Google Ain’t Playing Around

In yesterday’s blog post I talked about Google’s latest spanking episode and what it might mean for webmasters going forward.

After a little more digging around today, I confirmed one thing…

Google ain’t playing around.

The pimp slapping of weak affiliate sites is something I have been forecasting for a long time now, but it always seemed like Google was dropping the ball.  In achieving all of my top page one rankings across so many different websites and niches, I’ve spent a lot of time in the trenches, reverse engineering how various sites were getting their top spots in good old Google.

Time after time I was shocked and disappointed that spammers seemed to still be cashing in.

But finally, Google seems to have cracked the code.

Because websites are dropping like flies.  I checked in on some of my old, thinly built affiliates sites earlier today — these sites have had top three rankings locked up for many months.  They hadn’t budged.

Until today, that is.

A couple of them had dropped just a few spots to the bottom of page one, while one other site fell back to page two.

I also had a new affiliate site promoting a physical product that was locked in at the number one spot for the past couple weeks, then viola, it got slapped back to page SIX.

Very uncool, but an oversight on my part.  To be honest, I just got busy and forgot to add fresh content to it.  As much as I hate to admit it, I deserved what I got.  The only value the small three page site served was that it stood to make me a lot of money.

As I’ve been preaching for a long time now, that stuff won’t cut it anymore.  You’ve got to focus on building a real business, as opposed to just looking for opportunities to make money.

Online Marketing Has Evolved, Big Time

The days of building a website simply because you found a “good keyword” are gone.  Forever.

If you’re wondering if your affiliate websites are at risk, ask yourself this: “Do my sites offer anything substantial above and beyond what visitors could find on the actual vendor’s site?”

For example, if you’re promoting physical products on Amazon, that’s cool and all… but what are you publishing on your site that the end user couldn’t already get directly from Amazon?

In most cases, the answer is nothing.

So, in the eyes of Google, the obvious question is: “What good are you?”

And if there’s no decent answer to that question, then a simple solution is to remove you from the organic rankings — or at least bury you back on page whatever so you’re not in the way.

This is huge.

I guarantee there are thousands of affiliate marketers right now who’ve just seen their entire online income go down the toilet. 

Don’t make the same mistake.

Stop looking for the next trick, tactic or loophole and start thinking and acting like a true Internet entrepreneur who actually brings something unique to the table.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with some Google-proof steps you’ll want to implement to avoid losing your ass ;-)