Hello, I have all of my mini-sites hosted with Homestead. They recently sent out an e-mail warning of a Google slap that will be coming shortly. Here's a link to the article: http://homesteadwebsites.blogspot.com/2009/02/whats-google-doing-in-may.html They're saying many sites will be affected, but the one I'm particulary concerned about is "sites designed for the specific purpose of selling other people's products, a/k/a affiliate sites." I am using mini-sites to promote Clickbank products, each site dedicated to that product. The home page is basically a review of the product with links to the publisher's site. I have all of the required contact, site map, disclosure, disclaimer, et cetera. I also have pages with related articles. I'm using Adwords and some article marketing. I'm not getting rich but I've built it up to where I'm making a profit of $500 to $800 a month. Several of my sites are ranked on page one of Google for the keyword of that particular product. I'm concerned that all of my hard work is going to go down the drain. Do you think I have reason to be concerned? If so, what direction should I take to prevent being slapped? Thanks
??? 1st. that is not a blog by the owners of Homestead. 2nd how the hell would they know what google would be doing 3 months in advance ? 3rd stop reading spammy blogs.
It is highly premature and very early to comment on what google is going to do in May....But I consider this action highly unlikely...simply because the only two purpose with which websites are built are spreading out information and making sales.... If they plan to ban all websites set up with the second objective, half of all the websites would be off their list! Regards, RightMan
i don't believe they would actually ban affiliate sites - sites with adsense are not that much different from affiliate sites, so they would have to slap those sites too
this month G already slap many sites (mass out of index) in one of the big niches but nobody crying.... if you fear from bears don't go to the wood
You guys should not take this thread lightly...Here's another Internet post on Twitter that is addressing the same information about the upcoming Google Slap in May. http://twitter.com/Ryan_A_Hughes Ben Hart, who is a very reputable name in Internet marketing, has been personally communicating with Google about what is getting ready to happen and he held a tele conference last night where over 1600 people were listening. This is not a spammy false alarm
Just curious, how far in advance should a company that is worth over 150 billion dollars that spiders over 500 million websites plan to make a major change in how they determine who is going to be at the top of the search results. My guess is that they have no less than a ten year plan with dates for when they will be cleaning up the search results pages. People who live pay check to pay check never plan but a company worth 150 billion dollars...
I agree, but sites need to have a way to earn, before adsense, all sites were not able to get paid ads. Therefore, a personal blog sites idea was not much interesting as it is now. Now, most of sites are at least have a way to income, does not matter if they can use it or not.
Alot of that article makes sense, BUT... Here is the thing, those changes are most likely to affect google in a negative way aswell. Most large brand sites dont use google adsense, and its the longtail effect that adsense works best on, removing traffic from the many millions of sites that produce the adsense income will damage Google more than anyone else. I would have faith in them being to selfish to cut their own income stream off in exchange for better public search results? Your thougts please