The Google Review Process

On the very first day  Simon Leung did a presentation that was a biography of his work history with Google and a brief tease of what he would present on Day 2.   The tease was a 12 point list of things you need to know about how Google views affiliate marketing.  It was the information we all were interested in hearing.  Not necessarily because there would be anything earth shattering but just to confirm what some already knew or suspected.

One rumor or myth that was dispelled had to do with direct linking.  There were some who thought that Google no longer supported direct linking and wanted all affiliates to go with landing pages and authority sites.  While that is clearly the desired path Google prefers, direct linking, if done right, is still an option that is available to the affiliate marketer.  So much for that one.  Chris Carpenter was right when he declared in one of his presentations that direct linking is far from over.

On Day 2 Simon did a very animated and informative presentation on 12 important points and here they are:

1.  All ads in Google Adwords are manually reviewed.  Hard to believe but true.

2.  The user experience is the main focus of the Google reviewer.  The advertiser or affiliate marketer is a distant second in Google’s consideration.

3.  Do not put ads in your landing pages.  Keep them for page 2.  Put relevant and useful information for the user, no adsense, text links for flash ads. That will give a good Quality Score.

4.  The landing page/website layout should look professional and corporate.  Avoid the template look and cheap graphics.  Your site has to look top notch.

5.  Use short copy in your sales content not the run on format typical of scams.  Scams equals long copy.

6.  Your main keywords deserve their own landing pages.  Why?  Because relevancy and delivering what the use expects means higher conversions and higher quality score.

7.  Don’t insert outbound links, back button blockers,or click outs.  They will get you slapped.

8.  In your “about tab” or even on the site, include professional done photos of yourself, even photos that prove you authority in your niche or marketplace.

9.  Include proper content pages, disclaimer, privacy policy, contact and about tabs.  They are essential to establish the legitimacy of your site.

10.  Strive to improve the user experience with clear easy navigation, quality content and superior customer service.

11.  The product or service has to be perceived as quality and relevant to the user need.

12  In a lead generation page, you need to be very clear about the reasons and benefits for collecting user information.  You need to have a privacy policy clearly stated.  There can be no mention of “free” services if registration is required.  You need to convince the reviewer of the respect for privacy and the need for relevant information.

These are the main points to understand about the review process.  Simon made clear that though there is an appeal process, you do not want to cross the reviewer the wrong way because they can make your life quite difficult.  This a process where perceptions and judgement can be subjective and you have to go with the flow.

There it is in a nutshell.  A lot of what was presented was already known by the veterans but for many others it was helpful to hear confirmation of information that was largely partially known or misunderstood.

It was a very interesting session all in all.

Hope this post was helpful.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.