Google bans/sandboxes Affiliate Sites - True/False?!

This is funny...

I remember in 1998 - I've slapped a simple page and boy! I was #1 for years and it hit me like a ton of bricks to find out one day that I'm not there any more!

The only constant thing is a change, learn to adapt and get better.

Fuc* it. Although i havent been deindexed/sandboxed yet, but in one of my keywords, i just jumped from rank 1 to 3rd position. I spent half year to rank this site to the top, and only able to stay at the top for around 40 days. I hope i can be at the top again but definitely need to know if affiliate sites still have the sustainability it once had
 
@JackSparrow : well that means remove any affiliate link from the web, then how do you monetize it? :confused:

Exactly, they don't want you to make money unless you actually own and sell the product yourself.
 
A lot of the time people are actually LOOKING for review sites, for more information on the product. If an affiliate site is giving that information, then there is nothing wrong with that. If G was to punish all people who wanted to make money from a website that could work against them in the future. A lot less people would have motivation to make any quality websites.


Most of the time... searchers are NOT looking for review sites...
and when they are..... they want legitimate unbiased review sites.

if you are an affiliate for a program... there is a conflict of interest...
your site will be biased toward your product......

People and google do not want to hear bs madeup testimonials about how some product is so good... that they must buy it..
 
Hi, so basically sites like this page: http://www.shopinuk.co.uk/news/introducing/594/smartshopping-baby-clothes/ will be banned sooner or later?

My last amazon affiliate website is banned by google. Although content is unique, it's pretty short article. Each post describes about the product, it's kinda like an online store but I sell amazon products. If you are right, then there's no point for me to build another amazon review website with each unique 300-350 words review because Google doesn't like review website. What do you think about this website : http://www.besttoysguide.com/<-- it's a toy review website.

What about news websites? They post the same news in different style but still they provide the same information. Take a look at trendhunter.com, the writers of this website write only around 120-150 words each post for the same news which available all around the net. Yet, they don't get banned. There are a lot of websites like that. So, the reason from google webmaster forum members about short content web can get you banned is not really true.

Any suggestion what kind of website I should create in order to be able to monetize it with amazon?

I have amazon sites..... and they have not been deindexed....

I think that the amount of traffic that you get means something...

if you are a thin affiliate... but you get a ton of traffic.... then google show you some respect....because you are an entity that exists without them....

but if you are a thin affiliate.... and all your traffic comes from google...then they feel they that not only is your site not really contributing anything useful... but they are actually supporting you.... so they drop you..

I have no scientific proof for what i just wrote.... i am just theorizing...
 
Most newbs start with review sites & have affiliate links all over them so G knows what you're doing. Add other relevant pages such as features, FAQ, price comparisons, video demos (Find nice unwatermarked ones on youtube & embed or just 1 if that's all there is). This all bulks your site up & you can link main KW to main page for stronger on site seo.


this is what i would consider a trash site. seriously, what value do they add?

if i type in panasonic dmc-zs3 i want to find the camera

if i type in panasonic dmc-zs3 reviews i would be looking for reviews

in short, title your pages properly and you would, i'm guessing have far fewer issues.
 
I found a great page about this most worrying situation: http://www.affiliatestuff.co.uk/google/why-affiliates-need-to-be-better-than-merchants-2/

So, if your affiliate content were taken away, would a reasonably substantial website still be left?
Is your site a content-ized money site, or is it a monetized content site?
Is your site adding value to a user's purchase decision or experience, or is it just a bridge for you to make money?

I guess I've got to go and take yet MORE time to add stuff to my sites. I mean, if it's not enough ranking all of them, jeez...
 
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They should not ban you for being an affiliate site. Maybe just do a search for online malls. They are mostly affiliate sites, take a quick look at their pages and think of how you can promote your links in a similar way.
 
If you observe carefully.... google is catering to the searcher.....more and more.

When people google search...
they hate the search to come up with the list of "review","is so and so a scam", and any other info page that turns out to be a sales page. And usually NOT the sales page of the originator of the product.....
so google is working on getting rid of that.

some time ago... if you searched for a product say a camera..... you would
get list of Amazon affiliates selling that camera... all outranking even the home page
of the camera maker. We all know how google fixed that.... it labeled those sites as thin affiliate and dropped them like hot shit....

Google likes banners.... it does not like when you seem to review something but you are actually an affiliate. google does not like affiliates because people that search do not like affiliates either.

in the near future....
In my opinion.....
banners will be the only thing that google will allow on your site.
Why?... because if people search...
Google wants them to find the info they are looking for....
and if they go to your site...
and their interest is caught by a banner...
then they will click but that click will be out of the boundaries of the original search... and Google is okay with that.

Good info.
 
As google states here http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66361



Ban useless sites, i'd say yes. Logically because they don't provide a lot of useful information.
Ban all affiliate site? No, i wouldn't say they. I'd imagine they only use it as negative metric.

Good post, I was getting paranoid there.

The thing is, I have a decent amount of content, all unique on my sites, but who the hell knows what G will do next. Of course I have affiliate links on my sites, or else how the hell am I supposed to make money?

I think affiliate links are a good thing - it doesn't necessarily have to be a negative for Google. They can provide earnings which act as an incentive for webmasters to create and add more useful content, make their site better etc.

Everyone please read the following, straight from the same page:

There is no problem in being an affiliate as long as you create some added value for your users and produce valuable content that gives a user a reason to visit your site. For example, you could create product reviews, ratings, and product comparisons.
 
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I've had a bunch of sites in the sandbox but only one site deindexed. The site that was deindexed with just a thin affiliate site that was ranking on the first page.
 
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