It has now happned to me third time: I have removed one adsense ad and replaced it with an ad for a clickbank product. My site went from first position for a great keyword to fifth as soon as google reindexed my site. This has happned to me 2 times before. Afrer removing clickbank ad and placing adsense back again my site came back on top. What is going on here?? Does google prefer sites with adsense or does it not trust sites that link to affiliate products???? Anyone else experiencing anything similar?
It makes sense that Google tries to filter out websites with too many affiliate links. Too many affiliate links is often the sign of a spammy website. I'd be surprised if just one affiliate link triggered this filter, but perhaps you have that same ad on every page. I think you might have to use more creative ways to hide affiliate links, such as a redirect on your own website. You could block that redirect page via the robots.txt and with meta tags on that page.
That's weird, it never happened to me... it may also depend on the landing page. If Google considers it a "bad site", it may penalize you.
Google follow all kinds of links. Text links as well as image links (and you can add the nofollow attribute to both of them)...
That's really strange and never heard of any such penalty. Like others said, try adding a rel="nofollow" tag to the outgoing link.
no javascript here, just plain old img src and a href I have switched back to adsense, will report when google reindexes
I confirm, I definitely experienced the same trends. It has nothing to do with the page quality which is unchanged. Nofollow does not change the trends. Affiliation is an interesting alternative for google adwords. That is the only reason why your position in SERP goes lower
Google do prefer site with Adsense.. Keep adsense adds intact and learn preselling, do spread clickbank links in content.. this will maximize your return
I wouldn't be surprised to see a drop for an affiliate link - especially if the site you were linking too was of poor quality and not of a related theme to your site.
What would happen if you have both Adsense ads and an affiliate link on the site? In my experience sites with adsense on get indexed easier, but if they also rank slightly higher i don't know.
You went from a decent site to a thin affiliate site by linking to clickbank. Cloak your links and add content to pages.
I read about this. I'll try to find the link when I get home. It was explained as a "thin affiliate" penalty Google imposes if it thinks your site exists for no reason other than to promote affiliate programs. If this is being applied to you when you add your first affiliate program link that is alarming.
hey kard. World really is a small place and no, I won't sell you that domain you asked me about on ICQ do publish that link when you can
Google is very much concerned while giving links to other sites. It may arise suspicion like link selling and even if you do not regain in the SERP with rel=no follow tag, remove the ad if it is not worthy in comparison to your adsense earnings