SEO EFFECTS OF SENDING TRAFFIC TO AFFILIATE PROGRAMS IN "BAD NEIGHBORHOODS"
Anyone who already knows what the letters S.E.O stand for should also already know that the links you give to other sites are at least as important as the links you get from other sites, in determining your treatment by the search engines. Some say, more important. This is certainly not a new idea. But it is, without question, an evolutionary development in Web search, and one that reverses previously held beliefs. In the early days of SEO, more was more. To have many links from other sites, generally meant you were deemed a site of importance, you got a high page rank, and you got traffic. But, as we are all aware, the activity of SEO spammers necessitated a change. The original algorithm was essentially a mathematical formula. As such, it was vulnerable to the kind of duping that protracted analysis of any input-output system would ultimately yield. Pioneered by Google, the search engines have today shifted over to a different system that combines mathematics and human subjectivity. Page Rank has been replaced by Trust Rank, and purported SEOs of the world (both ethical and not) have undertaken the much more difficult task of winning the favor of the search engines with trust.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a paper titled "Creating Opportunity within Trust-Based Commerce Models", in which I made a logical argument for the imminent proliferation of trust throughout electronic commerce, and broadly sketched out the ways in which the overall trust scheme might work. In a nutshell, I am asserting that the essential trust-basis of Google's Trust Rank is going to spawn all kinds of new checks and balances that will collectively answer the low degree of consumer trust and rescue the medium for legitimate business.
I'm working on a second part to that, where I'll begin to suggest some specific areas of opportunity, both for existing businesses that want to get ready for a trust-based e-commerce universe, and for prospective businesses looking to provide a piece of the new trust infrastructure. As I was thinking about change and opportunity, it occurred to me that there are going to be significant consequences to the affiliate marketing community, comprising both affiliates and sponsor programs, when a trust-basis becomes more prevalent.
In the adult industry, as I'm sure must be true outside the adult industry, there seems to me to be a kind of odd blindness among senders of traffic. I see these guys with their fancy, well-ranked, well-indexed TGPs being so careful and selective when deciding which other sites to trade links with. Some require minimum PR from the prospective link exchanger, and in some cases the requirements go even higher and the scrutiny is even deeper. That is 100% correct, and exactly as it should be. But what has got me scratching my head at the moment, is that all of that concern and control goes out the window when it comes to the selection of sponsor programs. I see folks acting as if a link to a program's site is somehow outside the same system of assessment and judgement that applies to links to other sites. This simply isn't so, and moreover, the selection of sponsor program is going to become critically important.
From Google Information for Webmasters:
"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or 'bad neighborhoods' on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links... more
You can't for moment believe that Google is talking only about other free sites when they tell you to avoid bad neighborhoods. This comment I found in Google Groups fairly sums it up:
"...it IS possible that your site(s) CAN be penalized or banned entirely from Googles index for contributing to a linking scheme with a bad neighborhood. It is also impossible to know if something is a "bad neighborhood" until it actually DOES affect your position. At that point, it's a bit too late to worry about removing the links, isn't it? The pagerank algorithm also has what some call "seepage" where a page diminishes its own PR value by linking out to sites that have nothing of value. This could cause your pages to effectively link themselves straight out of position... more
Among other subordinate factors, I think most webmasters send their traffic to the programs that offer them the best return on their traffic. That has made sense for a long time, and I am certainly not one to diminish the importance of getting paid. But, things have changed. And they are going to change a helluva lot more. The e-commerce universe is going to rapidly fractionate into two camps: the trusted and the non-trusted. For SEO people, the effects of those changes are arleady a matter for daily concern. But the writing on the wall speaks more broadly than just to SEO.
We are, all of us who make web pages, going to have to consider everything we do very carefully from now on. Trust is going to become so important as to determine the basic viability of some businesses. The parties you choose to do business with will reflect on your own trustworthiness. Choose them wisely. Choose based on trust.
As a fun experiment, try replacing all the links to one of your sponsors for another. See what happens. You might be amazed. I'll give a forlorn webmaster the last word...
"Okay, I know you can expect some fluctuation in PR rank, but can someone explain to me how I can go from a PR4 to a PR0?!? I don't understand this! Is there any way I can have someone review my site and tell me if there is something wrong? I had started this site as an ezine for horror, goth and fetish scenes, but am adding a paysite with adult material. Can this be affecting rank? What about switching hosts? I would post the URL here but I'm not sure I can as there is adult material. Can I email a google person privately... more