Amazon Links destroyed my rankings, I removed them, will my site recover?
-
Hello,
Last week I got the glorious idea to put amazon affiliate links on my website. I didn't put a rel=nofollow on them or deindex the pages they were on.
Precisely I put some reviews and 10 different amazon links on one page and I put that into my navigation so all inner pages were linking to that page.
When Google crawled my page again, I had a 60% traffic drop.
3 days later when I found out what caused this (amazon links) I completely removed the site containing those links and removed all links to that page from my site.
Now my rankings are still down, will my site recover from this or is it lost? And how long would you think it'll take?
-
I attached a Graphic to this post so you can understand better.
The Day I added and removed the amazon links fit perfectly when the rankings go down- and up again.
Now what worries me and this is why I made this post: The rankings went down again just 2 days after "recovering" when I removed the links.
Is this still the side-effect of the Amazon links? The site got removed and is returning a 404 error but still most pages in the google cache have a link to that "bad" page.
Or do I have to worry about something else?
-
Whilst it is likely that the links had a negative effect, it seems unlikely that they would have had such a quick effect. Links via forums aren't the most "natural" of links so I wouldn't advise sticking to that. When you are building links, ask yourself "do the links look natural?" Make sure they fit in with the content of the website and make sure that the website you are linking from has some authority (look when the page was last cached) because if it takes Google months to visit the website then it will be months until your link is cached.
-
It suddenly happened after those links were inserted so I think that was the reason, I didn't do much else during that time, could you name a few things that could cause such drops? I created some forum profiles with my site's link a few weeks ago but I doubt that this caused such a drop.
-
If you're positive that your drop in rankings were because of these links and you've since undid what you did with those links, you should begin to see your site climbing back up after google crawls your website again.
You can never be sure when Google will crawl your website again so you need to be patient. I would suggest possible updating some of your pages and resubmitting your sitemap to tip them off that they need to come back for another crawl.
I would also be 100% sure that the amazon links are what was killing your rankings before taking any actions. There are several other reasons why you would drop like that.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Issues with centrally hosting your own affiliate links?
Can anyone see any issues centralising affiliate links across a network? Example - many of us would use some kind of redirect from our sites like abc.com/go/afflink1
Affiliate Marketing | | RaceMedia
bcd.com/go/afflink1 using either htaccess, php or javascript to redirect to the affiliate site But as your network of site grows - to change a link involves visiting 40 sites to change each of the files in the "go" folders. Would there be any net effect from using an otherwise vacant domain to host the links - so they only need to be changed in one place? Example
abc/go/afflink1 links to afflinks.com/1 which then redirects to affiliate site
bcd/go/afflink1 links to afflinks.com/1 which then redirects to affiliate site So all your links across the network for afflink1 would point to your afflinks.com/1 Any changes only require changes to one file afflinks.com/1 Assuming there is nothing else on afflinks.com - would there be any issues? Assume all links no followed and afflinks.com noindex. AND.... our redirects have been in place for some years using javascript,php or .htaccess. What is the current best practice for redirecting affiliate links?0 -
I need some feedback on the value of affiliate aggregators like Link Share
My company decided to start a Link Share affiliate program at the beginning of this year. I've had serious reservations about the value of the program since the beginning but was overruled. Here are my concerns: The majority of publishers seem to be coupon scraper sites or borderline link farms I am told the biggest revenue earners in our network are publishing articles about my company with links back to our site but if they are Google Alerts sure isn't finding them and a manual search hasn't turned up anything either. This makes me think these publishers are using some sort of unsavory way to drive traffic to our site or maybe even cookie traffic that was coming to our site anyway in order to get credit for the sale. Most of all I'd like to hear from anyone else who has used Link Share in the past. Secondly I realize there's not a lot of information here but I'm wondering if this passes the smell test for anyone else. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Affiliate Marketing | | eTundra0 -
Does an affiliate link bring the same SEO juice as a standard link?
I wonder if affiliate links, like the ones offered by Amazon Associates program bring the same SEO as would a link to the same page without this additional "ref=..."?
Affiliate Marketing | | maciek-0 -
Best Way for Resellers to Use Outbound Links to Software Demos
I have a software reseller site that wants to have ever-present linking buttons to demos of the software they sell--the demos are on their software vendor sites. My concerns relate to SEO and leaking link juice; but, also to constantly providing visitors with the exit door. What are the best practices for such a situation?
Affiliate Marketing | | Court_LOQUA0 -
Big Affiliate Site vs. Small In House Software For Link Value
Hi, I have a client who sells consumer products and is interested in affiliate advertising. Of course, they can get set up with something like CJ.com. They are also interested in possibly using some third party software to take their affiliate effort in house and be able to offer publishers simple urls. The idea is that this might help the link profile for SEO as well. Here are my questions: Does anybody have any experience with the complication level associated with third-party software for link value path? So, relative pluses and minuses. Can anyone recommend an affiiate software that is reliable and easy to use? Any opinion on one big site to go with... CJ, GAN, someone else? Thanks!
Affiliate Marketing | | 945010 -
Affilate links - Google Panda 2.1
With the recent update from Google Panda would links from affiliate Coupon Sites now have an negative impact in Organic Rankings or site value? A reason for this question is because many Coupon Sites usually have poor content and a poor quality score. Thanks
Affiliate Marketing | | Tonyd230 -
How to use different affiliate link based on geolocalisation in a Seo friendly way ?
Hi All, My website Sportytrader.com http://www.sportytrader.com/ works as an sport betting affiliate website on the french language markets. With sport betting legalisation in Europe, only people from France can play on french sport betting website. The same for Belgium or swiss. We have traffic from everywhere. So we need to geolocalize all our affiliate links to provide the right affiliate link to the right person in function of his location? What is the best way and the more seo friendly way to do that? Thanks a lot, Renaud
Affiliate Marketing | | jarnac0 -
Passing link juice via aff links?
Hi All, I know there was a recent post on this subject but I'm wondering if someone could take a look at these links and tell me if there is any SEO value in them at all and if not, what would be a way to improve them that might not be too much trouble for the affiliate? This URL: http://www.premiermodelskin.com/the-products/blemish-treatment has a Purchase button that passes product data (price, quantity, etc) directly to the basket of the host site (the site we want SEO benefit to). Using a form method to this URL: <form method="GET" action="<strong>http://www.monushop.co.uk/products/premier/blemish-treatment.html</strong>"> Qty <select id="add" name="add"> <option value="1" selected="selected">1</option> <option value="2">2</option> <option value="3">3</option> <option value="4">4</option> <option value="5">5</option> <option value="6">6</option> <option value="7">7</option> <option value="8">8</option> <option value="9">9</option> <option value="10">10</option> </select> 15ml £16.25 </form> My question is, does G see that form GET action as a followable link? If not what would be a better method? Any feedback much appreciated.
Affiliate Marketing | | lovealbatross
Cheers
J0