Panda 4.0

[Rostick]

Hopefully it will weed out some more of the weaker/blackhat sites from the top results, and push us all up....and hopefully not hit us with some sort of penalty for something we thought we were doing right, but turns out not!

Indeed, that`s criminal. I would rather the updates not influence me at all (positively ore negatively) and I just grow based on time and work. To use ethical techniques, get penalized and don`t know why ... it`s a horror story for webmasters. Especially for the likes of me, who rely on 1 or 2 websites to make a living. I experienced it ~1month ago and I was so stressed out, luckily it was just something as a re-evaluation of my site.

[wettFORM.AT]

hi slotplayer, could you please let us know which traffic line this is?

[slotplayer]

sure that is from sem rush, just the free service.
Keep in mind that free service will only let you look at a couple sites then lock you out for a day or two.

http://www.semrush.com/

[Casinorep]

Looks like with release of Panda 4.0, all aff sites were dropped from first page on many competitive keywords!

[baldidiot]

Looks like with release of Panda 4.0, all aff sites were dropped from first page on many competitive keywords!

I wouldn't say that - I still have sites on the first page for key terms. I agree that as a whole the presence of aff sites on the first page has been toned down, but they're still there...

For example, in the UK results:

- 80% of 1st page results for 'free bets' are aff sites
- #1 result for 'online casinos' is an aff site (but admittedly the rest aren't)
- 70% of the 1st page for 'casino bonuses' are aff sites

and so on...

[Casinorep]

I wouldn't say that - I still have sites on the first page for key terms. I agree that as a whole the presence of aff sites on the first page has been toned down, but they're still there...

For example, in the UK results:

- 80% of 1st page results for 'free bets' are aff sites
- #1 result for 'online casinos' is an aff site (but admittedly the rest aren't)
- 70% of the 1st page for 'casino bonuses' are aff sites

and so on...

True.. But in the US, all aff sites listed on the first page for keyword "online casino" are gone...

[excel.ashutosh]

I think the laser targeted keywords in fresh content is the key to survive these updates...

[thebookiesoffers]

True.. But in the US, all aff sites listed on the first page for keyword "online casino" are gone...

to be fair to google though i can see why with that search, if i typed in 'online casino' I would expect to find actual online casinos in the SERPS not a loads of aff sites which I'd have to then go through to find the right casino.
different for other searches though like casino bonuses etc

[baldidiot]

True.. But in the US, all aff sites listed on the first page for keyword "online casino" are gone...

The singular terms have always been pretty operator heavy, as they probably should be. Using a proxy for the US it looks like there are three aff sites for 'online casinos' in the US on the first page of google (proxies aren't infallible so maybe someone from the US could confirm this?).

Like 'bookies said it better fits what the user is actually looking for. I've always thought singular = a casino, and plural = a guide to casinos anyway.

[RacingJim]

I think as per what a lot of people have been saying in SEO it's all about building a brand now. Google wants 'authority brands' and will rank them highly - this can include operators and also good branded affiliates like Oddschecker, OLBG etc.

These guys have 'a purpose' I suppose, they aren't just there as a middleman, I go to Oddschecker to get the odds and I used to go to OLBG to play the tipster competition. In doing this they probably have massive repeat visitor rates and high time on site etc. I think Google is starting to value these things just as much as inbound links.

The challenge for us affiliates now is to try and build our own authority brands, not easy at all, but that is where we are at I think. If Google decides you're just another middleman then it will rank you accordingly and my gut feeling is that they are going to start picking more and more on us (affiliates) as we go along in the next couple of years.

[mickyfu]

In my opinion Google Web Spam Team = Google Adwords Sales Team. Google say they are tackling spam? Bullshit, they are causing spam via NegSEO, they are pushing honest webmasters to make hit and run websites, as no one wants to spend their time making a nice pretty website, just so some little **** can come along and ruin that website in a couple of days with Neg SEO.

[Lottery Addict]

I haven't seen any movements so far either. Pays to play by the rules! The next update we can expect is the Penguin which usually rolls out (according to past trends) in May and October.