If you’re not one of our 280,000 subscribers, you’ve been missing out on some great reads!
Here’s a quick recap of my personal favorites from the last month:
The best of March 2024
How 16 Companies Dominate Google Search Results Around the World
Author: Glen Allsopp
tl; Dr
Glen’s research reveals that just 16 companies representing 588 brands get 3.5 billion (yes, billion!) monthly clicks from Google.
My takeaway
Glen pointed out some really actionable ideas in this report, like the fact that many of the brands that dominate search are adding mini author bios.
This idea makes a lot of sense both in terms of UX and EAT. I have already presented it to the team and we will implement it on our blog.
How Google is killing independent sites like ours
Authors: Gisele Navarro, Danny Ashton
tl; Dr
Big publications have gotten into the affiliate game, publishing “best of” lists on everything under the sun. And although they often don’t test products thoroughly, they are dominating Google rankings. The result, Gisele and Danny argue, is that authentic review sites are suffering and Google is rapidly losing content diversity.
My takeaway
I have a lot of sympathy for independent sites. Some of them are doing their best, but unfortunately they are confused with thousands of others who are more than happy to spam.
I know it’s hard to hear, but the truth is that Google benefits more from having great sites in the SERP than diversity. That’s because the results from big brands are likely what users actually want. In general, people prefer to shop at Walmart or ALDI rather than a local store or farmer’s market.
That said, I agree with most people that Forbes (with its dubious contributor model contributing to scams and bad journalism) should not be rewarded so handsomely.
Discussion forums dominate 10,000 product review search results
Author: Glen Allsopp
Tl; Dr
Glen analyzed 10,000 “product review” keywords and found that:
- The SERP feature “Discussions & Forums” was present in 7,702 of them (77%).
- Reddit was present in 97.5% of these.
- 51% of Reddit’s top threads currently have spam as their top comment.
My takeaway
After Google’s massive promotion of Reddit starting with last year’s Core Update, to no one’s surprise, unscrupulous SEOs and marketers have already started spamming Reddit. And as you may know, Reddit’s moderation is done by volunteers, and obviously, they can’t keep up.
I’m not sure how this second-order effect completely escaped the intelligent minds at Google, but from the outside it looks like Google has capitulated to some extent.
I’m not one to make predictions and have no idea what will happen next, but I agree with Glen: Google’s results are the worst I’ve ever seen. We can only hope that Google gets it right.
Who sends traffic to the Web and how much? New research from Datos and SparkToro
Author: Rand Fishkin
tl; Dr
63.41% of all US web traffic from the top 170 sites starts on Google.com.
My takeaway
Despite all our complaints, Google is still the leading platform to acquire traffic from. That’s why we all want Google to get right and get it right.
But it would also be a mistake to look at this post and think that Google is the only channel from which you should drive traffic. Like Rand’s a subsequent blog post clarifies: “be careful not to give attribution or credit to Google when other investments have driven real value.”
I think many affiliate marketers have learned this lesson well from the latest major updates: relying on a single channel to drive all your traffic is not a good idea. You should use other platforms to increase brand awareness, interest and demand.
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