In Unstoppable Affiliate we taught two strategies for two kinds of sites: Single product sites (exact match domain style) and multi product sites (that promote various offers in one niche in one domain name). We talked about the pros and cons of each style of site and discussed why it’s good to have both type of site in your affiliate arsenal.
In this post I’m going to give you some additional points to consider on this matter, and tell you about one of the ways we’re going to be changing our own spread of sites in the coming year.
To distill our discussion on the two types of sites (for anyone who didn’t get UA) we basically said that smaller sites on exact match domains carry the advantage of being able to rank faster, for better short term income prospects, while bigger sites had greater long term profit potential, with the advantage that you can keep expanding by promoting new products from a base (a domain name) that’s growing in authority with each new product promoted.
But with the way the search engines have changed this year – even since we released UA – this picture keeps getting more and more complicated.
Basically, while right now, and for a long time, we’ve had a portfolio of sites fairly mixed between these two, both us, and a number of other SEO affiliate experts I know are gradually (and quietly) leaning slightly more from one type of site to the other: That is, toward bigger sites.
Here’s why:
The Situation With Smaller Sites
First up, no one I know takes away from the point we call the main advantage of EMD (exact match domain) mini sites: that they rank faster. That’s still happening, as many UA customers who tried it out will testify. It’s not really that that’s the problem.
Where it gets tricky is that it’s becoming harder and harder to convince Google (and in particular a manual reviewer) over the longer term that a site with an exact match domain that promotes a single product… actually has value.
You can still create quality content on a site like that – that’s fine. You can still add value in limited ways, like with quality reviews, price comparisons, tips and comments on where/how to buy, but that’s about where it ends.
What’s more is that I believe consumers may eventually start to reject these kinds of sites in greater number as well. Consumers in other niches aren’t as dumb as we sometimes think they are. They know when they see marketing material, even well disguised stuff.
I’ve been researching affiliate products and seen in forum threads, people looking for a particular weight loss pill saying to the forum “Hey guys, just looking for information on XYZ pill… it’s hard to find the truth about it because every website I come across is just promoting the product”. I forsee that in the next couple of years, it’s going to become very hard to convince a reader that your site: xyzpillreview.com has credibility. And remember how the Google algorithm is going with all this bounce rate/time on site stuff… if your market starts to change how they view your site, the search engines will too.
Many people reported a little slap from Google on their single product sites through the Panda updates thus far and it’s likely that those will continue.
I don’t want to be too doomy and gloomy about single product sites here, because really we’re not. We’ve made a lot of money from single product sites and continue to do so through the present day. And will continue to (barring any dramatic unforseen incident in the search engines) in the coming year too. I do however want you to know my thoughts on them, so you can evaluate them and make decisions for your own business when you feel it necessary. I’m also sharing these thoughts because it’s not just me having them. That’s when I know it’s something.
Here’s What’s Different About Bigger Sites
First, when it comes to credibility, you take an immediate boost with a bigger site. When you’re “weightlossreviews.com” (fictional example though I’m sure that’s a real site) you’re just a site that reviews all weight loss products. You’re on the side of the consumer. With the single product site you can say in your content that you’re on the side of the consumer, but when it’s in the domain, it just “feels” different.
Further, you can build trust. You write some good content and people see that they can trust your site for reviews on others as well. You can get a reputation in forums and communities as a source of quality info. That’s not as important for the quick buck, but for a lifetime profit source, that pays dividends.
A site that Google fawned over in the Google Guidelines document we discussed, was Jenny Reviews. She’s operating on an even more macro level (just reviewing everything – which I don’t recommend) but Google holds it up as an example of an affiliate site they like and that’s providing real value. You can’t imagine them feeling the same way about your little exact match domain 5 pages of content mini site. And I don’t blame them.
Point is that there’s nothing Jenny’s doing that you or I couldn’t do. And she’s making affiliate sales too – probably big time.
What You Should Take Away From This
What I DON’T want this to be construed as, is me saying “Stop making single product sites!”. Not at all. They’re still cool provided you do them right (like we taught in UA), and there’s still money to be made there.
The message I’d like you to take away is that if you don’t have any bigger sites in your portfolio, and you’re trying to build an affiliate income for the long term, I think you’re exposing yourself to greater risk for future search engine updates, AND I think you’re sacrificing some significant long term profit potential.
I’m also saying that while previously our portfolio might have consisted of say 50/50 on these types of sites, we’re working on pushing it more toward 60/40 and perhaps 70/30 in the coming year, and I think there are good reasons to do so. I’m also NOT saying that this is the right decision for you personally and for your business goals. There are many ways to skin the cat so as always, evaluate for yourself.
In any case, I hope you found this interesting, and if you want to share your thoughts on the matter, I’d love to hear em!
P.S. We’re also feeling strongly enough about this that we’re going to be doing… a little something… in the next couple of weeks to help you out if you’re also thinking about making moves in this direction… that’s all I’ll say for now. Stay tuned!
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In my view, i’m actually going with 100% bigger sites. Single product sites is getting harder and harder to rank in google cos that’s what the panda updates are going after. Quality. If you are promoting a single product with the product name in your domain, it’s difficult for both google and consumers to trust you.
My business plan in 2012 is actually creating or to cut short the process buying authority sites.
You’re not alone Don. Thanks for sharing and good luck!
Solid post Andrew. Great info!
Hi Andrew
My concern which might be unjustified was, if I built a bigger site, and say it reviewed lots of different products for the same niche / solution, would the visitor think “why is the site suggesting different products for one solution, shouldn’t they just be promoting the best solution”. Also, by giving lots of choices, is it confusing the visitor as to which product to buy? What are you thoughts.
Many thanks
Phil
I agree with you. I think if we were really reviewing a product properly for our readers, we’d know which was best. We’d know the difference between the products, and which customer would buy which product. Then we’d write our articles and make our forum comments and blogs specifically for those customers as individuals.
It’s going to mean working harder and smarter and offering more choice and better advice about those choices to our readers.
It may the only way to survive the google cull… Andrew is right about quality and I’m going back to the drawing board before it’s too late.
Thank you to Andrew for keeping his finger on the pulse and sharing his thinking.
Yes, but if you know a lot about your niche rather than just the product, then you will be able to give a real review on which product will be best for each situation.
In most niches there are a couple of products that work really well and some that are just c**p. If you really have your reader’s interest at heart you will be able to give them information about the niche and about the products that they will be looking at when they do their research.
This gives your site credibility and gives your reader more trust in you.
Rach
Hi Andrew,
I am still a newbie but can see the advantages of starting a bigger site, not too big to start but has the potential to grow in authority and profitability.
Excellent support all round
Rob Taylor
Hello Andrew, What your saying makes sense, about going for a bigger more authorative site, it also adds value for the consumer if your helping them with information on a related product, on the same site! Any way you look at it, we all have to up our game to keep playing!
Thanks, again, Andrew, for a deeply insightful article. I agree with your thoughts, here, as my macro sights continue to gain ground on my micro sites over the long term. That would seem to add credibility to what you and others are noticing as well.
I own a number of small exact match domain mini sites – all 5 pages or less – and just about every one of them took a down turn after Panda.
After they dropped in rankings, it seems that no amount of backlinking has been able to revive their previous position in the SERPs.
My resources are limited, but since the small sites are much faster and cheaper to build, I’ve always focused on them, but now would obviously be a good time to select one of my sites that is well suited for expansion and to focus my efforts on it.
Is it better to focus on a site that is currently higher ranked, one that has more domain age, or one that has more room for expansion?
Mark – Really hard to say which site is better to focus on. So many factors in play. Size of the respective markets. Potential for profit. Conversion rates on the respective offers. Number of offers worth promoting in each market. Tough decisions indeed!
What I am doing now is this. I have a generic domain name and use this for multiple products in several categories, who are not even related to each other. I think this is a combination of both types and it seems to work for right now.
look at better priced online for what I mean.
hope this makes sense.
Eddie
Andrew-What are your thoughts on building out on a “one product name site” ie the product name’s the domain but expanding with related keys/content with the original product URL as the static home page.
Great to see your analysis of this topic. When I started out six months ago I bought a few domains in the health and relationships niches which I thought had potential long term. I went for generic domain names that would firstly fit naturally into a sentence in any article (eg: willmyexcomebacktome) and secondly allow for building into an authority site over the longer term with multiple products (eg: myhealthchoicesonline). A few weeks later I started to run into marketing gurus preaching mini-sites and thought I had perhaps made a bad decision. Today I’m pleased that my lack of knowledge at the time allowed me to make the right decision.
I appreciate the post. I think the larger sites have great potential in the long term, especially if you’re giving out good content, and are sincerely trying to help the consumer. But, you must truly be sincere, and gear the site around ease of use and benefits for the consumer.
I have a couple of old domains that I will use to build large sites. The one domain, is the home site for my newsletter, and is in the natural healing and wellness category. I’ll be focusing on it, and I would advise other people to first try old domains/websites for larger site development purposes.
All the best,
Laurie
Since the Panda update I have been building larger sites. That’s because I had about 30 small sites deindexed and not my larger ones. To me that’s a pretty clear message.
If you look at many competitive keywords for physical products you will generally find larger sites dominating, particularly stores.
Now I have a copy of that document. If you read it through one of the things that separates a store from a thin affiliate site is an actual working shopping cart among other things.
A larger site has more credibility, plain and simple. Some of the questions raters ask are: Would you feel comfortable giving your credit card information to this site, do you trust the information on this site etc.
When I put up a large site there is no question about my motives. This is clearly a place to shop. If you are not looking to buy you leave.
I like Amazon, people know and trust the name and they know they will get what they pay for and can return it if needed. This adds trust and I make sure I let people on my site know they are going to Amazon.
A shopping cart on your site adds trust because there’s no pressure. You know you wont be wisked off to some shady site somewhere. I think people actually buy more when they can see and adjust their order before paying, again it’s a trust issue, they dont feel pressured to buy.
Despite everything I have been told about unique content and lots of it, I have found this “thin” style of site outperforms my sites with lots of unique content.
I think the added value of exact match domains is being devalued by Google, Again look at top 10 rankings, many large sites without exact match domains. Exact match domains can cut both ways, they can make you look relevant or spammy depending on your point of view.
I hate to say it but I think the overall trends do not bode well for minisites. They are easy for us to build but we need to stop thinking like marketers and more like everyday searchers on the internet. Would you rather land on a site with one product or one with several options?
You would think after writing a long post about larger sites that I would at least be smart enough to get my domain right. Duh! But apparently you cant edit your posts.
Hey Steve,
Awesome site. Did you design this yourself or have someone do it for you? I agree with you, a large ecommerce site seems to be the new IM trend and you appear to be on the right track.
Troy
Hi Andrew,
Great info as always. It sounds like building BIGGER SITES is equal to what Dan said Building or buying “authority sites”. In that case do you mean more content/affiliate products in the same Niche or do you really think big sites in terms several niches will be prioritized by Mr. Google
I´ve a question. I have some sites that were affected negative by the Panda update. Is it really possible to repair these domains by rebuild/update/make a bigger site etc. or should you let them stay as they are and get a new domain name and start over???
Jan J
Greetings,
I for one am sick and tired of the search engines’ “delusion of godhood” games and as such have decided to utilize targeted paid traffic sources that I have control over and that are not subject to this “slap” garbage.
My business in a highly competitive niche was doing well for years in the SERPS and the bank account until July of this year.
No more. They can kiss the rosy red because I know I provide a valuable service to my audience otherwise my sites would have died long ago.
Best Wishes,
F
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your thoughts. I would like to add that I was hit this year with two “big” sites which had been on top of Google for about 10 years; both provided good content and helpful information. I am slowly working my way back but now it’s a struggle.
Hope Google will see the value and hope that your readers will see that nothing is certain. I’m still optimistic and will try to learn the game a bit better to improve my rankings again so everyone cheer up!
Bob
Thanks for your comment Bob. It’s definitely important for readers to know that just because you have a big site, it doesn’t mean you can’t get hit. Google is a crazy thing.
Thin affiliate sites vs big affiliate sites. I choose the road between the two. When your site becomes an authority in Google, it’s also much easier to get good rankings for a lot of profitable long tail keywords, and as you said, you become less concerned with all these Google updates. Sure, the bigger affiliate sites will take more time to rank, but when you look for the long term, it is worth it.
Franck
I agree a combination of both types is my preference. One of my sites has close to 200 posts all unique content, hopefully of interest to the visitor. And now and again I add a product page – sometimes a review and sometimes a post about a problem or interest that people have. I add an affiliate link to a product they can check out. Most of the posts get indexed quickly. I believe it’s because it has the backup of the larger site, I’ll then work to get backlinks to specific pages I have been working on this larger site for about 3 years off and on.
Thanks for the advice Andrew. As always you have outdone yourself with timely advice. You are one of the few marketers that I actually trust and still buy products from.
Thank YOU once again Andrew, for a great post. Now you’ve made me understand why a review site I created back in July (my initiation to mini-sites) dropped off the Google search results so quickly. Daaaah, now I get it.
I HAVE been buggin’ you like crazy to put together another course as GREAT as UA for the other type of site, so am anxiously awaiting for your news on that front.
Thanks again,
Trish
I have both types of sites which are running fine right now, two of the EMD sites went completely off the Google radar for a couple of months but then reappeared in the serps.
The thing that I am working towards now is sites with a more generic domain name which can be left small or expanded into large sites over time. They are, as you have said, harder to rank quickly but far more flexible.
If one of them starts to take off I can put all of my efforts into one project and then the sky is the limit.
Thanks for the great post Andrew.
andrew
i’m too new to add anything of substance to this discussion. I’m still thinking myself as an affilliate working off of some others (merchant) site and not worrying about my own site. But i’m sure i’m wrong and will have questions
rudy
Thanks Andrew for your timely message. After your last post about recent Google changes I have been thinking about creating a multi-product site. I have even bought an aged store site. To me, a pretty new marketer, it seemed that this was maybe the direction to go. Like Trish, I am not sure how to go about it and was hoping that you would add a video or two to the Affiliate Coaching site. I really appreciate your email updates and keeping us ‘in the loop’. You are the best!
Regards,
Linda
Hi Andrew, thanks for the update.
I have a large affiliate site which was not hit by Panda. Trouble is it does not do very well for affiliate sales, in fact it earns more from adsense.
Just the fact that there is so much information tends to distract the visitor I think. The trick might be to find a balance in between.
Actually – like “F” I am getting fed up with the whole process. If all this is supposed to improve the search experience, then why has it not improved?
Thanks for your ever helpful articles
Wendy
I don’t think that ALL EMD’s are doomed to failure. Google has to serve up the best results don’t they (in theory)? If my 5 page mini-site about an alternative medicine is the best out there then there is no reason why it should not be ranked. Having said that it is still a constant battle between relevancy and quality as far as Google is concerned.
Also, not every EMD is based on a product name. It’s obvious to say so but I felt like in your post that you neglected the fact that many EMD’s are based on just generic keywords – like laptop reviews or diet pills for seniors. You could make perfectly legitimate, authoritative sites out of those and many people do. That way you get the best of both worlds with the slight EMD favouritism and the ability to target a wide range of related keywords/products.
They are not usually as easy to brand of course but thats another story in itself.
By the way, if there is one thing that jennyreviews.com should do it is to be a shining light to all us affiliate marketers out there. That site is nothing special in my opinion – a lot of the reviews that I clicked on at random were barely 500 reviews. As Andrew said the site is unrelated in that its not based on a specific niche. Definitely a case of quantity over quanlity.
Of course, many people produce excellent 1000 word reviews filled with passion and expertise, but never get as far as producing a 200 page site because it is a lot of work. Stick it at though and reap the rewards!
Good points Ben. I’ve never made an EMD site that wasn’t based on a product name so that only reflects my own bias. Thanks for sharing.
After taking the UA course, I set up several single product review sites. I haven’t had any issues ranking well with these sites. The biggest problem I’ve had is getting Affiliate Networks to allow me to use trademark terms in the domain. The most aggravating part is when you get permission to set up a site, but the network ends the offer and you are then unable to get permission from any other network. This happened on two sites that I put a lot of time and money into. Now I’m stuck sending all their traffic to Amazon. If you are going to continue to teach single product review sites in the UA course, then you need to be clear about all the limitations and potential drawbacks. If I knew then what I know now, I would have stayed away from single product review sites.
Thanks Andrew for the update. And thanks to all the comments. I`m looking forward to what ever it is you have coming out.
Yea, every single-product site that I’ve made so far (except for one) has taken a hit in some way from Google eventually. I used to frequently use a “buy(product name)” domain, which was effective for the first couple weeks in generating sales… but once a manual reviewer came along the site took a hit… even though I knew my site had better quality content than other affiliate sites in the niche. In my opinion, it is so crucial if you’re building a mini-site to ensure that the content on you’re KW rich domain matches the searcher’s intent. In this case, I wasn’t selling the product in question so I wasn’t officially the site to “buy” from.
I do admire Internet marketers who consistently come up with one product site after another even if you get a “server not found” message on their domains after 6 months. I think these people truly know what “money loves speed” means.
Andrew,
An excellent article – an dI can see from some of the responses here that people are actually THINKING about the problem rather than simply panicking – or just moving on to the “next big thing” or new “bright shiny object”.
A couple of observations, from my own experience over the last few months.
First, with 37 websites, I’ve noticed that yes, exact match domains are becoming increasingly more… hmm, I won’t say difficult to maintain ranking with, but I will say more time consuming to maintain rankings. I have three VA’s that are keeping track of the website stats almost constantly, and are dedicated to building linking campaigns to increase traffic, and they have reported (via our project/time management app) that they are actually spending an average of 1 extra hour per day per person on each of the 35 exact match sites.
That results in a net LOSS of approximately 4 hours per day used to build other sites out. NOTE: The actual hours used is somewhat murky, as we are dedicated to automating processes, and the software automation CAN make up most of the loss – just not all of it yet.
It gets worse – when they take the day off, LOL, which they do twice a week (darn those people wanting time off!), I lose another 5 to 8 hours of link maintenance on top of what’s already lost on a daily basis. Again, some of our automation tools allow for scheduled, automated runs, so having those tools in place means I don’t loose as much linking time as I could have.
NET RESULT: Over the last 4 months, I’ve seen a gross sales reduction of about 18%,a gross link reduction of about 17.7%, and a net income reduction of about 16.4%. Yikes!
My second observation deals with those last two sites I own – both of which are curated, somewhat generic news/information sites, that are NOT focused on only one product, service, or industry.
Both sites are set up to create a sub domain for each new product that is fed by data feed from our wholesale dropshippers, or from the affilliate networks like clickbank. The initial link is generated by keywords located on the main website URL, and then linked internally to exact match sub domains. The effect of having a “news” site linking directly to an exact match sub domain, which is continually built out (in other words, made into an authority sub site), seems to be working very well.
I’ve been tracking these two sites, personally, and have seen a number of statistical increases in visits from both bots and people – and average on site times running into 17 minutes. For me, this is a win – usually, my micro sites visitors only averaged about 11 to 13 minutes on site.
In money terms, I’m actually running close to 18% of my current NET income from those two sites – and considering they are both less than a year old, I find that amazing. The numbers keep rising as I add more content to the sites.
KEY POINTS TO TAKE AWAY:
- I’m using WordPress on all of the sites.
- Internal linking is essential to continuing the campaign
- The two “news” sites link internally via keywords to specific sub
domains
- When posting new products, I’m not using the typical affiliate review
style – I’m using a table to show multiple products of the same genre,
and, if possible, multiple sources they can purchase from. All of them
are my affiliate links, so I get paid no matter which one they buy from.
- Use automation tools, preferably ones with scheduling capabilities to
reduce time loss and increase productivity.
- If you’re using VA’s, build metrics that gauge effectiveness,
timeliness, and success versus a target. This can help you determine
whether the actions your VA’s are taking have any meaningfull impact
on your business, or whether you need to re-vamp how they work for
you.
- Curated posts seem to work more effectively than the generic auto
blog style networks. On the average of DOUBLE. Yeah. that much.
Enough meandering. Time to get back to the turkey !!!
Happy hollidays !
Darrell
Killer info Darrell! Thanks a lot for sharing!
Hi Darrell,
Thanks for your most helpful comments. Would you mind listing which plugins and software you use?
Thanks
Ray
I am concentrating on building only authority sites from now on. It just makes more sense SEO wise. With proper internal linking you are building a site that grows in strength with each post. You are adding fresh content and giving the search engines what they crave.
The future of your authority site is the ability to rank new pages easier and easier as time goes on. With mini-sites, you are starting from scratch over and over and waiting for the next slap upside the header.
I agree with what you are saying. I’ve been moving away from silo (mini) sites for the last 6 months and have now completed two “authority” sites. One of them has a product specific name (it started as a “mini” site) and I have gotten a URL which is more generic and will be putting the redirect in as soon as I have time.
I’ve learned so much from what you teach and appreciate your sharing.
Thanks,
Al
So is it a good idea to build out to say 20 pages on a “product name” site with niche related keywords or start affresh with a non product name domain?
I put that jenny reviews page through a rank tracker – and it’s at #66 for “alarm security bar”. Which means that while the human raters may like her site, Panda still sees flaws in it and is just not giving it space at the top of the SERPs!
Of course that Google Guidelines doc was dated March 2011 – and in internet terms that is eons ago. A lot of algo changes have come and gone since.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Andrew. I appreciate that you are sharing what you are doing and are planning on doing in your business – that is refreshing.
Hi Andrew I bought UA and that concentrated on single product sites and didn’t cover multi-product sites in any detail is that something you are planning to rectify with another product?
This is an interesting topic so thanks Andrew for bringing it up. I had a majority of single product review sites until this year, and although I’m focusing more on authority sites in 2012 too NONE of my single product review sites dropped due to the panda update (bar a few sites that I had ditched & that only had about 5 pages).
I do think bigger sites are the way of the future (for long term profits) but UA sites definitely aren’t dead yet and I’ll be continuing to work on my single product review sites during the coming year. Most of mine are 30+ pages and all my articles are 500+ words (with the main reviews often being about 1000-1500 words). As long as we keep updating them with fresh, quality content and keep building backlinks I think sites like this will be around for a while yet. I still find sites like this very easy to get ranked and I’m still a fan of EMDs (for the moment anyway!)
Great stuff Andrew. Loved the UA course and looking forward to your next instalment. Also great to see fellow Aussies doing so well in the IM space.
cheers
I am confused with people being freaked out by smaller sites. There are ways around it, put a category in the footer, and upload articles into it weekly, and use internal linking structures and the site will build with pages over time. I just made a .org matching domain website over the weekend and am on page 2-3 for many words without even building a single link yet.
I really feel if people were crushed by panda they ether loaded their site with too many affiliate links, junk link building to main site, horrible bounce rates ect. Im not an expert compared to some by any means but I haven’t seen the Google panda hurt me at all.
Hi Andrew: What a thought-provoking message this is. I started as a newbie with UA and am still working on my first mini-site, a product-specific domain. I can keeping doing all the things you’ve taught us to get higher than my current page 3 rank. However, in light of this new information, does it make sense to get a generic domain name and find a way to refer to the original mini-site? In other words, what are ways to save what content and backlinks that have been created? A UA coaching webinar on this topic would certainly help. Thank you.
Well I’m fairly new to affiliate marketing and in the process of building an amazon site.I have done a lot of promoting and have at times reached first page of google but then drop off to page six or seven.This could be the google dance.I don’t know.Today I’m right at the top of google again.I will try and build an authority site and have lot’s of products in the same category on my site.Thanks for your insight Andrew.
Andrew, this is interesting stuff and making sense. I have a question (more towards advice) that. I have plenty of Halloween costume sites, Yogi Bear, Marvin Martian etc. around 20, or so, do quite well and are full of content.
Would you recommend, closing all these site, creating a new say “Halloween Costume Review site’ or the likes and placing all the content from these costume sites on to one site and solely concentrating on that one site come Halloween. What do you think? Stephen.
Stephen – I think that is a great question and I’m thinking about doing the same thing myself. I don’t see why you can’t “re-purpose” content you’ve already put the effort into. I would think that you would need to spin the content so it does not show up as duplicate content under another domain name but what a great way to get a jump on a larger site.