Forum

[kengordon]

Hi Mark,

Just saw this breaking news from Glenn Livingstone that's posted on Perry Marshall's site...

http://www.perrymarshall.com/product-re ... ogle-slap/

How does this affect the AR and AB strategy of affiliate review sites?

Thanks!

 

[psa777]

Yes Mark, your thoughts on this are much appreciated!

Thanks,
Peter

 

[trevanne]

I listened to a webinar today, and the advice from the speaker was to wait until Google sort this out, which could be 3 - 6 months. I the meantime, the advice was don't do review sites.

Trevor

 

[MarkLing]

I'm away at the World Internet Summit at the moment so I don't have time to look into this more deeply till next week. For now keep building your websites in the same way. I have not been slapped and if any adaptions are needed (which I'll research when I get back next week) then I'll be sure to be updating all of you.

If google is in fact slapping all review sites then that is probably a good thing as it'll mean that we simply all have to build sites that capture email addresses and provide relevant content, etc, while more lazy competitors will fall by the wayside.

All the best,
Mark

 

[MarkLing]

I'd say that everyone should cloak all affiliate links asap though, from my brief look into it, it looks like google is looking at links through known affiliate networks. Also remember sites that have a lot of value on them are less likely to be slapped. I've heard some people say 'my site has a contact us page etc' but that's not enough. I mean real content, like articles etc, as taught in Affiloblueprint.

 

[MarkLing]

This will be easy, I just need a few hours to get the best plan going. I'll record a video next week for affiloblueprint members that will be the solution to the problem for you.

 

[wollowra]

Thanks for your thoughts Mark. Looking forward to your further research.
Regards
Troy

 

[IBLtechno]

Looks like you need to use Redirects or something to your own sites / links to get around this

 

[Avidpoet]

First the FTC warning now this Im not suprised I guess Google must be beating the FTC to the punch

 

[MarkLing]

Here is the email that I'm sending out to my list in the morning:

Don't be alarmed but Google has recently started reducing the quality scores of many review sites and cpa linking sites from 10 to 1. They have been particularly severe on sites with little content.

I've worked out a solution for this and am consulting with other marketers too. Personally none of my sites have been slapped, but that doesn't mean that I'm not taking action.

Currently I'm away at the World Internet Summit, so I won't be back at home till early next week.

What I'm going to do is record a comprehensive video and have it online by Wednesday which shows all my AffiloBlueprint members how to beat this Google Slap and thrive in it.

Remember, this is a positive opportunity, not a problem.

 

[paulinefojas]

"this is a positive opportunity, not a problem" -- I like this. Thanks Mark! :)

 

[jmpruitt]

adaptation to change is what seperates the successful people from the failures in this business. thanks Mark cant wait to see what someone with some experience in how to adapt does it

 

[mdf212]

Any update on this "slap"??

 

[scparker]

Yes - any update? My main site was slapped..

If I cloak all the links - is that enough? When does the quality score go back to normal? Or do I need to start a new page?

 

[jmpruitt]

Mark is at the World Internet Summit this weekend. He will be working on a solution as soon as he gets back.

 

[wollowra]

Hi SCParker,
When you say your site was slapped can you give us some details?
If it was slapped you should have seen the quality score go right down or page rank on your site go down.

 

[faradina]

The present google quality standards are now what's "normal" so it will not go back to how it used to be. We need to have pages that provide real help or useful information. If google deems that our pages are there only for the purpose of making money, then we get the slap big time.

 

[scparker]

Here's the PPC page which I thought was made to Blueprint standards..

http://www.tattooreviewonline.com/print ... ign-review

The Quality score went from 7 to 1 overnight... The rest of the site is fully populated with quality articles per AB...

 

[Sixtos]

After reading Perry Marshall's article it seems that it will be a good thing for us if we make high quality sites.

Google is a business and they make too much cash from us so they're going to source out a way to make sure affiliate marketing keeps making huge cash for them.

Best thing we can do is become people of business at the highest level of e-commerce.

Regards,

 

[frankirish]

Hi Folks

I am getting emails from various 'gurus' talking about the Google 'Slap' and saying they know the way around it...probably best to wait to see what Mark has to say.

All the best
Frank
Edinburgh

 

[paulie69]

I was wondering the same thing too. Mark, you mentioned you were creating a video/blog update to deal with the issue, can you confirm that it's only available for people who have done the course? I haven't purchased your course (not yet but anyway). Are regular members going to be given access to your video and blog discussion or is is restricted to premium members?

Thanks alot,
Paul

 

[mjsmale]

If you would allow me a quick digression please I would like to thank Mark for making the effort to present at WIS. I attended the World Internet Summit #38 and want to sincerely thank Mark for his presentation. It was one of the best presentations during the four days of the Summit and others I have spoken to remarked on how frank and genuine his presentation was. We're blown away! Thanks Mark, much appreciated.

 

[Makem1]

Hi,

I've just bought Commission Ritual in which the author - to paraphrase him - says that a hoplink from your site to clickbank product is a very bad idea and links, of this type, should always be cloaked. He claims that Google does not like affiliate links at all. I would be very interested If one of the AB team would comment.

Lawrence

 

[scparker]

Google's response:

Hello Steve,

Thank you for writing in. Your are concerned that for your website
http://www.tattooreviewonline.com your quality score dropped to 1 for all your
keywords. I also know you are trying to make changes to your website.
Please allow me to explain.

Please know your site http://www.tattooreviewonline.com has a poor landing page
quality score. And as LPQ score is one of the many factors of Quality
Score it will in turn be an essential piece in determining your keyword's
min CPC. However, keep in mind that many other ads quality measures such
as CTR, relevancy, competitiveness for the keyword, etc. also affect min
CPC.

Your landing page quality needs to be improved if you'd like to increase
your Quality Scores and lower your costs. Let me explain why we
incorporate landing page quality into Quality Score:

Our market research shows that low quality sites lead to a poor user
experience, and unhappy users are less likely to click on AdWords ads.
High quality sites lead to better user experience and a higher return on
investment for advertisers.

I encourage you to visit
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/a ... 5&hl=en_US for
tips on improving landing page quality and increasing your Quality Score.

Learn how often Quality Scores are updated at
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/a ... 3&hl=en_US.

Hope the above information is helpful. Thank you for you cooperation and
understanding.

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at
https://adwords.google.com/support, where you'll find answers to many
frequently asked questions. We look forward to providing you with the most
effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Kajal
The Google AdWords Team

 

[RCormack]

The same thing has happened to me. QS from 10 to 1 overnight. Even though some of my ads sent people to my main site, which is about 25 pages of quality content, they were ALL slapped. It happened right after I changed the links to re-directs, but I can't see that being the reason. I find it hard to see this as a "positive opportunity". If the solution is to cloak links, it could then take months to get the score back up, if at all. Even then, Google will find a way to slap us again. If the solution is to get email addresses, then half the Clickbank markets will be killed. Nobody is going to sign up to a newsletter about cures for Hemorrhoids or Yeast Infections.

 

[bears34]

SCParker,

I would add terms, privacy, contact us pages to your website. Put them in your footer. I would also add a link to "more tatoo articles". this should help. Also, try to make your LP focused to the keywords Don't send your visitor to a generic review page. Instead make sure each LP is related, uses the keywords at least a couple of times. and be sure to include them on the page, H1, Title, and in your meta description. This should help your quality score.

 

[Sumo89]

Has Mark made the Google Slap Video for AB members yet? I don't see it in the AB members area.

 

[smpmedia]

HI All,
We built a site about 3 months ago
http://www.buildultimatemuscle.com
The site has no PPC pages just SEO optimised (A ratings with a total 18 pages) and link building with AMA and social bookmarking - the sites started to get pages ranked in top 10 last week and then within a week of being there the majority of our pages have been Google Slapped - raking dropped to over top 100

Can anyone explain why Google has done this?
I have noticed our Contact page had a error on it - I had previously turned it off as the contact form was getting spammed.

Does Google sandbox websites so no matter what we do the sites pages we will always have a low PR from manual review by Google?

Can anyone off a solution to get the website pages back up the rankings?
- add no follows on te affliate links?
- adding more pages?
- different product promo images?
- fixing the contact page?

The recommendation from Steven Clayton on http://www.affilorama.com/blog/solutions-to-important-affiliate-problems-webinar-with-steven-clayton
is to use a email sign up and not have any affliate links on your website.

This is completley different to the Affiliorama Training Methods so what do people think of this?

 

[MarkLing]

Hey, you mentioned your site is only 3 months old, that is likely to be one of the reasons. I've seen it happen quite a few times with my sites. For some reason they make it into google really quick, then they drop low in the rankings, only to be back up high permanently a few weeks or months later.

Steven Clayton's recommendation is regarding the Google slap (which is to do with pay per click), not regarding SEO which is what you are talking about. Optin landing pages for ppc are also a very good method. I have an example of one of mine here, which works really well: http://www.meetyoursweet.com/attract-women

 

[smpmedia]

Thanks Mark
Yes the visits and rankings are starting to come up again - Is a manual Google review expected if you get up in the top 10? If so would we expect to get slapped again unless we do some changes to the website or if we keep building incoming links will these make our site more respected?

 

[bgceee]

According to Google regarding Relevant and Original Content:
http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bi ... 5&hl=en_US

"Link to the page on your site that provides the most useful information about the product or service in your ad. For instance, direct users to the page where they can buy the advertised product, rather than to a page with a description of several products."

Doesn't this contradict having product review pages (for several products) be PPC landing pages? I thought we were instructed to do this?

 

[wollowra]

I think Google is talking about having a site that has a dog training product on it, then a cat training product, then a how to build a house product, then a how to cook chilli product etc etc...
In other words keep it relevent and on topic.

Your PPC page always should have relevant info and that page should have a link back to your main site.

Regards
Troy