Urgent Update: Did Google Just Bomb Review Landing Sites?

33 Comments on this post

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1. 
   Volomike said:

   I just got word about this from another AM friend as well. In other words:

   * Cloak those links — don’t have your review pages go straight to the pitch page because Google can scan that. Instead, it appears (for now) that you’ll be okay if you have your squeeze links go from the review page to a redirect domain, and then from there go to the pitch page.

   * Read up on what makes a good Google Quality Score and change your ways.

   * Bring up several large, broadly-targeted community portal sites with an attached forum, grow a community, and then slowly introduce a diverse set of ad techniques: PPC, CPM, and CPA. See what works best. Get backlinks out the wazoo. Set up free link exchanges occasionally where you can. Pay for ads on other places besides just the search engines. Increase your page rank (PR). It’s this kind of site that Google will appreciate more than review and squeeze pages.

   * Pick your offers carefully. If the offers pay well but have a cheesy pitch page or scheme, or have popups, popunders, close-page-grabbers, and other junk — there’s a reason those kinds of offers are trying to pay more — it’s because they suck at getting business. This is all part of improving your Google Quality Score.

   * And remember — Google can’t hurt us too badly because we give them money every day as we gamble on AdWords. They just want to improve the quality of searches and only send people to places of value — and that includes the ads.

   July 21st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
2. 
   Michael Grabowski said:

   I got banned from adwords and it was a blessing. i don’t worry about this sort of shit now.

   July 21st, 2009 at 7:15 pm
3. 
   Michael Grabowski said:

   uh why is my avatar of some guy i have no affiliation with? that’s messed up.

   July 21st, 2009 at 7:17 pm
4. 
   Kris said:

   @Volomike – Thanks for your input! Full of good info :)

   @Michael – Your avatar is based off of “mybloglog” check out what your avatar there shows. It pops up based on the domain you put in I believe.

   July 21st, 2009 at 7:42 pm
5. 
   Mikael @ Retire Early said:

   That might explain what happened to one of my sites. I just saw a huge decrease in traffic but had no idea why. I don’t get why Google would want to hit on affiliates though.

   July 22nd, 2009 at 12:33 am
6. 
   Volomike said:

   “I don’t get why Google would want to hit on affiliates though.”

   Just a guess…Because if they don’t maintain the quality of the search engine by showing relevant links and filtering out links to weak review pages, fake blogs, fake articles, or having ads to such as well — then they aren’t a really good search engine and those visitors will go elsewhere, which hurts them even more, especially in light of the fact that Microsoft wants to wipe Google off the face of the Earth or own it.

   July 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 am
7. 
   marcus@earn money from home said:

   Thanks for the warning. I will be sure to keep a close eye on my affiliate campaigns.

   July 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 am
8. 
   Massage Recliner Chair said:

   Damn Google, wtf are you thinking?

   I also heard Yahoo is planning to do a HUGE slap (including media buys) pretty soon.

   Us affiliates are being f**ked right now.

   So what’s left for us affiliates to do? If review-style landing pages are out, then what else can we do? Those were the most legit style that we could use, and now they’re being slapped.

   Besides the FTC being a b*tch, now Google and Yahoo doesn’t like us either.

   For real, what a load of B.S.

   July 22nd, 2009 at 8:30 am
9. 
   Kiley said:

   Google will ultimately pay for their smugness at some point. “Absolute power, corrupts absolutely.”

   July 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 am
10. 
    stan said:

    Wow, too much bad stuff on waking up early today, hah.

    Did anyone face this kind of Google hammer on your sites OR all this is based on that article on Perry marshall site.

    I received few emails including a teleseminar by Perry on his new course ” autoresponder maze” where he teaches List building etc.
    Hope it is just a coincidence that the article warns Affiliates on Review landing pages but encourage them to start LIST BUILDING. May be I am paranoid too. lol.

    July 22nd, 2009 at 8:46 am
11. 
    SlingBlog said:

    It pays to be Google free. I got sick of giving money to a company that was just going to continually slap me and create more work than is needed.

    July 22nd, 2009 at 9:07 am
12. 
    Andrew said:

    *Stan – Any information that Perry Marshall publishes, I take into SERIOUS account. He usually is the first to distribute any information about a change with PPC. Many times he will share a ‘heads up’ about issues way before they are even made public by the engines.

    I’ve also learned many tricks for PPC from his FREE web conferences that he holds regularly.

    And the G slap on review sites is not based on ‘just because he said it’. It is based on a census of many affiliates and friends of mine telling me the same story of how they are getting Slapped multiple times a week and/or banned.

    July 22nd, 2009 at 9:55 am
13. 
    stan said:

    Andrew,
    I believe you.

    so if someone is building legitimate content rich sites where LP resides, their a/c are getting banned and slapped.

    What is the solution in your opinion then?
    Thanks.

    July 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 am
14. 
    Volomike said:

    Here’s Google’s advice on QS, should you want to see it:

    Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines
    http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46675

    July 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
15. 
    stan said:

    thanks for the link ( even though I am aware of it) Volomike,

    then why google is slapping people who have created site with unique content in substantial way, not thin one page site, and doing everything to please Google.

    Your take on it.
    Thanks.

    July 22nd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
16. 
    Jacques Snyman | Website Design said:

    Thew nature of the game is to stay ahead at all costs, so it is great to get some real advise as to how to deal with this issue from Volomike. I especially like the “change your ways” recommendation…..good one!

    July 23rd, 2009 at 3:37 am
17. 
    Wedding Functions in Harbour Cruises said:

    Did anyone face this kind of Google hammer on your sites OR all this is based on that article on Perry marshall site.

    July 24th, 2009 at 4:30 am
18. 
    Ruri@Free article submission said:

    I also wondering why Google slap this kind of website. I do sometimes read product review in other website. Some of them are really good web review.

    July 28th, 2009 at 2:37 am
19. 
    Breaking News said:

    Thank you for the advice.

    July 29th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
20. 
    belajar wordpress said:

    I do not know about this issue, i will check.

    thanks

    david

    July 31st, 2009 at 12:57 am
21. 
    Daniel Wiafe said:

    @ those asking if anyone here got slapped: I got one of my HUGE campaigns slapped late on Thursday evening… and it was not a review style site or a scammy type of affiliate offer either.

    The site was content rich (about 40 articles on it)… with new articles added each week… and many pages of legit information.

    @ those who say it pays to be Google Free: I think you just might be on to something (o: — Last year, about 95% of my traffic came from Google & when I got slapped it HURT! Now, slightly over 50% of my budget comes from Google, so this slap isn’t going to hurt as bad.

    But yeah, I say its pretty beneficial to ramp up on other sources of traffic such as MSN, Yahoo, FB, and those other Media Buy type sources.

    August 1st, 2009 at 3:41 am
22. 
    Max Müller said:

    The German review sites are not affected yet.

    August 2nd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
23. 
    Bidet said:

    Wow thanks for the warning, its good to know in advance whats going to happen

    August 5th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
24. 
    Buy PSP Go said:

    I’m not surprised this is happening. So many ‘Mike’s Blog’ lookalikes.

    August 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
25. 
    AffPortal said:

    I have a feeling that this latest slap and banning from Google will result in slightly lower competition while everyone scrambles around trying to figure out what Google wants.

    There’s a good strategy I’m testing right now that I will be posting about if it converts and from all indications it will. It’s a spin on the mini site idea combined with building a network of interlinked sites (one way of course) that are niched way down and VERY specific. It took a little while to build the network but it’s looking good so far.

    Corey Bornmann

    August 12th, 2009 at 11:52 am
26. 
    Dyski said:

    Polish review site’s haven’t been affected either. Polish google is 3-5 years behind google.com :)

    August 13th, 2009 at 3:00 am
27. 
    make money online said:

    It will be bad for those who are owning such sites if this news comes out to be true..

    August 17th, 2009 at 4:05 am
28. 
    TI said:

    I heard about this issue, but fortunately I was spared this problem…..

    August 17th, 2009 at 7:30 am
29. 
    Computer Support Sydney said:

    Its new issue for me, I don’t know much about it and thanks for knowing me about this in advance.

    August 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
30. 
    List Building Blog said:

    I have never experienced this yet. But anyways thanks for reminding
    us about this cos I was never aware with this.

    September 8th, 2009 at 1:10 am
31. 
    Jay - DatMoney.com said:

    I think this is a good idea to start working with Yahoo and MSN instead of Google lol :D

    Jay

    September 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 am
32. 
    Get a flat stomach said:

    Thanks for the important information. If the news is true than it surely is going to complicate matters for the affiliates. I too have to keep a watch.

    October 12th, 2009 at 4:07 am
33. 
    Christopher said:

    google is messed up. Don’t worry about this. I’ve recently been given some filters on some of my websites for I dunno what – I just added some extra tags. They can sometimes get on your nerves.

    December 4th, 2009 at 8:57 am

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