Hi All,

Welcome to the third part of our three-segment series on Google updates and the effect on Affiliate marketing.

Personalised search has actually been around for a good few years now but only been active to Google account members. It will now be a default for all Google users.

This functionality allows Google to display results to users that will be influenced by and scored against their previous search habits and preferences. Google will then use that data to serve similar sites to the user with a view to increasing the relevancy of the user’s searches.

As Google say “When possible, Google will customise your search results based on location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you’re signed into your Google Account, you may see even more relevant, useful results based on your web history.”

Importantly, Google do give you the option to opt-out of personalised search but the prevailing winds would suggest a vast majority of users will simply continue using the search engine without changing their preset setting.

So, how will this affect affiliates? It’s difficult to say….

On one hand an affiliate site will potentially raise profile in a personalised search especially if Google serves the affiliate site as a site that ‘is of similar interest’ to the users habits. You can see optimised affiliate sites crossing over well in verticals such as retail or travel.

However, it may become more difficult for a new affiliate site to gain a share of voice in Google.

Our advice would be to ensure your affiliate links are fully optimised to match your content. If you have a site dedicated to the Rolling Stones then you’ll probably deeplink to a Rolling Stones box set through the HMV affiliate programme. However, to optimise the traffic you have (and in the interests of updated content and relevancy) also deeplink to a biography of Mick Jagger through the Waterstones affiliate programme. Once you start feeding in user generated content to build up the stickiness of your site, Google will hopefully start to display your site against ‘similar types’ of site.

Sanjit Atwal

Publisher Development Manager | TradeDoubler UK |

Twitter.com/TradeDoubler_UK |

Sanjit.Atwal@TradeDoubler.com | Twitter.com/SanjitAtwal |

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This post forms part three of a three-part series of blog posts on Google changes. Please also see:

Part I ) Google Introduces Real-Time Search

Part II ) Google Caffeine
The affiliate reaction to all three Google updates can be summarised in one sentence: Make every attempt to add value to the users original search whilst balancing the need to monetise your inventory.

For a more in-depth discussion on how our SEO team can help you over the coming months, please email Sales.UK@TradeDoubler.com.

 

Happy New Year from all at td Affiliate and td Search!

Tags: Affiliate marketing, Google, SEO

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 11:06 and is filed under td Affiliate, td Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.