Comments on: White Hat Link Building Strategies To Grow Your Rankings and Traffic

By: Mike Khorev

Mike Khorev — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 15:03:19 +0000

In reply to Tristan.

Hi there Tristan, thanks for the kind words!

You are correct, Google might demote your site when it detected excessive use of affiliate links without any disclosure, and yes, it affects all sites and not only YMYL sites.

I haven’t really covered this topic with a blog post before (and I might, thanks for the idea!), but there are plenty of articles out there discussing “affiliate disclosure” or similar keywords/topics. In general, here are my tips:

You don’t have to mention a disclosure anytime you use an affiliate link. You can, for example, use a disclaimer that “this site receives compensation from the companies whose products we review” or something along that line on your site’s footer or header.
There are various WordPress plugins and tools that can “cloak” affiliate links
Just in case, you can add nofollow links to these affiliate links

I think that’s it, and hopefully it can help.

Thanks for your visit, and best regards,

Mike

By: Tristan

Tristan — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 15:02:58 +0000

Hey Mike,

Cool article, appreaciate it.

Interested in your comment above that including affiliate links (without full disclosure?) will affect ranking. Running an affiliate marketing blog myself and wondering whether this only applies to these “YMYL” sites or all websites in general? I kind of suspected that this might be the reason my site is not performing as intended, SEO-wise.

By: Mike Khorev

Mike Khorev — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 15:02:14 +0000

In reply to Marcin Adamski.

Unfortunately, you didn’t include the link to your site, and I’m not 100% sure how Google treats YMYL sites in Poland at the moment, depending on how tight the competition is in the region/area, Google might treat it differently.

However, I’m kinda sure that YMYL does affect your site’s ranking in one way or another, and you should, in general, improve your personal or brand credibility. Here are a few examples of how to do it:

Guest posting on relevant sites in your niche (in this case, Polish sites, but you can also aim for guest posting opportunities in US-based and international sites)
The quality of your content doesn’t lie. If your content is good and you can get backlinks from authoritative sites in the finance niche, you will get a boost in ranking
Also, pay attention if you include affiliate links on your pages. Be honest when you are using sponsored links, as Google can recognize whether you are making pseudo-claims or being honest about an affiliate link.
Link (external link) to relevant pages
If possible, get relevant influencers in your niche to promote your site

There are obviously more ways, only limited by your creativity, but hopefully, you get the idea.

Thanks and best regards.

By: Marcin Adamski

Marcin Adamski — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 15:01:47 +0000

First of all, excellent post, I think you covered some unique points rarely touched by others, and I was especially interested in the concept of “YMYL” site you discussed above.

I’m currently running a site in the finance niche (in local language, I’m Polish), but I’m not personally a certified financial planner. The site is fairly new, around 7 months, but I really struggled to climb up in ranking (even if there’s not too many competitions here). Do you think it might be due to this YMYL issue? Any tip about this if that’s the case?