Just wanted to write a quick post about some things I’ve noticed about the affiliate industry and SEO.
First of all, I think Panda (content quality, inbound/outbound links, content freshness, page structure, usability) is becoming increasingly important in SEO as Panda is being baked into the core algorithm on a bi-daily basis.
What I’m seeing more of nowadays isn’t necessarily pages/websites with the most links, but instead fresh pages on authority sites. Pages that get updated with lots of comments or forum threads for example continue to get pushed up the SERPs.
I’ve had a little experience developing non-gaming sites with premium writers, and I’ve got to say that it’s given me a fresh perspective to building sites in affiliate marketing. If I had to start again from scratch (which I’m sort of in the middle of doing having relaunched some Penguin’d sites on new domains) I’d do the following:
1. Invest in high quality writers and content. I’d probably expect to pay at least $0.05c/word for research-proof content where the writer is actively linking out to news sources and research or infpgraphics/illustrations to back up his point. You’re probably talking more along the lines of $0.05-$0.10 for really high quality stuff that you can build a brand around.
2. Link out naturally to authority sources. I see too many affiliates making the same mistake of just linking out to wikipedia or gamblers anonymous here or there. If you’re publishing high quality content and news than you should be linking out to sites which includes your competition. If the only content you’re interlinking to on your site is to your poker room reviews than clearly the rest of your "filler content" isn’t good enough.
3. Social media is important for brand building. I think if you run a dedicated news site than Twitter should be your most important traffic source. Anyone who claims to run a news site but isn’t active on Twitter is a fail in my book.
4. Buying links or guest posts on anything other than authority sites is now a big risk. You can even live with that risk, or go white hat, but you can’t complain about your site losing rankings if part of your strategy is violating Google’s core guidelines. You simple don’t have a leg to stand on if you get a manual penalty or get caught by one of Google’s algorithm updates. Personally, I like to submit my sites to a few high quality directories, try and grab some links of some friends, and a couple sites in my own network to build links. I also try and do outreach when I publish something news worthy or link bait.
Yes, getting natural links in iGaming is very hard but that’s why I now try to focus on the content side rather than spending time hunting for links. It’s also why I’ve tried to diversify outside of gaming. Also, older sites have a HUGE advantage because they’ve had more time to acquire natural links. Natural links can literally come from anywhere (re-syndication, testimonials, forum backlinks and profiles, GPWA listings, PR, etc).
5. I think usability and coding is becoming a lot more important. I think a page with dynamic table navigation, filters or videos will rank much better than a page that just contains written content. I’m not sure how this works but it’s a clear trend I’m seeing. Maybe it’s user metrics and dwell time but I don’t want to say this for sure, just that Google bots are getting better at measuring page quality.
In conclusion, I think don’t think old habits work anymore. Instead of creating a site with content and links, you need to focus more on content-driven value, usability, social and outreach. You also need to have the patience to wait 6-12 months for these benefits to pay off and for Google to trust your site and earn natural links. Even if you only receive 1 link per month which your competitors can’t copy, I think that’s a much more sustainable strategy than aiming to build 20 links within the first 2 months etc.
