So your site has been hit by Google penalty. That doesn't necessarily
mean that you have to pull the plug on your affiliate program. Google launched
several major algorithmic updates in the last few years. As a result of this,
many websites that were practicing black hat SEO tactics got hit.
Unfortunately, some good sites also suffered collateral damage and lost their
rankings.
Since Google is the number one source of organic search traffic,
webmasters panic when they realize that they have been hit by an algorithmic
update. However, closing your affiliate program as soon as you see a drop in
organic traffic doesn't help. In fact, for many sites hit by the Google penalty,
their affiliate program may be their only lifeline.
Many webmasters who run affiliate programs got hit by recent Google Hummingbird
updates. Needless to say, many of them are eager to wrap up their affiliate
program. They suspect that they will get hit again if they don't close the
program. They are also too busy trying to recover from the penalties that they
have no time to work on their affiliate marketing efforts.
Analyze your affiliate
conversion rate
If you run an affiliate program and has been hit by a Google penalty,
the first thing you need to do is to look at your affiliate conversion rate. If
that remains steady, you need not worry. Affiliate traffic usually comes from
your affiliate websites. Interestingly, this has hardly anything to do with a
site’s search rankings. Even if your search rankings drop, your affiliate
traffic will remain unaffected. On the flip side, if the affiliate sites that
drive traffic to your site, too, have been hit by a Google penalty, you will
probably see a drop in traffic. However, this is not something you can control.
Unless you see a substantial drop in affiliate traffic or conversion rates, you
have no reason to stop your affiliate program.
Remove unnatural links
Google's Hummingbird update is targeted at websites that use spammy
link building practices. So if you have a large number of incoming links with
exact match anchor text, you are likely to be hit. Other tactics that might
invite a penalty are excessive use of keywords and duplicate content. If you
see a substantial drop in search traffic you will need to analyze your link
profile and remove as many unnatural links as you can. This could improve your
search rankings. You must also try and remove all duplicate content on the
site.
No-follow affiliate links
Too many affiliate links on your site can harm your search rankings. So
if you use affiliate links don't forget to no-follow or cloak them. This will
protect you from a Hummingbird penalty. When you no-follow a link, you don't
pass link juice to it. Generally speaking, all affiliate and sponsored links on
your site should have a no-follow attribute to them. Affiliate links are
essentially paid endorsements. By making them no-follow, you are adhering to
Google Webmaster guidelines and saving yourself from Google's wrath.
So if you have been hit by a Google penalty, don't stop your affiliate
program. Instead, spend more effort and time on getting more sales and traffic
from affiliates. When your Google rankings drop, customers referred by your
affiliates can compensate for any loss of organic search traffic and income.
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