Content Is Important But Not King: This Is About Affiliate Links!
I know... most of us believe that inserting too many affiliate links in a post gets penalised by Google.
Well, this is what John Mueller (Google spokesman) says:
“There is no limit (for affiliate links). From our side, it’s not that we’re saying that affiliate links are bad or problematic. It’s more a matter of, well, you actually need to have some useful content on your page as well. So that’s kind of the angle that we take there... The amount of affiliate links that you have on a site is totally irrelevant. The ratio of links to article length is also totally irrelevant.”
So there you have it from Google themselves. Useful content is the key to success with search engines (especially Google).
So how do we determine that content is useful?
Well, I'd say that like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. The questioner decides. The person searching, votes with their fingers. They stay and read and click, or they leave with a click.
Now I have (arrogantly) stated a few times that content is not king (as popularly quoted) ... I've said a few times that I believe a "searcher's intent is king".
Google spokespeople are regularly reinforcing this point.
If you want to succeed with organic traffic, it's imperative to focus on the intention of searchers' queries.
If anything is king, it's the searchers' search!
You can insert too many affiliate links, but if your content is good enough, it may not matter!
Those who take this seriously have a good chance of succeeding online.
BTW... I didn't realise that Diane Scorpio was writing a post on the same subject at the same time from a slightly different angle... you can see Diane's post here:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/dianescorpio/blog/how-many-a...
Here endeth the lesson...
If you like what I say, that's great and I thank you... if you don't please feel free to respond appropriately. I thank you for reading and look forward to the discussion...
:-)
Richard
Recent Comments
102
Always remember who you are writing for and proceed accordingly. If you capture the reader's curiosity, he(or she) will wade through the links to the end. "Useful Content." says it all. Content is one thing, but if you want readers to stay and return, you must offer useful Content. Then consider How many links.
Thanks, Richard, for a useful post.
Thank you, Barbara, for an apt comment!
I rarely use the words good or bad, or right or wrong, because being useful (or not) is much more objective.
:-)
Richard
What I try to do is to provide a complete answer which would satisfy the reader's intent. I prefer not to add too many external links because I want my readers to stay on my site for as long as possible. So internal links I would use more generously. But good advice to know. Thanks Richard.
Hi Hugh
Thanks for responding.
I’m constantly keeping my eyes open for ways to simplify thinking about SEO. I think the plethora of SEO tools available has stimulated some overcomplicated ways of writing that are now largely unnecessary.
:-)
Richard
Great, Richard😃. This highlights the need to write for your target audience and nothing else in our blog posts, both content and links.
Write for another human being that is searching for something they need. Not for an algorithm. It goes hand in hand with what Partha has been saying in his blogs.
Roy
Great lesson. if we are not catching the reader by answering their search query then they will bounce.
If we have answered their query then they will stay for the curtain call.
It does not matter what else is on the page as long as we have captured their interest at the onset. Yes we must stay on topic and provide useful infornation. If we do they will stay to see what our conclusion is.
Good points added Alex! Thank you.
As you imply, in addition to answering a googler’s query, we need to construct our posts well for human interest.
:-)
Richard
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I loved your reply to one of these comments "...for ways to simplify thinking about SEO".
I believe the only way to simplify SEO is not to SEO as you are then wriitng for the search engine's benefit and not necessarily for your readers'
So, instead of SEO perhaps we should OFV (Optimize For Visitors)?
Good point 👍
Thank you Mary
Thank you for saying that Dom ... as you know, I agree with you!
:-)
Richard