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Avoiding the "Thin Affiliate" Google Slap

by gmr324
7 replies
Hi,

I've been reading and have seen many examples of well-established sites that were brought to their knees by the dreaded Google slap of what they consider to be thin affiliate sites. You can easily search for "thin affiliate" or scan the Google webmaster forum to find clear cases of this.
I have a product review site and am concerned that I've been hit by this.

I'd like to hear your ideas about how you ARE or WILL BE adapting your site business model
and practices to avoid falling victim to this obvious Google policy to de-index these sites.

o Does it mean having in-content affiliate versus stand-along affiliate links?
o What should the ratio of informational/news posts to review posts be?
o How frequently do you have to post to avoid this?
o Does this mean the end of IM mini-sites?



Thanks

George
#avoiding #google #slap #thin affiliate
  • Profile picture of the author trapp120
    Are you talking specifically about organic listings? This is a big problem right now with Adwords, but organic, it doesn't seem to be hit as hard. If you feel that your site is "thin" then keep on working. I see plenty of affiliate sites with top 10 listings, in fact more so than even last year.
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    • Profile picture of the author gmr324
      Yes, I'm referring to organic. My product review site has over 380 reviews, 12,000+ backlinks and is 20 months old, but I was still told it was hit by a trademark suppression penalty (doesn't even rank for its own domain name) that has plagued it since Jan 09.

      I'd love to find out it isn't doomed by this thin affiliate slap.

      Thanks

      George
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  • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
    Make sure you cloak or redirect your affiliate links. Google are not penalizing sites which give good information, add value to what a merchant say a about a product.

    Give a genuine review. I have a couple of review sites running fine, they have an informational look not a "high pressure sales pitch look". They are only about 20 pages, so it is not the size but the "feel" and "look" of a site which can lead to red flags. Try too avoid a pushy look.
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    • Profile picture of the author gmr324
      Make sure you cloak or redirect your affiliate links
      I just use the link code straight out of CJ. I do, however, always use NoFollow
      on my affiliate links. Would that be adequate?

      Give a genuine review
      My reviews are around 250-300 words of unique content that adds further information than the vendor write-up. I always have the product images residing on my site. I always keep the language and tone as informational as well.

      That is why I am baffled about getting feedback that my site's Google penalty is
      related to the "thin affiliate" slap.

      Thanks

      George
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      • Profile picture of the author trapp120
        Originally Posted by gmr324 View Post

        I just use the link code straight out of CJ. I do, however, always use NoFollow
        on my affiliate links. Would that be adequate?
        No, you really should cloak them.

        Besides, if you have a static page with a link like

        cjaffilliate.com/cj.php?CID=209&Product=9028j20323j

        I can simply do a search on Google for "CID=209" and possibly find all of your sites and marketing efforts because you left your CJ ID in the html.
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      • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
        Originally Posted by gmr324 View Post

        I just use the link code straight out of CJ. I do, however, always use NoFollow
        on my affiliate links. Would that be adequate?



        My reviews are around 250-300 words of unique content that adds further information than the vendor write-up. I always have the product images residing on my site. I always keep the language and tone as informational as well.

        That is why I am baffled about getting feedback that my site's Google penalty is
        related to the "thin affiliate" slap.

        Thanks

        George
        No follow should fine to use, although I prefer to use cloaking just to be doubly sure.

        There are a lot of review type sites with around 20 pages doing well in the rankings. I would try to change the look: As soon as someone clicks on the site does it scream affiliate or does it scream information?

        I would increase the content make the page more sober looking. Maybe put one product per page and see what happens. I am surprised you getting any sort of penalty.
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