What do the Google Updates Mean for Affiliate Program Members

There’s always a bit of stress when Google announces updates. It can often mean difficulties for affiliate program members. And a need to drastically overhaul your working practices. But in 2023 and early 2024, Google announced a number of changes that hold the potential to be beneficial to anyone who works with an online affiliate program. Let’s look into some of the details.

Understanding Recent Google Updates for Affiliate Program Members

Google Core update

The main reason for the 2024 Google Core update is to clean search results. Google wants to deliver the best, most relevant content to its users. That’s pretty much how it has become the leading search engine. But there’s been a proliferation of spam in recent years, clogging up all of the search engines. Google’s Core update is dealing with that. For some content creators, this will be bad news. But if you’re working with an affiliate partnership program, it can be a really positive thing. By prioritising original, helpful content, Google is making it easier for smaller, more niche websites to be found. Just avoid clickbait and misleading content, and you should be just fine.

Google Gemini (formally Google Bard)

An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot tool, Google Gemini has been designed to simulate human conversations using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. Its purpose is to both supplement Google Search, and be integrated into other platforms – websites, messaging services – to respond to user questions. For affiliate program members, it can be leveraged in a variety of ways. Including keyword identification, content creation, SEO improvement and tracking, and marketing. Helping to make your job easier. 

Don’t forget helpful content

The helpful content update happened in 2022, but it’s still worth remembering. In essence, it’s an algorithm intended to pick out “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.” And it ranks that content lower. So, it’s really worth keeping that in mind when producing content to attract dating traffic. If you don’t, your content is much less likely to be seen.

6 Quick Tips for Surviving the Google Updates

1. Be original – Original content has always been one of the key SEO tenets. But now, it’s even more important.
2. Be helpful – Forget about clickbait. Make sure that your content always provides value to your audience.
3. Answer the search – If someone has found your content through a web search, make sure that you answer the terms of that search.
4. Build on your strengths – Content diversification can be a useful tool when filling out a website. But It’s important to build your authority on your chosen area first. And to only diversify into truly linked areas.
5. Go into detail – If you’re writing a review or providing advice, don’t just stick to generalities. Going into detail shows your knowledge and builds authority.
6. Don’t rely too heavily on AI – Chat GPT and the likes, can be a really useful way to generate content ideas. It can save you time and effort. But if you rely upon AI-generated content, you will lose originality and cohesion. So, by all means, use AI for inspiration, but don’t let it take over.

Google updates can seem like just another hurdle to jump over, especially if you rely on the platform for work. But the reality is that the updates are devised to help make Google better. And that can benefit you as well as your audience. Even if it means that you have to up your game a little. You might have to pay more attention to what content you create and how. But if you are an affiliate program member, that’s what you need to be doing to maximize your earnings potential anyway. So, don’t panic about Google updates. Just look at the details and work out how to use them to your advantage.