Amazon Affiliate Sites - Able to Avoid Google Slap?

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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.
#search engine optimization #affiliate #amazon #avoid #google #sites #slap
  • Yes, I think you probably need 80% review, 20% product.... all the very best, Allen
  • 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...
    • [1] reply
    • 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.
      • [2] replies
  • 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.
  • 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"?
    • [1] reply
    • 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'?


      • [1] reply
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • [1] reply
    • 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...
  • 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!
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • [2] replies
    • Does that mean the sites on page #57,58,59,.... received a major google slap?

      Paul
      • [1] reply
    • 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.
      • [1] reply
  • 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.
  • keep building backlinks..it will come back

    Han
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • 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...
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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
    • [2] replies
    • 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...
      • [1] reply
    • That just sounds like the normal Google Dance to me. Just keep building backlinks and you usually bounce back stronger.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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!
    • [1] reply
    • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • 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.
      • [1] reply
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • [1] reply
    • My site is one page, about 65% of the visitors click through to Amazon, and about 5% of the people who click through buy the product and related products (and sometimes unrelated products if you're lucky). I had that brief scare when my site disappeared, but it has basically turned into a little gold mine. You'd be much better off building 100 sites like mine rather than putting all your eggs into one basket building a large site like that, and convincing yourself it has value just because you dumped a lot of content on it, that may be unique hand written whatever but realistically not that great.
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    Amazon Affiliate Sites - Able to Avoid Google Slap?

    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.