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Google penalizes for affiliate links?

by healthforums
1 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I had set up a site, optimized it a bit with minimal effort, and got it to the top rank for the keyword that i was hoping for. Realize that this is still PR0 site (i set up absolutely no back links) and i was able to do it as there was minimal competition (by just using keywords and picking right domain name).

Then, i set up an affiliate link with amazon to see if it would earn money. I was pleased to find out that the site was earning commissions from day 1. However, on just day 2 of putting the affiliate code, I realize its ranking drops from #1 to like on the 5th page!

I am almost sure google did this because of the affiliate link code. How do I avoid this?? Should i have had higher PR and backlinks before starting to put any affiliate link? Do i put the link code further down the page??
#affiliate #google #links #penalizes
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi healthforums,

    It's likely that you have just experienced the gift the comes with fresh content. It's a freshness factor built into Google's algorithm known as QDF. This freshness factor will temporarily boost your rankings, but wares off over time.

    The QDF factor has nothing to do with your affiliate link. However, the pages that you link to can have an impact on the ranking of your own page for a keyword. The pages you link to give clues to the search engines that help them determine what your own page is about. If you link out to a page that isn't highly relevant to your targeted keyword it tends to dilute your own pages relevancy.

    Again, let me say that you probably experienced the swing in rankings that is a natural part of Google's algorithm and typical for a new page. The QDF factor alone would account for your dramatic drop in rankings. Your affiliate link could have contributed, but it also could help your rankings if you chose the right page to link to and used optimized anchor text.
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