'Thin site' - Amazon Affilate

R

Raubahn

New member
Sep 29, 2011
59
1
0
Hi guy's,

A few month's ago I created a site, threw a couple of 500-600 word articles on it (I try add one every month). I fully SEO Optimized it for 2 main keyword's which are quite easy to rank for. Everything was going fine, ranked at around 150 for each keyword, I then put an Amazon store on one of the page's which I intended on being my main source of income. It's been 3 month's now and I've not seen myself on the SERP's since?

If I search for my URL in Google I'm still there so I haven't been de-indexed, I'm guessing it's something to do with the Amazon store? Am I missing something here?

Thanks

- Forgot to mention, the SEO I run is manual commenting, a couple of wiki-pedia link's & Article building.
 


Define "I've not seen myself on the SERP's since" and everyone's opnions of "keywords which are quite easy to rank for" are quite different
 
kakaboo said:
Define "I've not seen myself on the SERP's since" and everyone's opnions of "keywords which are quite easy to rank for" are quite different
Click to expand...

Prior to the Amazon store, I landed on the SERP's at 200, 180, 150, 130 was my lowest according to SEscout. The week I added the Amazon store I vanished & haven't ranked since. I also forgot to mention I dance between 10-20 on Bing.
 
build more content, build more links.

Google has been hating on thin affiliates for a while now, so get fat.
(Neckbeard optional)

::emp::
 
1. Add more content (unique and related with your topic)
2. Add more links
3. Need lots of patience and little of luck.
 
Ok thank's guys. I'm working on a few more articles now - I'll keep everyone updated on it's progress.
 
Raubahn said:
Prior to the Amazon store, I landed on the SERP's at 200, 180, 150, 130 was my lowest according to SEscout. The week I added the Amazon store I vanished & haven't ranked since. I also forgot to mention I dance between 10-20 on Bing.
Click to expand...

Why would you even care if you're in 200th or 130th place? You may as well be de-indexed, as those SERPs literally have 0 traffic.
 
Google is against AStore sites. They are against thin affiliate sites and even if your site is a thick and valuable affiliate site, you are likely to get the slap in the long run.

Get rid of AStore and create real reviews and recommendations. Also I'd send the users to two pages minimum on my site before sending it to a third party website.

In case, Google makes the change and relies on bounce rate for ranking.
 
I added some affiliate datafeeds to five of my sites as a test, not on the front page but in their own folder.

Google pushed me so far down in the search results it makes me sick. I even sent the links through a out.php file and it still flagged me.

Pick any key phrase, as an example "mens boots" and review each of the top 50 websites listed. You wont find ANY sites with affiliate links in the top 40 results.

Google is brutal on sites that have Astore or affiliate links. You need to be able to get the consumer interested and then link them through an offsite page before sending them to the buy url.

Affiliate sites are competition for Google these days. They are not going to give you free traffic and have you take business from their own affiliate network.
 
Fastb said:
Pick any key phrase, as an example "mens boots" and review each of the top 50 websites listed. You wont find ANY sites with affiliate links in the top 40 results.
Click to expand...


Oh, you will. You'll find my sites. riddled with Amazon affiliate links. Not for that keyphrase, but for some very similar ones.

In saying that, many of my amazon sites HAVE been slapped. They are not thin sites though, they are jam packed full of products + descriptions (no articles). Basically, they look like an actual shop and not an amazon webstore, so much so i get emails daily by people thinking i'm the actual company that produces the items.


I just left my sites to stew for a while after the panda update. Didn't build any links... didn't do anything, i just concentrated on other sites.

I went from page 1 for a number of keywords -> PANDA update(s) -> Nowhere to be seen on SERPS -> a good few months later, Back to page 1.
 
Fastb said:
Affiliate sites are competition for Google these days. They are not going to give you free traffic and have you take business from their own affiliate network.
Click to expand...

Google affiliate network actually needs affiliates to pick up their advertisers' offers...
 
andyk said:
Google affiliate network actually needs affiliates to pick up their advertisers' offers...
Click to expand...

Certainly, but does that not give them a real incentive to pummel CJ, ShareASale, LinkShare affiliates in their listings?

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. I'm sure Google would tell you that they never take advantage of the fact that they own both the search results and one of the webs largest affiliate networks, but would you believe them?
 
SEO is a continuing process.If you want to stay on top, don't stop adding content and link build. I suggest you add one article a week and link build at least 5 a day.
 
Has anyone read this thread => http://www.wickedfire.com/affiliate-marketing/141324-proof-google-hates-affiliate-sites.html

If you read that thread and the guidelines document mentioned you get quite a good insight into the minds of the manual reviewers and potentially panda.

I only read the doc one time but my take on it is that:
a) thin affiliate = lazy affiliate
b) cloaked links mean nothing because manual reviewers look at the destination of the link and even the whois info of the 2 domains (the affiliate and the merchant)
c) every page on your site must be unique somehow (not available anywhere else)
d) affiliates can get bonus points by offering product comparisons, offering coupons, etc. In other words, what could you as an affiliate do to help a shopper that no merchants are really doing. Product comparisons is a good example. Search garmin gps models on Amazon and you will often see a large table comparing all the models. Not many merchants do this apart from the 'shopping.com' sites.

This is all speculation but I am planning on testing an amazon feed site. The content will be spun/re-written. The category pages will offer product comparisons and I will think of some more ways to offer 'value' over and above what other sites are doing.

JC.
 
Everything I've heard is that mini-sites are on the way out. I built about 10 of them (with Amazon offers) awhile ago and got as high as #7 or #8 for one of them. But I've come to the conclusion that any sort of success really is based on solid and consistent strategy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom