finally found my site for my main keyword, on page 56. So it was clear that I had received a google slap for having a "thin affiliate site". That far of a drop, and for all my keywords, it would have to more than just a "google dance". Also my other sites, for which I had been doing similar style link building, were unaffected, so it was nothing I did link building wise.

Now my site was admittedly was a little on the thin side, but it had no duplicate or spammy content, and was converting very well.

So I write this partly to caution relative newbs like me, be careful to make sure your site is not thin. I don't think enough has been written about that. I put a lot of work into getting this site ranked. I am hoping that since it was not de-indexed that I can still salvage something by redoing the site with more content, maybe it will come back, but who knows.

Also was wondering if others were having this experience, having affiliate sites slapped? I do like the Amazon program, but obviously if Google is going to slam my sites than I don't want to waste my time.

Thanks in advance.

You're lucky google only slapped your site not deindex. All my sites were deindex since Mid June. I removed all posts that have thin content from one of my sites, currently existing posts contain around 450-500 words review, yet google still gave me "violating quality guidelines" message after each reconsideration request.

I'm trying to follow @cderenberger guide about removing the price and discount information, let's see if this time google will give me positive reply.

Anyway this is my site : tinyurl.com/66fsu3h, just in case you guys can help me finding out what's wrong with it.

[dan@wejustlink]

harsh man, harsh but content is KING when it comes to anything on the net now, this is a message that changes will probably come in the future will probably be more content based so insure yourself, focus on content now!

[melovedogs]

Originally Posted by dan@wejustlink

harsh man, harsh but content is KING when it comes to anything on the net now, this is a message that changes will probably come in the future will probably be more content based so insure yourself, focus on content now!

Really? I don't think unique content is enough anymore. It has to be unique and valuable content. However, I'm not sure how Google measures the level of valuable content, perhaps from bounce rate? how long users stay on the website?

[hairdbeezt8]

This might just be the google dance. I have had a couple sites do the exact same thing. I think it happens when there are large changes to your site or google discovered a lot of backlinks. Google sort of pulls your site out of its place and puts it to the back of the line. Over the next few weeks or months your site could be back.

[BKenn01]

I probably will get flamed for this but I gotta say it. I found this thread as I am researching affiliate marketing via Amazon. The niche I am starting with I really like. As I am searching the net so often I run into totally useless sites built by people with only one thing in mind and that is making money. It chaps me to no end to get directed to these sites by goole when I am looking for information on a certain topic only to find a site with very little useful content put there by someone who never had any intent to help me but rather just wanted to make a quick buck. So if the intent of your site is always only about you then you deserve what google gives you. And this was not to pass judgement on anyone here but really there is a lot of crap on the net that keeps most people from getting the results they are looking for.

[filippot51]

a cool guy experienced and smart told me to add a post every 2 weeks
at least for each website i had a blog that disappeared from 10 pages i actually don't know where it is i have on first page since 25 days ago and i didnt add one i say one post i made 3 posts.That's it.It seems to me that they say the secret to keep the blog alive is to write posts on it like a flower that needs water.Not too much otherwise it dies not at all otherwise it dies just enough.Well also wait a bit between one post and another,im trying different strategies.I have a web site in fits position second page ,and i wrote only 4 posts.At this point i dont think there is an exact criteria,the website that disappeared was about a product for senior and elderly people so also something very social,i used a sorta of software a demo to pump an article i wrote in different directories i think that damage my blog badly

[markowe]

Originally Posted by BKenn01

So if the intent of your site is always only about you then you deserve what google gives you. And this was not to pass judgement on anyone here but really there is a lot of crap on the net that keeps most people from getting the results they are looking for.

Very true. People get blinded - surely their "baby" "deserves" to be on page one. A good proportion of the time it does not, plain and simple.

[bansal]

Well just as an interesting update to this, my site just a few days ago hit #1 for my main keyword, a moderately competitive one at that. So just goes to show you two things, first don't panic and keep working at it, I was almost ready to give up at first when I thought I got slapped, now I'm on top. Also content is not king, I mean I like my site and I think it's of value, but I don't have a whole lot of content on there, and now I'm glad I didn't waste too much time trying to stuff it with content like others do (often just for the sake of adding content that doesn't really add a whole lot) thinking it's going to make a difference.

[RayW]

Originally Posted by bansal

Well just as an interesting update to this, my site just a few days ago hit #1 for my main keyword, a moderately competitive one at that. So just goes to show you two things, first don't panic and keep working at it, I was almost ready to give up at first when I thought I got slapped, now I'm on top. Also content is not king, I mean I like my site and I think it's of value, but I don't have a whole lot of content on there, and now I'm glad I didn't waste too much time trying to stuff it with content like others do (often just for the sake of adding content that doesn't really add a whole lot) thinking it's going to make a difference.

How many amazon affiliate links on a page do you think is too much?

[chrisen]

Originally Posted by bansal

Well just as an interesting update to this, my site just a few days ago hit #1 for my main keyword, a moderately competitive one at that. So just goes to show you two things, first don't panic and keep working at it, I was almost ready to give up at first when I thought I got slapped, now I'm on top. Also content is not king, I mean I like my site and I think it's of value, but I don't have a whole lot of content on there, and now I'm glad I didn't waste too much time trying to stuff it with content like others do (often just for the sake of adding content that doesn't really add a whole lot) thinking it's going to make a difference.

I was following this thread when you started this because the same thing happened to my first site I started on the same day as you. We had almost the exact same situation. My site dropped to page 55+ for every single keyword. It came back on about the 9th of this month on page 1 (about 5 spots higher than before the drop). I have no idea why it came back...it just did. I kept backlinking for about 2.5 weeks. Then I decided to just stop and see what would happen. I don't know if that was the cause, but it came back so I was happy.

[RayW]

This happens often to many people, it's just the google dance... If your site drops heavily in ranking all of a sudden but is still indexed, it's just the google dance... if it's de-indexed, then you might have been slapped by google.

[bansal]

Yeah I kept backlinking so I don't think stopping the backlinking made any difference. I kind of panicked because it was such a drastic drop, which I had never seen before, and I guess I was paranoid about the algorithm updates. Live and learn...

[Inari]

our opinion is - that's pretty much unavoidable in the long run if you run a small-scale affiliate site. you may survive Panda or Kangaroo or whatever update will come next, but in the long run you're fighting an uphill and losing battle. that's why we have approached the traffic/SEO question completely differently for the past 2 years - first building a useful service/directory style site with 1,000,000+ unique pages, and THEN monetizing it in some way. this has been infinitely easier than making a 50 page hand-written affiliate site and then tediously trying to get traffic to it against thousands of competing sites exactly like yours as well as Google's search quality team.