Limit Affiliate ads to Half of Hubs in a Sub

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   Will Apseposted 10 years ago

   Google specifically recommends that:
   
   'Affiliate program content should form only a small part of the content of your site.'
   
   https://support.google.com/webmasters/a … 6465?hl=en
   
   A frenzy of adding Amazon ads to pages by people who have not given much thought to what is involved has the potential to be harmful.
   
   Limiting ad numbers on each page certainly helps but HP should think about allowing only fifty per cent of pages in any sub to carry affiliate ads of any kind.
   
   It will at least make people give some thought to what they are doing. They might even do some reading on the subject.

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      Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I totally agree. You should have posted this in the "suggest a new feature" forum

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         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Cardisa, I'm in the opposite camp.  I couldn't disagree more. 
         
         Lobobrandon has already quoted the important text:  "Typically, affiliate websites feature product descriptions that appear on sites across that affiliate network. As a result, sites featuring mainly content from affiliate networks can suffer in Google's search rankings, because they do not have enough unique content that differentiates them from other sites on the web."
         
         If a Hub has several hundred words of unique content, two or three Amazon ads  represent a miniscule percentage of the Hub so they wouldn't be any cause for concern.   Also, we don't use the Amazon product descriptions.

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            Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I felt stupid coming back to say I disagree. I agreed without checking the facts and misunderstanding the post....that's what I get for reading with a headache

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               Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I thought it was out of character!  Hope the headache gets better soon.

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                  Cardisaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Much better now, thank you I hate allergies, it's that time when my sinuses act up and my face and head hurts.

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      brakel2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      This piece points out an article about hiking in the Alps can have an affiliate ad about hiking boots. A question came up about this type of ad. This answers the question about what appropriate ads can be with article. Plus, it says it is better to use original content in your ad description. Thanks for the information Will.

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   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   Your post made my day. I'd already disabled the ads on several of my hubs. I'd done it based on my own, personal theory. Nice to know I'd gotten something right.

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3. 88

   lobobrandonposted 10 years ago

   As usual you got the message wrong Will Apse...
   
   Here's what it says: "Typically, affiliate websites feature product descriptions that appear on sites across that affiliate network. As a result, sites featuring mainly content from affiliate networks can suffer in Google's search rankings, because they do not have enough unique content that differentiates them from other sites on the web."
   
   That's not what we do here. People write their own descriptions etc. We don't just scrape Amazon Descriptions.
   
   "Affiliate program content should form only a small part of the content of your site."
   
   Well this is in case of the above said sites (Where they just scrape the descriptions) .

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4. 54

   janderson99posted 10 years ago

   This is perhaps the more significant update regarding ads above the fold - Top Heavy update. I have seen signs of my HP traffic (analytics) declining since Feb 6 2014, also Quantcast is showing signs of a decline.
   
   CPM has also fallen to lowest level this year! That is very worrying!
   
   http://searchengineland.com/google-upda … ads-183929

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      paradigmsearchposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Ya know what? I saw your post, and went and tossed out the ad at the top of my main website. Nobody was clicking on the thing anyway. This seems to have become my day for tossing out non-producing ads.

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      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      As I recall, CPM did the same thing last year; the first 2 or 3 months of advertising just wasn't paying much - not nearly what it was before the holidays.  I don't like it, but think it is pretty normal.

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      calculus-geometryposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It's worth pointing out the searchengineland page you linked to has two ads above the fold, and -- at least on my device -- gave me one of those obnoxious page full page pop-ups that dims the screen, whatever those are called.   HP just has two ads above the fold for non-logged in users. If HP has fewer ads than a page that talks about how having too many ads is a bad thing, I think HP is in decent shape in that regard.

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   janderson99posted 10 years ago

   Looks like the expected increase in CPM in Feb has failed. (4-day moving average)
   
   

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6. 88

   Will Apseposted 10 years ago

   Successful affiliate sites usually have sizable sections of info articles.
   
   The affiliate pages are separate.
   
   Have a look at Cnet if you want to see it done well. Plenty of news, howtos and original video.
   
   http://www.cnet.com/
   
   That is a model worth following in a subdomain here.

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