TRAFFIC
being taken out of their search results. So,
if you have even thought about also playing
the manipulation game, you would be well
advised to consider how you would like to
perform in the future too.
What does 2015 potentially hold
for affiliates?
Obviously knowing the stance that Google
are going to take on particular techniques
in the coming year isn’t as black and white
as saying: “stop doing that and do this
instead”. But there are a number of things
that we do know, such the need for unique
quality content on your site is never going
to fade, that back-link building is always
going to carry a risk regardless of how
or where you gain those links from, and
Google themselves are trying to better
understand user experience when it comes
to algorithms and indexing.
But even though we know all of that,
simply plying your website with great
content isn’t going to be enough to
secure your place at the top of the organic
rankings for competitive money terms,
something that Google have already
admitted, as they revealed that they
had trialled a ranking algorithm that
discounted links as a factor, admitting that
the results returned were worse than they
currently stand. This is a shocking claim,
when you look at some of the worst-hit
niches dominated by spammers, hackers
and rule breaking site owners.
However, what is certain is that Google
Panda will continue to police the quality
of your site, and that user focus is going
to become even more of a selling point
when it comes to earning trust with the
search engine. We also know that Google
Penguin is keeping a close eye on your
back-link profile, and that is something
that you should be replicating yourself if
you want to avoid the risk of falling into
algorithmic black holes. Finally, the way
in which your site is viewing online could
potentially become more of an issue than
it currently is right now.
Is 2015 too late to make a stand in
the affiliate space?
Sometimes I get asked whether I think
that there is still room for new sites in
various marketing spaces, and response
has always been that there is always room
for one m