Stop talking about "Quality"....

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Everytime we have an algo change and sites getting slapped, you can hear a) Google talking about Quality sites b) webmasters talking about quality sites

Here is the problem: You do not know what Google deems a "quality" site nowadays.

Chances are you can have a clickbank/aff-link on your site and Google MIGHT slap your site simply because you dare to sell something as an affiliate. We had this happen in the past where Google literally terminated the majority of PPC ads and advertisers, simply because they were affiliates.

So..what is a "Quality Site"? You do not need to tell me or any other halfway smart webmaster that a quality site means good, helpful, unique etc. content, good navigation etc.. BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THIS.

But i think there is more to it. I personally have/had one site which was at TOP Google position for almost 5 years in a row now, with unique, helpful content etc..this site is now literally gone from #1, #2 on Google...vanished. The only reason i can think of is the fact that Google knows it's a site where i link out to clickbank. And i *suspect* (i do not know, i suspect!) that this is one thing they are doing, in the same way they canned all PPC advertisers promoting something from clickbank.

Short: As soon as you *dare* to sell something on your site and make your site with (God beware!) the intention to also make money with it..you have to be careful. Just my $0.02
#search engine optimization #quality #stop #talking
  • I don't think we can pinpoint it to this. Tons of my sites link out to my Amazon referral link multiple times on the homepage and they weren't effected negatively at all. I said this somewhere else - but out of 40 sites, the only sites that had more than a 5 position drop were 5 that were AdSense sites.
  • Interesting, because in the past i read horror stories by people who had amazon sites.
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    • Me too - I've seen so many WSO's and other plugins that somehow hide your affiliate links from Google, but mine are right there, plain as day and I've never noticed an issue. But the question I always ask myself when building a site- can I take an honest 3rd party perspective and look at my site and say that it's informational value takes priority over its commercial intent. If this is the case then I am comfortable with it.
  • In the eyes of Google, a quality site is one that provides (for free) exactly what the user has searched for.

    The majority of affiliate sites do not meet this requirement.
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  • Sure we know what Google calls quality. Just look at the serps and you'll see that brands dominate. It doesn't matter if they have a page full of content or just a empty page.

    Content really doesn't matter, but it helps. And it's in your interest to have the best quality since the odds are stacked against you.

    If you're gonna depend on Google traffic, you need to become a brand yourself. And you have an advantage, the big companies don't. The fact that you're small means that while you don't have their budget, you're still more agile, more able to jump on new trends and what not.
  • I think original is quality.
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    If your dependant on Google to hold your hand & show you what quality content is, your traffic will be over on your competitions site, not your site.

    Forget what you think Google quality is, know what is your traffic looking for, that's all that matters about quality content.
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    • Google does not mind commerce as long as you are big like Amazon and co.
  • GeorgR. thank you for making this thread, i felt like I was the only one getting tired of Google and marketer's alike spamming the "quality" word.
  • retsek : Exactly. There are sites made for browsing around(fun) and then there are sites (pages) with high % bounce rate that might be just what people were looking for. If that page is linked as a reference from actual people ( school, scientific papers ), linked from high school and college professors personal pages as recommended reading, linked from behind the scene blackboard university software that G can see from analytics, url mentioned in various pdfs, etc., etc., etc.
    You wouldn't believe how many times some of the high bounce rate pages get printed
    Once a site gets a couple of references from above mentioned sources and you have G analytics installed...well figure this out for yourself ..... you don't see those links but G sees where referrals are coming from....from some physics professors lectures....
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  • I think if we focus on quality in the eyes of the searcher then we'll be good in the long run especially with this "over optimization" alg. We can still do on-page seo but tone it down a bit maybe.
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    Stop talking about "Quality"....

    Everytime we have an algo change and sites getting slapped, you can hear a) Google talking about Quality sites b) webmasters talking about quality sites Here is the problem: You do not know what Google deems a "quality" site nowadays.