Is this now considered a thin affiliate?

[MattLG]

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I have been running interhike.com for 10 years and I've been steadily growing my visitors and search engine rankings. It started out as just a camping site directory, then I started selling camping equipment through it, then I discovered that it could earn more as a price comparison service for other retailers' products (through affiliate links).
This has been working fine for several years, until January 26th, I lost about 80% of my Google visitors and loads of my well ranked terms are now down near page 20. I've clearly been penalised for something.
I removed all sitewide links in case they were assumed to be paid links. All other external links I added a rel="nofollow". I've removed any duplicate content by forwarding all subdomains to "www" (I had some different content including translations and different product lists for different countries).
But still no luck.
All I can think of is that I'm not being considered a "thin affiliate" and penalised accordingly. Does this site look like a "thin affiliate"? I had assumed that using many different affiliates for a price comparison was considered "thick" enough. Is this not the case?
Are there any obvious things I can do to thicken it up other than writing loads of articles and reviews on the products?

Cheers

MattLG

[Elaine]

That site is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in the outdoors - and easy to get around and a heck of a lot of hard work has gone into it.
But, at first glance, there is an awful lot of repetition and lists and lists and lists - there is unique content, but you have to click to find it - maybe Google has turned up some type of filter and you've fallen foul - I don't really know.

I would viist your Google webmaster central and request a site reinclusion explaining the steps you've taken - you could also find lots of helpful information there, which may help - pages not being indexed, what Google sees as your main keywords etc. Check out Matt Cutts on Youtube - he has made some helpful videos explaining reinclusion requests.
If you're still ranking for certain pages/keywords can you pinpoint any differences between those and the pages that have fallen? Did you do or change anything in the weeks preceding your downfall - this has happened to me a few times and every time it is something I've done and been able to rectify!!

Good Luck

[MattLG]

Hi Elaine,

Thanks for your comments and your help.

What do you mean by repetition and lists?

I requested a reinclusion about a month ago after backing out all of the changes I made in the preceding months before the rankings dropped. I just got a reply back saying that it had been processed, but there haven't been any changes to the number of visitors I'm receiving.

The camping site directory section seems to be ranking reasonably, although not brilliantly. It still seems to have taken a hit along with the camping/outdoor equipment section. This section is the focus of my attention as this has been the main money earner. I get the feeling that Google is now seeing this section as a list of affiliate links without any value. I'm in the process of adding a product reviews facility to it, and also buyers guides on each product category page. I'm hoping this will "thicken" it up.

I'm still ranking well for a few key terms like "self erecting tent", "40l rucksack", "camping bed", "beach shelters". But then even for similar terms, I'm right down near the 20th page. I can't really see much of a correlation.

For example, I used to rank well for "camping beds" (plural) but now this is on page 10, despite the singular being on page 1. I just don't get it.

Many thanks

MattLG

[boxfish]

Take a look at this:

Linking To Affiliates? Better Nofollow Those Links or Google Will Penalize

I'm not saying it's the answer but it's certainly relevant

[MattLG]

Yep, I've already done that. If you spot any I've missed, please let me know.

Cheers

MattLG

[boxfish]

Yep, I've already done that. If you spot any I've missed, please let me know.

Cheers

MattLG

I've just counted 20 on your homepage, sorry 18, all your distcount code section.

[MattLG]

Bugger! Thanks. :-D

MattLG

[Elaine]

re 'no follow' - although this is automated for me now ( since I had the site professionally redesigned) it never had any impact on my listings when they were plain simple affiliate links. The reasons we use 'no follow' now is simply that maybe it's best not to draw attention to those links in case they are construed as 'paid links'.

If you're still ranking for certain pages and keywords I very much doubt that it's a penalty, it is probably a change in the Google algo which is tripping you up - which is a good thing - but the devil itself to sort out. This has happened to me with certain keywords over the last few years - couldn't get them re-ranked for love nor money. I've simply ensured that I've written unique product description - at least a good couple of sentences, used as many variations and synonyms of the main keywords over the whole page, and kept one eye on the keyword density and placement on page. I've not agonised over this just had a look at the cached version to ensure there's a good spread and Interlinked between relevant pages and products - and those pages/keywords are slowly coming back - there's no quick fix, unfortunatley.

re the lists - the first few pages are all simply lists:- home>girls clothing>ski jackets
I've just discovered the 'show image' button - I'd simply show the images and descriptions as default!
there's quite a few images missing - maybe this is something that Google doesn't like and the text is not showing correctly - re this page
Interhike Life Venture Sleeping Bags - Compare Prices

just checked this page Interhike Tents, 4 Person Tents - Compare Prices - and you don't appear to have the keywords '4 person tents' within the body - it's in the breadcrumbs and the title - I use the 'find in page' function to determine where my keywords are .
Good Luck

[boxfish]

Agree with elaine about showing the descriptions as default.

I used exactly the same method on my ecommerce site to tidy up the homepage. The site was fine for a few months and then dropped down several pages.
It stayed there for about 2 months as I was waiting for it to bounce back up. I then got tired of waiting, made the text display as default and my rankings came back within a month.

[dc000000]

I would start adding some relevant content to your main pages in order to add some substance - if you can afford to get a few pages professionally written then so much the better.

I think what has happened is that the algorithm has kept evolving and you have been caught resting on your laurels - something we are all guilty of at times (well I am anyway)?

[MattLG]

I've been trying out this tool: http://www.seopenalty.com/
It says that both my site, and one of the sites that I link to have high penalties. Now I have no idea how accurate this is or what criteria they are using to decide the penalty.

I added a nofollow to the offending link and requested a reconsideration (along with a load of other things I'd "corrected"). The reconsideration has now been completed but I've not notice any increase in visitors. Is it possible that I'm being penalised for linking to a bad area even with a nofollow? I thought nofollow would avoid a penalty.

Many thanks

MattLG

[dc000000]

I think that tool tells everyone they have a panalty tbh mate. I've sen it referred to many times.

I don't think you have any major problems - just a lack of content.

[giveasyouget]

Doing a quick search on

site:interhike.com -site:www interhike com

you can see that there is plenty of duplicate content still indexed by Google - subdomains for various countries that looking at the cache is or is almost identical to the main site. This now 301 redirects to the www version of the website which is good, but seeing the cache dates were '28 February' this obviously didn't happen until quite recently.

I wouldn't rush to change too much on the site - I think given time - maybe another 3-6 weeks - this problem will go away naturally. The fact that it still ranks for some terms shows it is not penalised and I doubt a reinclusion request will make a difference so I wouldn't panic, just take a deep breath and find something else to do for a bit!
Cheers,
Jonny

[MattLG]

Yes, I had started doing those country subdomains with the intention of providing different content for each country, but it ended up taking much longer than I expected. I killed these subdomains a month or so ago and resubmitted the sitemaps. But I never thought to check that they'd actually been reindexed.

Is there any way that I can speed up reindexing of these pages?

> I wouldn't panic, just take a deep breath

Hehe, much easier said than done. I'm sure I've gotten more bald over the past couple of months :-)

Cheers

MattLG

[giveasyouget]

Google's crawl speed is based on its view of the importance of a page or site - there's not a huge amount you can do to speed things up but fresh, good quality links may help. Problem is as duplicate pages aren't seen as high priority it may still take some time!