Skip to content
Search 2 min read

Google algorithm shifts hit major publishers' affiliate sections, traffic plummets

APNews Buyline
APNews Buyline

Google's recent algorithm changes have led to significant traffic drops for affiliate sections of major news publishers, according to data shared by SEO experts today, October 25, 2024. The affected sites include Forbes, CNN Underscored, Wall Street Journal Buyside, and Marketwatch Guides, which have experienced substantial declines in their search visibility since September 2024.

According to the documents, several prominent publishers have experienced significant drops in their affiliate content visibility:

According to Glenn Gabe's report, Google has clarified that these changes are not related to their previously announced "Site reputation abuse" policy. Instead, Google provided an official statement explaining: "Our systems aim to understand if a section of a site is independent or starkly different from the main content of the site. This helps us surface the most useful information from a range of sites."

The current system appears to focus on:

The changes have affected various types of content sections:

Chris Long, VP of Marketing at GoFish Digital, predicts two major trends:

  1. Continued decrease in visibility for sites publishing content outside their primary focus areas
  2. Replacement of affiliate content with ecommerce results, Popular Product features, AI Overviews, and community content such as Reddit

Key Facts

Summary


Subscribe to our newsletter