Google lately rolled out ‘site reputation abuse policy’ and this resulted with shockwaves for the affiliate marketing community. The policy was announced earlier in March and since then it has been a concern for affiliate marketers. Now, with full implementation, the effects are being felt.
Google initially alerted that news sites equipped with third-party coupons could be flagged as spam. It raised concerns among voucher code platforms. But Google later clarified that the news sites which are actively involved in producing coupon content would not be penalized.
Meanwhile, Global Savings Group, Savings United and other such leading companies expressed their confidence and cited their strong partnerships with both publications and publications as protective factors.
However, following the rollout on May 5th many news sites witnessed their coupon directories getting disappeared from Google Search results. Daily Mail, Metro, The Mirror and other large publications are impacted heavily.
SEO Consultant Carl Hendy found in his research that significant effects have been witnessed on affiliates in various countries. The Sun and other prominent players blocked their coupon subdomains to evade crawler of Google Search. Glen Allsopp from Detailed.com also stated the same widespread impact on news sites equipped with coupon codes.
Google’s approach appears broad and disruptive. It is affecting the entire industry. The move is seen favoring first-party publishers of coupon codes as they are now performing better in search results. Some expert states that the latest actions of the search giant is anti-competitive and may lead to legal challenges from affiliates.
Moreover, the update is part of a broader trend of declining SEO visibility for affiliate publishers. Lily Ray from Amsive shared data revealing significant drops in SEO visibility for affiliate sites between September 2023 and April 2024.