Best Affiliate Marketing Programs – Your Path to Profitable Partnerships
In the vast world of affiliate marketing, success often begins with choosing the right affiliate programs. Whether you’re new to affiliate marketing or looking to expand your portfolio, the best affiliate marketing programs can be your gateway to profitable partnerships. This comprehensive guide is designed to help you discover the top affiliate programs, encompassing both physical products and digital products or software, to boost your affiliate marketing journey.
Introduction
Imagine a world where your passion for products and your online presence could translate into substantial income. That world is the realm of affiliate marketing. As you learn the principles of affiliate marketing you will start to associate specific networks with niches.
Affiliate marketing programs serve as the backbone of this industry, connecting marketers with products and services they can promote. You can’t get far without joining one of the affiliate programs in your niche. You take products that you want to promote and create an array of content in text video or another format to help and guide buyers to a purchase where you are paid a commission in return.
In this article, we’ll explore a carefully curated list of the best affiliate marketing programs, ranging from those dealing in physical products to those offering digital products and software.
Affiliate Programs for Physical Products
1. Amazon Associates
Overview: Amazon Associates is a juggernaut in the affiliate marketing world, renowned for its vast array of physical products. As an affiliate, you can promote products ranging from electronics and fashion to home decor and more.
Pros:
Reliability: Amazon’s reputation and reliability make it a trusted choice for affiliates.
High Conversion Rates: With its vast product catalogue, Amazon often boasts high conversion rates.
Ease of Integration: Integration is straightforward, thanks to a wide range of tools and plugins.
Cons:
Fee Structure: While the program is free to join, commission rates can vary based on product categories, and they might be lower than some competitors.
Strict AF: The associate’s program is governed with an iron fist, they don’t care for anyone who steps out of line even by a smidge. Make a mistake and your account could be frozen or disabled. Good luck trying to get it back.
Personally, I’ve not been amazed at this program for the work I put in. The low commission rates, the constant changing of these payout rates and the super strict rules make it a difficult program to be on top of.
The potential earnings are huge, everyone buys from Amazon and there’s a high chance your buyer will purchase multiple things in one visit, meaning you get the commission on everything that they buy.
This affiliate network is good for beginners starting out or those who like the upside Amazon as a brand brings to products that they promote.
I attended a Amazon sellers group visit to Yiwu China to get a first hand look at manufacturers and logistics for my brand at the time. I met a handful of people at various stages of their journey. My focus was more on e-commerce for this trip but well worth it.
2. ShareASale
Overview: ShareASale is a versatile platform known for its diverse selection of affiliate programs in various niches, offering a broad spectrum of physical products for promotion.
Pros:
Diversity: ShareASale provides access to an extensive network of merchants spanning numerous industries.
User-Friendly: The platform is user-friendly, making it an attractive choice for both beginners and seasoned affiliates.
Hidden Gems: You can find some really hot products when you know what to look for, Has something for everyone.
Cons:
Fees: ShareASale charges a $550 network access fee, which may be a hurdle for some newcomers.
Contact: There are active brands using the platform and their are a lot of brands that fail to contact you or communicate at all.
One of my favourite platforms for finding solid products. Share A Sale provides an easy-to-use, easy-to-navigate no fuss affiliate platform. Excellent for beginners and intermediates.
3. CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction)
Overview: CJ Affiliate is a platform that connects affiliates with reputable brands, offering a wide range of physical products for promotion.
Pros:
Diverse Product Selection: CJ Affiliate boasts a vast array of products across various niches.
Robust Reporting: The program provides robust reporting and tracking features to help affiliates monitor their performance.
Weekly Reporting: I enjoy seeing my weekly affiliate snapshot it helps drive me to do more and focus on my work. Nothing better than gamifying the affiliate payout report.
Cons:
Quality Varies: The quality of affiliate programs can vary, so due diligence in product selection is necessary. Some products are stinkers.
Learning Curve: Newcomers might face a learning curve in navigating the platform and understanding its features.
Sidenote: CJ also has a new program called CJ Dropshipping that is a pretty reliable option for anyone who wants to dropship products from CJ’s database of vendors.
In the next section, we’ll explore affiliate programs tailored to digital products and software, including ClickBank, PartnerStack, and JVZoo, and delve into their respective pros, cons, and associated fees.
Affiliate Programs for Digital Products and Software
4. ClickBank
Overview: ClickBank is a leading platform in the digital product affiliate marketing realm. It offers an extensive range of digital products, from e-books and online courses to software tools and digital downloads.
Pros:
Vast Product Selection: ClickBank boasts a diverse product catalogue, making it suitable for affiliates in various niches.
Lucrative Commissions: The platform is known for its high commission rates, often exceeding 50% or even 75% of the product’s price.
Ease of Use: ClickBank’s user-friendly interface simplifies the process of finding, promoting, and tracking digital products.
Education centre: They really put a lot of effort into educating the affiliates with several free and paid courses designed to help train a new wave of affiliate marketers.
Cons:
Quality Varies: While ClickBank offers a plethora of products, the quality and value of some may not meet your expectations. Due diligence is essential.
Refund Rates: Some products may have high refund rates, affecting your commissions.
Vendor Credibility: Tied to the above point some vendors are serial pests who release product after product with little care factor for customers
If you want to sell digital products then ClickBank is the one-stop shop. The biggest marketplace for digital products for affiliates and most likely the place everyone starts their affiliate journey.
5. PartnerStack (formerly GrowSumo)
Overview: PartnerStack specializes in software and SaaS products, making it an ideal choice for affiliates looking to promote digital solutions and software tools.
Pros:
Recurring Commissions: PartnerStack often features software products with subscription models, allowing affiliates to earn recurring commissions.
Growth Opportunities: As the software industry continues to expand, PartnerStack provides opportunities for affiliates to grow alongside it.
Cons:
Specific Niche: PartnerStack primarily caters to the software niche, so it may not be suitable for affiliates in other industries.
Competition: Given the software niche’s popularity, competition among affiliates can be fierce.
6. Rakuten Advertising
Overview: Rakuten Advertising offers a mix of physical and digital products across diverse categories.
Advantages: Discover the program’s global reach and its ability to cater to affiliates seeking a variety of products.
I found their sign up process overwhelming and clunky as heck, I also found the continual developer updates to links a real headache.
Saying that once I was setup and had the latest links and API ready to go this was a breeze to use. I like that there’s a few plugins and apps out there that automate the product listings and can pull in the products for you.
7. JVZoo
Overview: JVZoo is a renowned platform in the digital product and software affiliate marketing landscape, catering to affiliates primarily in the online marketing niche.
Pros:
Diverse Product Range: JVZoo offers a wide array of digital products, including software, e-books, and online courses.
Timely Payments: Affiliates appreciate JVZoo’s prompt and reliable payment system.
Active Affiliate Community: The platform fosters an active affiliate community, offering opportunities for networking and collaboration.
Cons:
Product Quality: The quality of products on JVZoo can vary, so careful product selection is crucial.
Learning Curve: New affiliates may encounter a learning curve when navigating JVZoo’s platform and features.
Fees: JVZoo may charge fees for certain transactions, impacting your overall earnings.
In the next section, we’ll delve into essential considerations for choosing the right affiliate programs, share tips for success in affiliate marketing, and emphasize the importance of compliance and ethics in your affiliate marketing endeavors.
How to Choose the Right Affiliate Programs
Choosing the right affiliate programs is a pivotal decision in your affiliate marketing journey. Here are key factors to consider:
Factors to Consider:
Niche Relevance: Opt for programs that align with your niche or area of expertise, ensuring that you can genuinely connect with your target audience.
Commission Rates: Evaluate commission rates offered by different programs. While high rates can be attractive, also consider the program’s overall reputation and conversion potential.
Tracking Capabilities: Look for programs with robust tracking and reporting tools that allow you to monitor your performance effectively.
Research Tips:
Read Reviews: Explore affiliate program reviews and testimonials to gain insights into the experiences of other affiliates.
Seek Recommendations: Don’t hesitate to seek recommendations from fellow marketers who may have valuable insights into profitable affiliate programs.
Achieving success in affiliate marketing involves strategic efforts and effective practices. There are many ways to monetize a blog or video and you are just getting started.
Here are some tips to guide you:
Content Creation:
Quality over Quantity: Prioritize creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that genuinely adds value to your audience.
Product Relevance: Ensure that the products you promote align with your content and resonate with your audience’s needs and interests.
Receive valuable tips on crafting high-quality, persuasive content that effectively promotes affiliate products.
Promotion Strategies:
Explore various promotion strategies, from SEO optimization to email marketing and social media tactics, to boost your affiliate marketing endeavors.
Email Marketing: Utilize email marketing to build a loyal subscriber base and nurture relationships with your audience.
Social Media: Leverage social media platforms to expand your reach and engage with potential customers.
Compliance and Ethics:
Understand the importance of adhering to ethical practices and legal guidelines in the world of affiliate marketing.
Disclose Your Affiliation: Maintain transparency by disclosing your affiliate relationships to your audience. Compliance with legal guidelines, such as FTC regulations, is essential.
Ethical Marketing: Uphold ethical marketing practices, ensuring that your promotions are honest, accurate, and fair.
Conclusion
In closing, affiliate marketing programs are the foundation upon which your affiliate marketing success is built. Whether you’re promoting physical products or digital offerings, choosing the right programs sets the stage for profitable partnerships. With the insights provided in this guide, you now have a roadmap to navigate the world of affiliate marketing.
Believe in your potential to build fruitful partnerships and earn commissions through these carefully curated programs. As you embark on your affiliate marketing journey, remember that success lies in a combination of smart choices, high-quality content, effective promotion, and ethical conduct.
Your path to profitable partnerships begins with informed decisions and a commitment to ethical marketing practices. As you explore the affiliate programs mentioned here, conduct thorough research, and apply the tips for success, you’re well on your way to carving your niche in the ever-evolving landscape of affiliate marketing. Happy affiliate marketing!
Affiliate marketing is a world of opportunity, and the best affiliate marketing programs are your stepping stones to a profitable venture where you smash your business goals. Start exploring, building partnerships, and watching your affiliate marketing efforts transform into tangible results. Your path to profitable partnerships begins now.
Navigating the Legal Landscape of Affiliate Marketing in Australia – Over the past years, the realm of affiliate marketing has experienced an impressive surge in popularity, evolving into a substantial revenue avenue for many individuals while simultaneously serving as a potent expansion tool for businesses aiming to broaden their horizons.
At its core, this advertising mechanism involves businesses enlisting online content creators as partners to steer traffic towards their products and services through the use of affiliate links. As these content creators, also known as affiliates, successfully channel visitors to the business’s website resulting in a purchase, they are compensated with a portion of the sales as a commission.
While the landscape of affiliate marketing is wide open with opportunities, it’s crucial to acknowledge the distinctive legal requirements of those promoting certain programs and products. If you have followed any crypto program in 2022-2023 the downfall of FTX and other big-name crypto programs that were highly endorsed by AAA celebrities (who likely didn’t even check the product themselves).
This comprehensive guide serves as an illuminating resource, delving into the legal intricacies of affiliate marketing from a dual perspective: that of establishing and managing an affiliate program, and that of joining such a program as an affiliate partner.
From legal obligations to ethical considerations, this guide sheds light on the regulatory obligations and best practices, ensuring that both advertisers and affiliates can harness the potential of affiliate marketing within the bounds of legality and professionalism.
The Legal Low Down TLDR
Affiliate marketing is different from influencer marketing. Affiliates publish on their websites and promote products or services, resulting in sales.
Australia’s affiliate marketers have to comply with Australian consumer law, spam legislation and privacy laws.
You need an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms and Conditions if you run an affiliate program. The agreement should include commission, affiliate and company obligations, termination, confidentiality, and liability clauses.
As an affiliate, you always need to disclose your status as an affiliate. Its the smart thing to do and it makes you transparent
Is affiliate marketing legal in Australia?
Affiliate marketing is indeed legal in Australia, subject to adherence to the country’s legal framework. This entails compliance with consumer protection, privacy, spam, and taxation regulations.
Distinguishing itself from illicit pyramid schemes, genuine affiliate marketing involves commission-based rewards for bringing in new customers who make purchases. In contrast, pyramid schemes thrive on recruitment-driven profits rather than legitimate product or service transactions.
Is affiliate marketing regulated in Australia?
Regardless of the business you run there is a business model to follow and with it some legal frameworks that you must comply with. Imagine an internet where no one had to comply with any legal framework……just wild
Here are Australia’s legal frameworks that affiliate marketers can work towards compliance for:
Australian Consumer Law, which guards against misleading advertising
Spam Act 2003, which regulates electronic communications
Privacy Act 1988, governing how personal data should be handled, and
Specific industry codes of practice, depending on the product or service being marketed
Do I need to follow specific industry codes of practice?
Yes, depending on the nature of the products or services you’re promoting, you may need to follow specific industry codes of practice when setting up an affiliate program.
What are the legal requirements for affiliate marketing?
In Australia, affiliate marketers and affiliate programs must ensure the following:
Promotional content should not be deceptive or misleading. Products and services should be represented truthfully.
Promotional materials should only be sent electronically (e.g. email, SMS) to recipients who have consented. All communications should clearly identify the sender and offer an opt-out option.
Personal data collected from customers or users must be handled according to the Privacy Act 1988, which sets out standards for collecting, using, and storing personal information.
Anti-competitive practices, such as price fixing, are not allowed.
Affiliates must disclose that they will earn a commission or other benefit on any sales made through their affiliate links.
Income earned from affiliate marketing must be declared for tax purposes.
What are the risks of running an affiliate program?
Like any business venture, affiliate marketing isn’t all fun and games. You need to accept the good with the bad if you’re going to make it part of your marketing mix. Some of the risks include:
Reputational risk: Affiliates act as representatives of your brand. If they engage in unethical or misleading marketing practices, it could harm your brand’s reputation. A good name is worth its weight in gold!
Fraud: Affiliate marketing programs can be targets for fraudulent activities. This could include click fraud (where people repeatedly click on links to generate revenue) or false sales claims.
Lack of quality control: It’s not easy to ensure affiliates promote your products or services accurately and effectively. Poor quality promotion could harm your brand and result in lower conversion rates.
Management complexity: Running an affiliate program can be complex and time-consuming. You must track affiliate sales, manage payments, handle disputes, and support your affiliates.
Market saturation: If too many affiliates promote the same product or service, it could result in market saturation, making it harder for your affiliates to drive sales and for your business to stand out.
Use an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms & Conditions document to mitigate these risks.
Do I have to disclose if I run an affiliate marketing program?
Yes, transparency is vital in affiliate marketing, and it’s considered best practice to disclose that you run an affiliate program. However, no specific law in Australia mandates businesses to announce they operate an affiliate marketing program publicly.
Can I stop someone from joining my affiliate program?
Yes, you have every right to decide who can join your program. Think of yourself as the bouncer at an exclusive club, keeping the ratbags out! You set the rules and criteria that affiliates must meet. And don’t forget to make these criteria accessible on your website.
How do I ensure my affiliates stay compliant with Australian law?
To ensure your affiliates disclose their affiliate relationship and stay compliant with Australian law, you can take the following steps:
Clear instructions: Provide your affiliates with guidelines on how and where to disclose their affiliate relationship. You should also provide clear guidelines around marketing activities for your brand.
Affiliate Agreement: Include a requirement in your Affiliate Agreement that affiliates must comply with all relevant laws, including those regarding disclosure. Make it clear that failure to comply can result in the termination of the affiliate relationship.
Regular auditing: Review your affiliates’ content to ensure they make appropriate disclosures and meet marketing guidelines.
Standardised disclosure text: Consider providing a standardised disclosure text or statement your affiliates can use.
Do I need an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms & Conditions?
Yes. An Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms and conditions are crucial when setting up an affiliate program. This document forms the legal foundation of your relationship with your affiliates. It outlines the program’s rules, sets expectations, defines the responsibilities of each party, and helps protect your business from a legal and brand reputation perspective.
What clauses should my Affiliate Terms & Conditions include?
Your Affiliate Terms & Conditions should include the following clauses:
Commissions: Details on how commissions are calculated, when and how they are paid, and the circumstances where commissions may be denied or reversed.
Obligations of the Affiliate: This includes compliance with relevant laws (such as disclosure requirements), restrictions on promotional methods, and responsibilities to represent your products accurately. You should also clarify any restrictions around pricing, discounts, geography, and any other limitations important to you.
Obligations of the Company: These usually include providing promotional materials, tracking sales, and handling commission payments.
Term and Termination: How long the agreement lasts, how either party can terminate the deal, and what happens when the agreement ends are factors that must be addressed. A good example is the stipulation that the affiliate may no longer use your brand IP once the agreement has terminated.
Confidentiality: Any restrictions on the use and disclosure of confidential information.
Liability: Disclaimers of liability and indemnity clauses.
A comprehensive and transparent Affiliate Agreement can help prevent misunderstandings, manage disputes, and ensure your affiliates understand and stick to their responsibilities.
Do I need a company to start an affiliate marketing program?
While a Pty Ltd company structure can provide benefits such as limited liability, starting an affiliate marketing program without one is not strictly necessary.
Individuals, partnerships, or sole traders can also run affiliate programs but should be aware of potential personal liability and tax implications. Our guide on choosing the right business structure will come in handy.
Are affiliate payments tax deductible?
Yes, in Australia, affiliate payments made to affiliates for their marketing services are generally considered a business expense and are, therefore, typically tax-deductible. However, you should consult your accountant to ensure proper handling of these deductions. No one wants to be caught out by the ATO!
Growth of Affiliate Marketing in Australia, post COVID the interest in make money online and affiliate marketing has skyrocketed over 260% in Australia
Source Google Trends
Can I post affiliate links on social media?
Yes, affiliates can post affiliate links on social media. However, Australian law and the rules of many social media platforms require you to disclose affiliate relationships clearly and conspicuously. You should indicate when a link is an affiliate link by including a disclosure statement or using a hashtag like #ad or #affiliatelink.
Is it legal to post affiliate links on Facebook?
Facebook does allow affiliate marketing, but it prohibits certain types of behaviour, such as misleading practices or spammy content. If your posts violate Facebook’s rules, your content could be removed, and your account could be suspended or banned. You never control your social media content its always owned by the platform.
What are the legal obligations of an affiliate?
As an affiliate, you have several legal obligations, including
Honest advertising: According to Australian Consumer Law, you must ensure your advertising is not misleading or deceptive. This means you must accurately represent the products or services you’re promoting.
Disclosure: Everyone’s tired of dodgy websites, so don’t be one of them! Transparency is super important. You must clearly disclose your relationship with the business you’re promoting and that you earn a commission on any sales made through your affiliate links.
Privacy laws: If you collect personal information from your visitors (e.g. for a newsletter), you must comply with the Privacy Act 1988, which sets out how personal data should be collected, used, and stored.
Email spam: You must comply with the Spam Act 2003 if you send electronic promotional material. This requires consent from the recipient, identification of the sender, and the inclusion of an unsubscribe link.
Compliance with the Affiliate Agreement: Affiliates are typically bound by an agreement with the business they’re promoting and must comply with the Terms and conditions outlined in the contract.
Tax obligations: Affiliates are responsible for declaring any income earned from affiliate marketing and paying the appropriate taxes.
Social media platform policies: If you are promoting on social media platforms, you need to follow the rules and guidelines of those platforms.
Do I have to disclose affiliate links in Australia?
Yes, in Australia, disclosure of affiliate links is legally required. The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) mandates transparency in advertising and marketing practices.
As an affiliate, you must clearly disclose that your content contains affiliate links and that you earn a commission if users purchase using those links. This disclosure should be prominently displayed to ensure transparency and maintain consumer trust.
Google now requires that affiliate links are marked in your website HTML code. They recommend using the industry standard rel=”sponsored” tagging of affiliate links. Read more about Google’s stance on paid links here.
Affiliate Disclosure vs Affiliate Disclaimer.
The preferred term is Affiliate Disclosure, which refers to disclosing the affiliate relationship and the fact that the affiliate may earn a commission or compensation for sales made through their affiliate links.
The term Affiliate Disclaimer typically refers to a statement where the affiliate disclaims any guarantees or warranties related to the products or services being promoted. It states that the affiliate is not responsible for the quality, performance, or outcome of the products or services.
Does affiliate marketing count as a business?
Yes, affiliate marketing is considered a business. The criteria for qualifying as a business include the regular and systematic promotion of products or services and making a profit from the activities.
Do I need an ABN to be an affiliate in Australia?
You should be entitled to an Australian Business Number (ABN) if you conduct business activities. Affiliate marketing usually requires an ABN. The scale of revenue may impact whether you need an ABN, so consult your accountant or tax professional for more advice.
An ABN allows you to operate as a business entity, report your income, and claim expenses related to your business. It also helps you comply with tax obligations and demonstrate that you engage in legitimate business activities.
Do I need a contract for affiliate marketing?
Entering into an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Contract is always advised, as it clearly indicates each party’s duties. Contracts help ensure a professional and mutually beneficial relationship between the business and the affiliate marketer.
These contracts typically cover elements like commission structure, payment terms, disclosure requirements, promotional guidelines, and termination clauses. If a dispute arises, the parties will have a clear set of guidelines to refer back to.
Is affiliate income taxable in Australia?
Yes, affiliate income earned in Australia is generally taxable, subject to the ATO’s tax threshold. According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), any payment received from affiliate marketing activities is considered assessable and must be declared on your tax return.
This includes commissions earned from affiliate sales, referral fees, or any other form of compensation received as an affiliate marketer. Any expenses associated with generating your affiliate income can be claimed as deductions against that income.
Equipment and tools: Cameras, lighting equipment, editing software, computers, and other necessary technology.
Content creation expenses: Costs related to creating and producing content, such as props, costumes, set design, and location fees.
Marketing and promotion: Expenses for advertising, social media management tools, website hosting, and domain fees.
Education and training: Costs for courses, workshops, conferences, or relevant educational materials to enhance your skills and knowledge.
Travel and accommodation: Business-related travel expenses, including transportation, accommodations, meals, and associated costs.
Home office expenses: If you have a dedicated space in your home for conducting your content creation activities, you can claim a portion of your rent or mortgage, utilities, and other related expenses.
Can the ATO see my PayPal account?
For most people NO they can not, unless you become a target of interest and have started raising eyebrows within the tax department. This could be from years of good or bad history not just from affiliate marketing. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) can access your financial information, including your PayPal account if looking into your account.
Under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, the ATO has the power to request information from financial institutions, including transaction details and account balances, to verify income and assess tax liabilities.
The ATO may use this information to cross-reference with tax returns and identify discrepancies or potential non-compliance. Its in your best interest to not raise any questions about your business and to file your taxes and comply to any consumer laws within your region.
I never had this type of information when starting out so I hope this is helpful for people starting to build their affiliate marketing business in Australia.
Crafting your offer is a great starting point on your pitch. Your goal here is to find a need and fulfill it, making your product worth what you charge. There are many types of offers. Use this worksheet to think through the process.
Main offer
What’s your main offer?
Offer – ______________________
Price – ______________________
Make this the focus product but let them know buyers get discounts for other products
Upsell – Remember, upsells are any product you offer after the customer has decided on a product. They are closely related to what the customer buys: maybe an upgrade, customization, or accessory.
Downsell – These are less expensive products that you offer to a customer who says ‘no’ to your more expensive products. They can also be payment plans for the initial products.
Offer – ______________________
Price – ______________________
Provide slightly less expensive than the one they said no to
Remember, your products tell a story. Make sure that they flow together smoothly, and that they “mean” what you want them to mean.
Examples:
Short: One or two upsells, maybe one downsell. Suggest recurring payments, but make them optional. Bump recommended, but optional.
Medium: Two or three upsells, one downsell. Recurring recommended, but optional, with an optional bump offer too.
Long: Three to five upsells, two to three downsells, and recurring and bump offers as well.
How would you like to construct your offer? Use the space below to brainstorm the proper offer for your market. Remember: You can test different offers over time as some may be more effective than others!
Now that you have the different templates to craft your sales offers. The next step is how to make sense of it all. I like the STEAM system
Schedule your content
Track your analytics
Engage your audience
Advertise your profile
Monetize your traffic
This works for any media format and platform.
The Platforms that you can start on to get momentum:
Facebook Personal Profile
Facebook Fan Page(s)
Facebook Group(s)
Youtube Channel(s)
Instagram Account(s)
Snapchat Profile
Periscope Livestream(s)
Twitter Account(s)
Pinterest Board(s)
Additional Networks
Flickr (Instagram Integration)
Linkedin (SEO Purposes)
WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Blogspot.com
EmpowerNetwork.com
BuildingaBrandOnline.com
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA
Because social media networks have high authority, which means that they can rank well in Google, and get you tons of FREE traffic, leads & sales.
Therefore – It’s WISE to set up your brand on “multiple” social media networks, and follow the STEAM system to develop a plan for each one, and then build some link popularity to them to help rank them well.
For example, let’s say you buy a brand new domain name (abcmoney123.com). Now when you list that site in Google, it’s not popular because there are no sites linking to it, so why should Google rank it higher than all of the other sites that were already there. If it were that easy, we would all just buy domains and get millions of visitors.
Versus: Facebook.com/ABCmoney123
How can you get your social media profile more popular to rank higher?
Link Popularity
Internal Links
Links from other pages on that social network to your profile
Example: Link from https://fb.com/myname personal profile that points to https://fb.com/clickbucks fan page.
Example: Share posts from my page to my personal profile.
Example: When OTHER people share your posts and page.
Example: When a post starts going viral, you start getting more internal links to your page/profile
Best way: Boosted Posts.
External Links
When other websites on the internet link to your profile
Example: Link from https://clickbucks.xyz that points to https://fb.com/clickbucks
Example: Links from your other social media networks that point to your main profiles. (Twitter, Youtube, etc)
Example: Write a guest blog post for someone elses blog, and link to your social media profiles in the guest author bio box.
For example: I set up a new Periscope.
http://periscope.tv/clickbucks
Link Popularity Strategy:
INTERNAL: Naturally I’ll get tons of internal links by getting popular on that platform (hearts, engagement, followers, etc.
EXTERNAL: I’m going to start posting links on tons of websites, blogs, any chance that I can going to my periscope.tv account.
EXTERNAL: Drive traffic from other social media networks (like Facebook Ads) – Because google takes into consideration “traffic” as part of their authority.
What is it? Well it’s exactly what it sounds like.
You’re going to rank for somebody’s product before it launches and “jack” their launch. I actually don’t like the term “jacking” or “jack” because it makes it sounds like we’re doing something wrong. But trust me the product creators love and encourage us doing this. (As long as you’re not giving their product shit which is frowned upon.. I mean unless it’s a complete scam)
FINALLY THE METHOD GUARANTEED TO MAKE SOME CASH
So what I like to do is go look for Clickbank products that are about to be released using a few websites that people use to announce their launches (You’ll find them listed below)
I’ll find ones that I think are good and will sell really well. You’re going to want one that you think a lot of people are going to be interested in because if nobody is interested in it well nobody is going to Google it and you’re not going to make any sales. (I stick to business/internet marketing niches)
The reason we want products that aren’t released yet is because nobody else is doing SEO for these terms yet which means… You’ll get #1 EASY I mean that’s what it’s all about minimal work and major returns.
Then you’ll want to build either a page or website around the product.
You’ll be targeting two keywords that should look like this “product name” and of course “product name review” . Depending on how Googles mood is at the time of the launch the domain matters. You can get exact matching domain names to product launches or you can get relevant domains to use when targeting the launch. Just know what Googles doing with domain names and keywords at the time you build this out.
Information! Don’t be scared to contact product creators and ask them for a review copy or anything can help you. A review copy will help you weed out the crap and see if it’s something you truly want to promote. 99% of the time they’ll be happy having you promoting their product and will help in any way they can.
Here is a list of websites you can use to find upcoming Clickbank Launches
http://www.cb-analytics.com/new-products.php
http://www.jvnewswatch.net/
http://jvlaunchcalendar.com/
http://jv.affiliatex.com/
http://www.clickbanklaunchforum.com
Attention! I bookmark the product launch calendars and any aggregator sites that show me when these products launch so I can come back regularly and scout opportunity for launch jacking. Organisation in this method will add extra $$ to your commission payouts.
Really we boil down launch jacking to having really good SEO so that you rank high for the product terms before the actual product release date. This comes down to having really juiced up web pages and some authority in Google’s eyes already so you are on Google page 1 for any search terms and keywords associated to the product.
To start you can not get anywhere without a website. You need a website, in most cases it doesn’t have to use keywords that the product would use. That tactic might work depending on the time you apply it/ Google is one temper-mental beast if you get it wrong.
There are methods where you can use other websites to promote the offers but these require some more SEO knowledge up front.
So first off comes the on page SEO
On Page SEO For Affiliate Websites
Meta Tags
Alright so I set the Meta Title to “Far From It Review” even though the keyword I’m targeting is “Far From It” I did this just because it’s got Far From It in it still and I thought it would look extremely fishy if I used only Far From It and then I included my brand name in the title as well so it looked like this “Far From It Review – Money Mindset”
Now for the meta description I just put a nice little description in there and included the words “far from it” twice within the description. I like to include my main keyword twice ALWAYS in the meta description now I could have also done “far from it” once and “far from it review” once that would have worked as well.
So in short
“Far From It Review” Meta Title + My Brand Name (Money Mindset)
“Far From It” twice in the meta description
Alt Tags
I included two images on the page both of which I utilized the Alt Tags. This is an SEO must so hope all you aspiring internet marketers are using it. For the image at the top of the page the Alt Tag I used was “Far From It” and the one I used towards the bottom of the page was “Far From It Review”
Two images both with alt tags, one read “Far From It” the other “Far From It Review”
Keyword Density
In the article you shouldn’t focus on keyword density AT ALL. In my example I wrote the article just for what I thought would convert best not once should you consider “Keyword Density” you need to focus on conversions. But for the sake of statistics I used the term “Far From It” 3 times in 500 words so the density was .6% I bet your articles is still using the standard 3%
Never focus on keyword density
In the end my keyword density was .6%
H1, H2, H3, Bold and Italic
Again you should feel the same way about using Heading tags and bolding your keywords. Over optimization is a real thing and you never want to fall prey to it. Don’t focus on bolding your keywords unless it fits the article. Don’t use heading tags unless it’s in your title or the title of a new paragraph. Just use them where they fit! Make your articles for the reader not for what you think will rank best because chances are that won’t rank best. In my article I used the H1 tag once and didn’t use any other headings. I didn’t use Bold, Italic, Strikethrough or underline once in my article.
Never over focus on these things one H1 tag is enough
I used one H1 tag and no other heading tags the keyword was “Far From It”
I didn’t bold, Italicize, underline any of my keywords.
Affiliate Links
This time I actually did things a little differently because usually you’ll use hyperlinks within the text but for some reason I decided to only use my images as affiliate links (though one of the images is just big text that reads “Get It Here” in large blue text) So I have three affiliate links all together. One of them is in the top left of the article (The Hotspot) which is the headshot of the two authors of the book. The second is actually embedded within a video review which is on the page (I Used Simple Video Pro WordPress plugin to do this) then the last affiliate link is the one I explained above “get it here” at the bottom of the article in large blue text.
Three affiliate links on the page
Two of them are IMG links
One of them is embedded in the video review
Text links are still great I just chose not to use them because I thought they might have made it a little bit more difficult to rank and the original purpose was to win the competition.
Off Page SEO
Preparing your website is 70-80% of the work. There is still something else required when launch jacking, big powered up juicy backlinks from other domains. These help tell Google that your web pages mean something. It’s like a show of trust from other domains to yours.
I look at it 2 ways when building these links:
First: I need social trusted links
Second: I need a mix of backlinks from other websites, press, media, images, video sites and social sites
Method 1: My Social Shield of safe backlinks that I can control and point to parts of my website as I please. This is me building profiles, comments, sharing and writing content to links to something I want to rank. I control these and can switch them at any time. This is very manual I usually pay a link builder to do this.
Method 2: External backlinks from websites, editors, mentions, press or paid for link exchanges or guest posting articles on other blogs. Ill do as many guest posts and paid link exchanges as I can before launch date. Ill also look at hiring a link building to write about me site and product promotion to send me traffic and authority signals that Google can see, and in turn reward me with higher rankings.
It takes me usually (Google owns the rank leaderboard) around 8-18 days to get some rankings that I can start to monitor and push as I get more content and backlinks working. Sometimes they rank in 8 days or so but most take 2-3 weeks to move.
You wont start day 8 on Google page 1 that will happen but you need to be persistent with the work prior to the launch. If you put in that work it will move the needle, your first couple of attempts you will learn a lot about how Google behaves.
What Results can you expect?
Before anyone can answer that there are some variables that are at play. Launch weeks are usually the big money earners and then your sales should trickle in as you get to 2 weeks onwards.
How much commission does your chosen product pay up front?
How much commission is paid if theres a funnel being used? This means you could make 2-5 times more from 1 paying referral.
Where in Google do you rank for the main keywords? How much traffic does it drive you?
What other keyword rankings do you have and what traffic do they bring in?
When you can answer these you can look at it this way to find your answer.
I get xx traffic from the main keywords
I get xx commission for someone buying the front end product
I get xx commission for any other sales during the sales funnel for that customer
Typically you should calculate conversions as 5% of your total web traffic for the first purchase
Then if theres a funnel its 5% of the previous 5% number that may convert again.
Thats your answer
Launch Jacking Niche Sites Lifespan
Most launch jacking sites will churn and burn out. They are all ranked and converting during launch month and then slowly die off as the affiliate moves onto another product launch or affiliate product.
Some launch jack websites will stay ranked for a period of time ongoing after the product launch, as long as that sales page is still active you should leave your sites active just ticking over. They can make you money months and years after the product release. Just schedule a 6 month review of the website so that it gets some TLC and can continue to rank and bank.
Expenses of Building a Launch Jacking Affiliate Website
This can vary but depending on how aggressive you want to go.
If you are doing your first launch jacking campaign you may want to have a website and a landing page set up. Id say you have no sales funnel software at your disposal so you are doing manually. If you want to try sales funnel softwares try these recommendations: GoHigh Level and Click Funnels.
Manually:
Buying a domain $9-18
Buying web hosting $4-20 per month
Time to build and theme your website will be your own time or a contractor for $$$
Content for your website you can use a contractor for $40-80 per article or ChatGPT for free
You will need social links that you can build with time or use a Fiverr or Upwork link builder for $20
You will need external links ranging from $40-1000 depending on how hard and powerful you go. These links could scale up depending how fast you want to rank. Some links sell for $2k+
Advertising budget if you want to run paid advertising to the landing pages – $100-10,000
You could get started for as little as $300 or as much as you have at your disposal.
Some experienced affiliates go hard with a 5-20 niche sites all targeting the product. This is aggressive and usually the more experienced affiliates who have systems and teams do this method. This is a bit more expensive hence the seasoned affiliates taking this road.
They spend it knowing they will make back 2x at least.
IT SCALES SO DAMN EASY anyone can do it and it MAKES so much money if you scale it.
Do yourself a favor go out and try this for yourself see how easy it is. You’re going to make money and you’ll get addicted to how EASY this truly is no need to over complicate it!
The only thing holding you back is you not taking action. If you pay attention, monitor where the money intelligence is and take action you can get a slice of the new product pie. Rank web pages before products get released in a nutshell thats as simple as it gets.
Today I’ll let you in on a little secret. I used to be a massive nerd for the SEO tactics and strategies that push web pages up through the ranks of Google and other search engines. The thrill and journey of taking a website that had either low grade rankings or was brand new and getting on the Google leaderboard (Page 1) for my targeted keywords was a pure satisfaction that not many people can understand.
It adds gravity of the accomplishment when money starts to correlate with those rankings. As an affiliate operator I would be looking to rank pages that help promote my product offers and have web traffic on my pages where I am running display ads. This all adds up and makes it highly valuable to focus on SEO instead of paid advertising for clicks.
So now let me take you on a journey to the depths of Search Engine Optimisation.
Title tags
These tell both search engine spiders and human visitors what your page is about. Your title tag should definitely include your main keyword.
This is what goes into your <title></title> HTML. Also known as your Title Meta. Most people use the popular WordPress Plug-In’s “SEO Framework” or “RankMath” to create individual titles for each page.
You want it to be readable to the user and you want to use the keywords sparingly
# Example: Apple Computers – Buy Them Here
Keep your title short, and to the point and each page should have a unique title.
Meta Description
This specific html element falls under the category of a “meta tag,” and gives specific infomation about what your page is about. You should use the meta description to convince people to click through your site. Here’s what a meta description looks like in the Google search results:
Meta tags – these html elements live in the <head> of a web page, and basically tell the search engines what you page is about. Meta tags can also entice people to choose your page, over another page in the SERPs.
H Tags
These tags are used to structure the information on your page. The search engines definitely use this as a ranking metric. These are better known as “heading” tags, like <h1>, <h2> <h3> these are used to classify the topic h1 and sub topics h2 OnPage.
My preference is to use the plurals of the keyword example Hairdresser & Hairdressers
and use the one with higher search vol in the critical spots with the lower search vol in H2, image titles, content.
Here’s how to take advantage of H tags:
H1 – The role of the H1 tag has changed over the years. Previously, “best practices” would tell you to always put your main keyword in the H1 tag. But now, it depends on whether or not your are doing any link building. Let me explain. If you are NOT doing any link building (such as, you’re not using our RankBOSS service), then you should put your main keyword in the H1 tag.
If you are doing link building (a.k.a. using our service), you should Not put your main keyword in the h1 tag.
Why?
This will likely lead to an over-optimization penalty.
So, with that being said, the rest of this email will be under the assumption that you ARE building links. For the examples below, I’ll be using the “Apple Computers” keyword example.
–back to that H1 tag… since you are building links to this page, you want to keep your H1 tag generic. Use “branding” or “generic” keywords in the H1. For example:
<h1>Check Out Our Full Selection Below</h1> — notice there is no mention of “Apple” or “Computers.”
H2 Tags – These are for the main sub-headings within your content. This is where I’d recommend using your main keywords. For example:
<h2>Our Apple Computers On Sale</h2>
<h2>The Macbook Air</h2>
<h2>Macbook Pro Retina</h2>
<h2>Desktops</h2>
H3 Tags – Sub-sub headings. Examples:
<h3>13”</h3>
<h3>15″</h3>
Other tags – You don’t really need them, but feel free to use them if you have an actual need for the structure. If nothing else, they look good!
Here’s how you might structure a page targeting the “Apple Computers” keyword.
IN DEPTH HEADER TAGS
Use Heading tags to organise the ideas in a page of content. The overall idea of the article can be expressed in an H1. Then major “sub-ideas” in H2. Ideas that are part of an individual H2 Topic can be expressed under an H3 heading, and if that idea goes more granular then that sub-topic can be titled with an H4 and so on
I always imagine it as a folder structure. Here’s how I visualise it:
The red box is H1
Yellow folders are H2
Blue folders are H3
Green folders are H4.
You can arrange these in a visual way, then make them linear as you put them down the page, planning your article.
For example:
H1. How to write an article
H2. Intro
Content
H2. Section 1 – Folder A
Content
H3. Folder A1
H4. Folder A1a
Content
H4. Folder A1b
Content
H4. Folder A1c
Content
H3. Folder A2
Content
H3. Folder A3
Content
H2. Section 2 – Folder B
H3. Folder B1
Content
H3. Folder B2
H2. Conclusion
Adding some structure helps readers and Google bots read and understand the hierarchy of your articles. This makes the experience on the front end more enjoyable and easier to follow along with.
Optimise Pages For Multiple Keywords:
When it comes to OnPage optimisation, certain places are more valuable to have your keywords in than others. Based on my tests, in order of impact, from most valuable keyword real-estate to least valuable:
URL
SEO Title Tag (i.e.: <TITLE></TITLE>)
H1 (i.e.: Page title)
H2, H3, H4…
Content
Alt text
We can use this knowledge to our advantage, if we have multiple keywords that we want to target on a single page, which in our profession is standard operating procedure.
Let’s say we have the following keywords we want to target on the homepage in order of importance:
dog training
dog obedience
puppy school
potty training for dogs
dog walking training
We’ll start with our URL, making a branded domain, with an inner page targeting however many keywords we can fit in the URL without looking spammy. The following URL covers our two most important keywords.
Now for the SEO title tag. Again, let’s try to get as many keywords as possible in there, remembering the rules from the above.
SEO Title Tag: Dog Training and Obedience School | Pet Pros
Next comes our Page Title. Definitely get our top keywords in there, and lets also try to get some of the words that we haven’t included so far. Additionally, we’ll use a synonym “Canines” to get some semantic advantage.
Page Title: Dog Training School for both Puppies and Adult Canines Whatever we can’t fit, whether it be to length issues or it just not making sense for our sales copy, we can fit on
H2’s and H3’s. H2: Potty Training
H2: Walking your Dog Lastly, in the event that we have a long list of keywords, make sure to put them in the content somewhere.
Pro tip: Let’s say you’re trying to rank for the keywords “____ review” and “____ reviews”. You’ll need to include both ‘review’ and ‘reviews’ somewhere on your page. If these are important keywords, then definitely drop them in the URL, SEO Title Tag, or Page Title.
Keyword Density:
There is varied opinion about the exact number to aim for. My thoughts are between 1-1.8% for your main keyword. There is no magical number that is and represents the secret sauce every niche and keyword has competitive values that differ from others.
Pro Tip: Individual words of a keyword phrase matter too
Many people come to me and ask if they’re over-optimised. They only have “dog training” on their page 4
times, but “dog” is used 40 times and “training” is used 30 times. This has Panda-penalty written all over it.
Pro Tip: Keep keyword phrases down to only 2-3 occurrences:
once in a <header tag> and 1-2 times in the body of the content on the page.
Pro Tip: Keep individual words down to less than 15. What to do instead? Use synonyms.
(The above recommendations are for a 500-word article.)
I also suggest writing naturally and for humans not Google robots.
Using Synonyms
Synonyms are the most under-utilised tool in the OnPage arsenal.
Use synonyms to establish semantic relevance for a page without risking over-optimisation.
In the dog training example, we can use the following words instead of “dog” and “training”:
canine
k9
puppy
pooch
obedience
learning
instruction
Since our page is going after “dog training”, we can use “canine” and “instruction” with no worry.
We don’t care if we’re over optimised for these keywords because hardly anyone is searching for “canine instruction.”
But ninja tactic is to use these words to establish a high degree of relevance for the page.
Content Word Count:
People debate over how many words per page is optimal. No one has the exact number, because this matters on a per-niche and per-keyword basis.
For example, pages in the health niche (competitive), typically require more words to rank than others.
However, based on my testing experience and recent studies, the minimum amount of words you want on a page is:
Regular page: 500+ words
Product page: 500+ words & Bullet points that highlight features
Competitive term: 1,500+ words
To be safe, I’d recommend writing any page you want to rank with 1000 words or more helping your cause.
This can not be achieved every time, some clients may have highly graphical pages.
Stuffing pages for the sake of it won’t look right, think of the UX stick to the rules above.
There are limits on how many words you want on a page and it depends on the niche.
Imagine you are working on a local landscape clients website.
You have 3,000 words on the keyword target page, but every other competing ranked page has 700 words.
You my friend, are in overkill mode. Google likes content that is concise & to the point.
URL Structure (Permalinks):
Whenever possible, keep short and simple URL slugs, and have your keyword in the URL of the page. For example:
www.yourwebsite.com/buy-apple-computers
This part is pretty dependant on your site and your CMS, but optimally you want your URLs as short as possible with as much keyword stuffing as possible.
go with /%postname%
the shorter the URLs, the better – This also remove the trailing slash from every post and page. Make sure to set your custom URLs in your posts and pages though and don’t just use the title of the post/page or you’ll end up with massively long URLs.
Breadcrumbs:
Types of breadcrumbs. I like to use location based.
Location Based Breadcrumbs
show the user where the current page is located relevant to the whole structure of the site.
example: See All Departments > Electronics > Auto Electronics >
In-Dash Stereos
Path Based Breadcrumbs
visualise the user’s path which brought him to the current page. These breadcrumbs are dynamic and are usually based on the search results. With this type of breadcrumbs one and the same page can be accessed through several paths:
Consulting > Services > Implementation > Service A
Consulting > Services > Optimisation > Service A
Consulting > Services > Upgrade > Service A
Attribute Based Breadcrumbs
list the attributes of the current page
Best Uses of Breadcrumbs
Only use breadcrumbs when they help a user: for large, multi-level websites. These are for user first of all; if they also help SEO – that’s an additional benefit. Don’t add breadcrumbs just for the sake of adding good internal anchor text.
Do not link the current page to itself (the last step in the breadcrumbs should be un-linked);
Do not replace main navigation with breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs visualise your website structure horizontally while the main navigation shows its vertical structure listing its other categories and content types);
Use breadcrumbs consistently (this makes the user browsing your website feel safer and allows him to faster familiarise himself with how the site is structured)
Do not use breadcrumbs in the page <title> tag (this makes the title too long and untargeted)
Here is a cheatsheet for building well structured web pages that will help your affiliate products get some traction with Google.
Elevate your SEO game by implementing the following advanced techniques that not only sidestep spammy practices but also leverage Google’s sophisticated semantic synonym recognition to enhance your page’s relevance to a specific topic.
Mastering URL Structure:
Incorporate your primary keyword once within the URL.
Prioritize brevity while ensuring keyword representation.
Recent experiments indicate that shorter URL slugs deliver superior results.
Opt for concise, impactful URL structures both for homepage and inner pages.
Example:
Effective: http://www.goodboyk9.com/dog-training
Less Effective: http://www.goodboyk9.com/dog-training-guide-for-new-owners-of-puppies
Strategic Title Tag Placement:
Embed your keyword in the title tag, positioning it towards the beginning.
Optimize for conciseness and relevance.
Recent studies highlight the superiority of shorter title tags.
Delay the use of “click bait” words until achieving higher rankings (#1-#5).
Example:
Optimal: Dog Training Guide for Beginners | Obedience Tips
Suboptimal: Dog Training – How to train your dog – Dog Training Tips
Maximizing Meta Description Impact:
Leverage the meta description to enhance click-through rate (CTR).
While Google doesn’t directly rank meta descriptions, they indirectly affect rankings by influencing CTR.
Craft persuasive descriptions that entice clicks from search engine results.
Employ curiosity-invoking strategies to engage users and prompt clicks.
Experiment with capitalization and trigger words to stimulate interest.
Aim for a meta description length of no more than 156 characters.
Example:
Compelling: These sneaky Dog Training Tips will work on ANY dog. You’ll DEFINITELY want to check out our FREE …
Bonus Tip: Enhance intrigue by adding a “…” (dot dot dot) to incite curiosity and drive clicks.
As you wield these advanced techniques, remember that your affiliate marketing journey is an evolving process. By harnessing the power of precise URL structuring, impactful title tags, and enticing meta descriptions, you equip yourself with the tools to amplify your affiliate efforts and rise above the competition.
Page Speed
Fast sites rank better. But even more important, your visitors will not stay on slow sites for very long waiting for the page to load. There are many things you can do to increase your site’s speed.
First, check your site’s speed. Go here: http://tools.pingdom.com, or http://GTmetrix.com. Get a baseline of where you’re at, so you’ll know how much you’ve improved. You really want to see your site loading at least 80% better than other sites (as measured by Pingdom), and a total loading time of less than 2 seconds. You can work hard to make your site even faster than < 2 seconds.
If your site is slow, Pingdom will give you suggestions on how you can improve it. If you’re on WordPress, you’re in luck! There are some dead simple steps you can take to get some massive speed improvement within three minutes.
How to drastically improve your (WordPress) site speed in 3 minutes or less:
First, do basic site clean up, ie empty the trash, delete duplicate or unused images from the media library. Install a good caching plugin like W3 Total Cache. Install a great compression plugin (I use G-Zip Ninja Compression, which is free and works great). Literally install and activate, nothing more to do for this.
1. Install the W3 Cache Plugin & Activate it.
2. Once it’s been activated, in the WordPress dashboard, go to: Performance > General Settings
3. Enable “page cache” and “minify” Save it.
4. Now check to make sure your site is working properly. “Minify” can sometimes mess up a site. If it DID, deactivate “minify” and the problem should be solved instantly.
5. Check your page speed again to see your improvement, and how quickly your site is loading.
Pingdom Tools or GT Metrix will show what is causing the latency and is good to run before and after to gage results.
If your site has a lot of images, they could be really slowing your site down. Here are some things to consider:
Image Size:
Make sure your image file sizes are compressed (not necessarily the size of the image, but the file size. This will make your site load fast.
Alternatively install a great image optimiser (ideally, images should be optimised before uploading to the library but let’s face it, not many of us do that). I use Tiny PNG plugin, free for up to 500 compressions per month, and it works awesome. Install, activate, leave the default settings as they are. Register as a user and insert the API code that is emailed to you into the plugin settings.
Hover over the media library in the dashboard, select “bulk optimise” and let it do its thing. I’ve brought sites down from 22 seconds to under 3 seconds with just these 3 free plugins that take maybe 5 minutes to install and run.
Something to remember: using smaller images (the size of the image, not the file) will help with load times as well. Huge images are just SLOW.
If you have a lot of images, check out the “lazy load” plugin (http://wordpress.org/plugins/bj-lazy-load). This plugin will delay the loading of an image until a visitor scrolls toward that image. So, say you’ve got a nice, long post, filled with images. By using the lazy load plugin, the page will load quickly, displaying only the images at the beginning of the post. As the visitor scroll down the page, those images further down the page will load. This means that the page can load quickly, and will load images a few at a time, instead of trying for all at once.
Alt-Text:
Adding alt text to images is often overlooked but we know better and can use these to take advantage of the extra room to describe our website images.
Important – Alt text keywords DO contribute to overall page word count and keyword density.
For example, if you had the word “dog” in your content 10 times, and “dog” was in two alt tags as well, then your total count is 12 times.
Use alt text as if you were describing the image to a blind person. Don’t keyword stuff but you can include long tail or synonyms into the description.
Avoid having images that have “_” or “|” and instead look at using “-“ to seperate words.
What are alt tags actually for? Alt tags were designed for screen readers that help visual-impaired folks read webpages.
When the screen reader comes to an image, it reads the alt tag to describe what that image is.
Essentially, Google wants us to simply describe the picture.
If it’s a picture of a girl smiling, then label the alt tag “picture of girl smiling.”
Using the alt tags as intended is another reason I mostly choose not to optimise them. Think about your SEO strategy if you do optimise alt tags or not.
Geo Tag Images:
In local search we want to provide our clients with the best local relevance that we can. Using geo tags to add location points into the exif data of images will help us do this.
There is a significant amount of traffic that comes from google images search, and google maps images just look at the GMB insights of your clients. Don’t be surprised and instead act on this as a source of traffic others may not be exploiting. In some cases 5% or less traffic will result from images so in that scenario you can de-optimise the alt text so you only worry about keyword density OnPage and not on two fronts.
The bad news is geo tagging will be stripped when you compress images, a choice needs to be made to have more geo tagged images or faster loading websites.
Tip: add geo tagged images to Google my business and maps and leave compressed images for the website.
Process > Geo tag images then upload to GMB > Then compress and upload to the website.
Images OnPage:
Opinions differ about the specifics that there should be a specific ratio of HTML code (namely images) versus raw text, in order to make the search engines happy.
Based on my tests, I have never concluded on a magic number of how many images should be present per a given word count. But I do indeed recommend a simple rule of thumb that I’ve garnered from extensive conversion rate optimisation and split test experiments:
Never have a wall of text on the page.
There should never been a segment of your page where all the reader can see is simply a top-to-bottom block of text, with no graphics or structured markup (e.g.: table or list). Following this rule will keep you within safe bounds regarding both:
1) Keeping the search engines happy
2) Keeping your visitors interested in your page
Sitemaps:
the Google XML Sitemaps plugin on WordPress sites.
To keep it simple create a sitemap, if you can go advanced then split the sitemaps into into categories, priorities & frequency aren’t a must but make sure you use change dates.
Make sure once you’ve setup this plugin, that you submit your /sitemap.xml to Google’s Webmaster Tools – This is the main sitemap, and Google will then index each sub-sitemap on it’s own, you don’t need to submit each sitemap this plugin makes.
Googlebot is on your site for a couple of seconds at max at a time. Remove any unnecessary files that don’t need to be on your site – You want the pages you want ranked to be crawled, and having files like backups & unused PDFs just hurts your crawl rate.
Each website has a crawl budget per month and its important that if a client makes a lot of updates and changes that the crawl budget be spent wisely. This means fetch and render only when you need too.
Robots.txt:
Don’t Use The Default Robots.txt
Here’s the WordPress Robots.txt file that I use to keep these pages hidden.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-content/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: http://seoguide.com./sitemap.xml
You can also add in any link checking bots you want to block via this pastebin.
You’ll have to manually upload a robots.txt file with this code in to overwrite the default WordPress one.
Pingbacks:
Turn On Pingbacks
Don’t allow people to post pingbacks to your site, but notifying other blogs when you link to them helps get traffic and visibility.
Go here: /wp-admin/options-discussion.php for WordPress.
And check the “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article” box.
Link Functions:
An essential way to establish relevance for a page is to link out to an authority page in you niche.
What’s an authority page? Think WebMD.com, CNN.com, etc. Something with Domain Authority 70 or higher.
The ranking benefit of linking to authority sites is in the user reading enhancements. You are providing more value.
Pro tip: Don’t use Wikipedia for your authority links. This is what every other SEO on the planet is doing. Remember, Google doesn’t like SEOs, so don’t look like one.
For every page that you’re trying to rank, throw up an authority link somewhere past the fold. Putting it anywhere above the fold increases the chance that the reader will actually click on it and bounce from your page.
There’s considerable debate about whether or not to make the link dofollow or nofollow. The nofollow team wants to keep all their link juice on their site and refrain of leaking it off the page.
Since it hasn’t been empirically proven which one works better, I opt to keep it dofollow since the disadvantage of having no authority link on the page wouldn’t be worth it. If you’re worried about ranking another page, simply link to an authority page (DA 70+) that doesn’t rank higher than you already, or isn’t on the first page.
Pro tip: Create your authority links to open in a new window. This keeps your bounce rate low; in case the reader decides to click on the authority link. Example: <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/dog-training” target=”_blank”></a>
Using a Macro vs Micro OnPage Focus:
Macro – This refers to what you’re doing at the site level, such as your site structure, levels, links etc. This is the overview of your site from a crawlers perspective, as well as the perspective of the user.
Good Macro on-page revolves around making good decisions for both UX and SEO. You can use data to back up a lot of your decision making here, and it’s often THE MOST overlooked aspect of on-page with some of the bigger sites.
When we’re working with eCommerce clients, this is often what we’re spending hours and hours on in the first few months.
When auditing the macro level you need a human eye to find areas that are weak, and need improvement.
Micro – This refers to what you’re doing on the page level, this is what most on-page tutorials, articles etc talks about. Using the right markup, longer content – you know the drill. This is often where most people get things right, however there’s a tendency to focus on the wrong things.
At the micro level you can improve rankings for a specific page and linked pages, opposed to macro level where you’ll often see sitewide ranking improvements.
When auditing the micro level you’ll often use tools to achieve this such as ScreamingFrog.
Broken Links and 404’s
Use browser extension (chrome) broken link checker to check your pages for broken links. 404’s and broken links are a negative ranking factor as the user experience is not enhanced but disadvantaged by the browsing problem.
Indexing:
Double check index with Screaming Frog
Finally, check your site for major errors by running a search using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider tool. It’s free, and an awesome, powerful tool. There’s TONS of things you can look for, but the most important will be making sure the status codes say either “200” or “301.” If you see anything else, then you or someone you know more knowledgeable should take a look at getting those fixed. They can cause really big problems.
Ninja Tip – Embed google properties on your client website, Google loves Google and embedding a Google property on a website is one way to tell Google the page/site exists. Think Youtube videos and Google Maps.
Plugins
Check your plugins. If you have a plugin installed that you’re not using (even if it is deactivated), delete it. Plugins can slow your site way down.
For some recommended plugins (WordPress) see the resources at the bottom of this document.
Content Delivery Network
If you’re not afraid of something slightly more involved, then looking into a content delivery network (CDN), such as CloudFlare or MaxCDN. Using a CDN can give your site a big speed boost right away. Here’s how: a CDN distributes your content to multiple servers around the world. When someone visits your site, a server closer to their location can serve the page.
CDNs are not complicated; I really recommend you set one up. Seriously, the set up time will be like five minutes. If you’re running a media rich site, switching over to a CDN can cut your load time in half. HALF!
Managed Hosting
If you’re using WordPress, you absolutely should be using a service like WP Engine to host your site.
Why? An all-in-one managed WordPress host can speed up your site instantly. Caching and CDNs are built into the hosting service. It’s also completed managed for you, so you’ll never have to deal with another WordPress upgrade again.
SSL:
Should your website have SSL – Secure socket layer
If your client website takes payment online or collects personal data of its users then the answer is yes.
Note: October 2017 Google will show all http websites as insecure in the search results to add to the update from March 2017 where they began to show the browser URL as “Not Secure” for http websites where the https websites were shown with a green “Secure”.
Review Stars:
Another type of rich snippet is the review star. Having review stars on an affiliate product review page, for example, can be a significant factor in stealing clicks from the SERPs.
Example of review stars:
Getting review stars is extremely easy. I simply use the WP Structured Data Schema for WordPress. As of the time of this writing, review stars are only available for inner pages.
Warning: Google has been passing out manual penalties based on spammy structured data. As of now, most of the reports I’ve seen have been about manipulating location using schema, but I’m sure using fake ratings is a hot spot too.
Testing:
I’m a big believer of testing and having test “sandbox” sites to test techniques on that mimics real world client sites. Creating a mirror site to test on, not an exact replica but very similar but more lightweight.
BONUS: How to Rank Images in Google (Step by Step)
Ranking images in Google is very similar to ranking a Youtube video.
In fact ranking images is actually easier because the competition is lower (not many people are intentionally aiming to rank photos).
Here are the steps to rank an image…
1) Alt text: The alt text of the image needs to match or be a partial match keyword to what you’re aiming to rank for.
2) Content: The content surrounding where your image is hosted needs to be closely related to your target keyword.
3) Authority: This is relevant to the competitiveness of the keyword you’re trying to rank.
4) Syndication: Taking your image and embedding it on a network of websites, social media sites, image sharing sites and other web pages helkps boost the relevance of your keywords and image topic. This has helped me drive thousands of extra eyeballs to my product offers and view my display ads on my niche blog.
Think of sites like Flickr, Pinterest, Diig, Google Images and many more that all help push the relevance of the image. Monitor your progress and don’t stop with 1 image. If you can blanket Google Images search results with your image target thats a big opportunity that you should not waste.
SEO is a powerful strategy to use for your affiliate niche blogs, ecommerce websites and dropship stores. It might sound technical and a bit spammy but it gets results and it takes less money to start than advertising. Don’t sleep on SEO.
