Google doesn't tolerate affiliate websites?

[Perffy]

Hey guys,


I have contacted one SEO agency today about taking care of one of my sports affiliate websites.
They told me honestly that I need to decide if that is a good idea, because Google is planning to reduce the exposure of such website in the search results rankings.

Do you have such information and if yes, approximately when will this happen?

[gil.langelaan]

They do not want to get a new competitor

But if take it seriously of course it could happen after an upcoming Google update, but overall I think it worth working on it.

[Perffy]

If they don't want to have a new competitor is ok for me, just i am worried for such an update from Google, or the other thing this agency is not sure that they can handle a website in such competitive niche?

[gil.langelaan]

Find a new better agency)
Of course, this niche is VERY competitive but the revenue is good too

[Michael Martinez]

Google has no problem with well-done affiliate sites. Every good SEO service provider knows that.

[mickyfu]

They have literally been doing this for years. There are plenty of casino niches where you barely see an affiliate site till page 3.

[econfox]

Google stays out of sports betting / casino competition where it isn't legal.
However, once it is legal Google does have the ability to manually adjust websites for "quality".

If your sports sites are aimed at the US then the agency may be right. There are big corps getting into it because it is becoming legal. Once they jump in the they will dominate the rankings. These big corps own thousands of sites and will build a big backlink profile to sports betting content using their news websites. They can also scrape your site and rank higher for the content.

And, last of all. Since they are big advertisers on Google they will complain about "spam" content ranking above them to Google executives who will then have Google employees review the sites for "quality" and make manual adjustments.

Content is king = BS
Google making money is king = true

[rmeeuwsen]

Google stays out of sports betting / casino competition where it isn't legal.
However, once it is legal Google does have the ability to manually adjust websites for "quality".

If your sports sites are aimed at the US then the agency may be right. There are big corps getting into it because it is becoming legal. Once they jump in the they will dominate the rankings. These big corps own thousands of sites and will build a big backlink profile to sports betting content using their news websites. They can also scrape your site and rank higher for the content.

And, last of all. Since they are big advertisers on Google they will complain about "spam" content ranking above them to Google executives who will then have Google employees review the sites for "quality" and make manual adjustments.

Content is king = BS
Google making money is king = true

You have such a negative attitude toward the motivations of google and the intent of other large corporations - one which I AGREE with 100%

The whole thing about a free and open business environment in the US appears more and more like a mere scam to keep the "little people" happy and content thinking that they really have a chance to succeed. Sure, some do - but the rest "buy into" the BS being spread around and go merrily on their way while toiling away fruitlessly for some pipe dream.

[Michael Martinez]

Hey guys,


I have contacted one SEO agency today about taking care of one of my sports affiliate websites.
They told me honestly that I need to decide if that is a good idea, because Google is planning to reduce the exposure of such website in the search results rankings.

Do you have such information and if yes, approximately when will this happen?

To answer your question more directly, Google has no specific plan to dump or downgrade sports affiliate Websites from/in their search results.

It sounds like the SEO agency you contacted is spewing nonsense about E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) - a concept that has been taken out of context by many SEO agencies.

E-A-T is an eyeball methodology for judging the quality of the Websites that are shown to Google's Quality Raters. These are contract workers hired by external agencies. They are shown 2 example search results for a query, side-by-side, and must score the quality of the search results, providing feedback to the Google engineers.

The ratings are not used to determine the rankings of any Website. They are not used in any scores assigned to Websites. The Quality Rater syste is used to provide blind study feedback to the engineering teams on the results produced by their algorithms.

Some members of the SEO community took the Quality Raters Guidelines document that explains to the raters how to assess the quality of the sites they are shown, and turned that document into the source of a completely nonsensical theory about an imaginary Google E-A-T algorithm (using also imaginary Google E-A-T scores).

Google has repeatedly explained what the quality raters do and how the guidelines don't in any way describe or relate to any of Google's selection, scoring, or ranking algorithms. That hasn't stopped people from spreading the myth.

Google has also repeatedly explained that the quality raters don't in any way affect the way the live search system algorithms select, score, or rank Websites. That hasn't stopped people from spreading the myth.

Any SEO agency that claims there is such an algorithm, or that Google plans to downgrade affiliate sites at some date in the future is either lying or doesn't know what it's talking about.

Google HAS striven to promote brand Websites above affiliate sites in brand-related queries. They'll probably always continue to do that in the future.

There are, in fact, many sports betting queries that are dominated only by affiliate sites and not by the sports betting sites themselves. They're not brand-related queries - and Google resolves those queries according to the principles they have advocated for years.

It's true that some companies bring a lot of Websites into play. Whether they own them or lease links from them doesn't matter. They count on links from a large number of domains to help their rankings.

Google claims they ignore many of those links. While a lot of people remain skeptical about how good Google is at doing so, we have plenty of publicly verifiable evidence of Google's past campaigns against paid links. Thousands of sites lose rankings or are cast out of the index for buying and selling links every year. We know Google CAN detect at least some spammy links.

Reliable SEO agencies acknowledge the competitiveness of queries, the influence of links, AND the value of highly informative, useful content that earns a lot of traffic. They don't invoke VooDoo SEO mythologies to explain away people's lost rankings.

[wonderpunter]

Hey guys,


I have contacted one SEO agency today about taking care of one of my sports affiliate websites.
They told me honestly that I need to decide if that is a good idea, because Google is planning to reduce the exposure of such website in the search results rankings.

Do you have such information and if yes, approximately when will this happen?

Where did they get this info from?

[Nocturnalant]

Hey guys,
...
They told me honestly that I need to decide if that is a good idea, because Google is planning to reduce the exposure of such website in the search results rankings.
...

It already happened with May core update 2020, most of affiliates has suffered. And it won't be easier in the future. But it should not stop you.

[Perffy]

Thank you guys. You helped me to make my decision

[mickyfu]

The kind of people who run "SEO agencies" are the kind of people who 99.999999999999999% can't rank a website. I'd take their information with a pinch of salt. Although I don't disagree because this has been going on for many many many years. I think the reasoning behind it is a "I told you so" when you fail to rank.

I certainly would not trust any "SEO agency" whose site ranks for FA.

[rmeeuwsen]

The kind of people who run "SEO agencies" are the kind of people who 99.999999999999999% can't rank a website. I'd take their information with a pinch of salt. Although I don't disagree because this has been going on for many many many years. I think the reasoning behind it is a "I told you so" when you fail to rank.

I certainly would not trust any "SEO agency" whose site ranks for FA.

Absolutely!

In addition to people that really know how to do things, the world of consultants and experts is full of charlatans, smooth talkers and snake oil salesmen. I don't know who your SEO consulting is - they may be good or they may be full of BS.

One of my cohorts and I in my old corporate life we're discussing the seemingly constant procession of consultants and experts being hired by our firm - we came up with the joke that always cracked me up - “What are you take me for? (ie. fool, gullible) ?

The response “5 Grand, minimum”

( I guess you had to be there)

[chaumi]

The kind of people who run "SEO agencies" are the kind of people who 99.999999999999999% can't rank a website. I'd take their information with a pinch of salt. Although I don't disagree because this has been going on for many many many years. I think the reasoning behind it is a "I told you so" when you fail to rank.

I certainly would not trust any "SEO agency" whose site ranks for FA.

You wouldn't have to go a million miles from this forum to find an SEO 'agency' that will 'work' (no, I'm not associated in any way).....and there are others....

But.....

These are the type that don't have to rank
I don't know for sure...but some may not even want to ( I can explain that if it needs explanation)

But agreed...and this is what I think is really being referred to.....any of those who cold spam (you know the 5-15 a day you get) are obviously worthless...+ agreed, many others too.

The stuff even the 'good' agencies do is nothing you couldn't do (well) yourself/in-house, provided you have:

the time, knowledge, experience, guile, contacts, access (and maybe 1 or 2 more)

Bottom line is...there are some 'good' firms...but they will cost you (and rightly so)