SEO

11 Ways to Build a Google Algorithm Update Resistant SEO Strategy

Published

3 years ago

November 24, 2021

11 Ways to Build a Google Algorithm Update Resistant SEO Strategy

Google’s algorithm updates can make it feel as though the search engine is punishing publishers for mysterious reasons.

Website rankings are never guaranteed.

Even so, you can improve the stability of your rankings and formulate a more Google algorithm update-resistant SEO strategy with these 11 tips.

1. User Intent Is Just The Beginning

User intent is important but it’s just a starting point for creating content that makes money day after day after day, regardless of algorithms.

User intent is one ingredient out of several for creating algorithm-resistant webpages.

It’s the beans in your burrito — the cheese on your pizza. It gives flavor to your content.

The reason identifying user intent is important is because it puts you in the mindset of putting the user (not keywords) as your foremost consideration.

And that’s where great SEO strategies begin.

2. Make Site Visitors The Center Of Your Universe

One psychological writing trick that works fantastically for creating webpages is to write content in a way that mirrors the visitor’s need to see things through the lens of how they are affected.

Site visitors only relate to pages that relate to them.

I know a smart pay-per-click marketer who creates landing pages that fit every visitor so well his webpages are practically mirrors.

One of the many things this person did was to create landing pages that sniffed if a site visitor was using an Android or Apple device. The webpage would next swap in an “Apple Friendly” or “Android Friendly” icon to the webpage.

He did that because A/B testing proved that his audience converted at a slightly higher rate with those icons on the webpage. Such a silly thing, right?

Readers are focused on how a webpage topic affects them. When the site visitor hits a webpage the world stops revolving around the sun. It revolves around the site visitor, even if they are at an ecommerce store.

Do customers care why Apple created their own CPU chip?

No. They just want to hear about how it’s going to exceed their expectations and turn them all into heroes.

Zappos became popular because they made it easy to return the shoes. Their customer service was so good because they treated their customers like people who only care about their own needs.

What users want to see increasingly has to do with how your site, service, product, or information impacts their life.

3. Authoritative Means More Than Just Links

There is no authority metric at Google, and yet Google says it wants to rank authoritative content.

Part of determining whether something is authoritative has to do with language.

For example, sometime after Google Hummingbird, Google appeared to have begun introducing language-related features into the search results pages (SERPs).

I noticed that Google began ranking university research pages for a two-word phrase that software companies used to rank for.

The commercial webpages all had links to their sites, far more than these university webpages about research.

All of the commercial pages were banished from the first two pages of the SERPs except for one. That commercial webpage had the word “research” in the content of the webpage.

The .edu university webpages weren’t ranking because they had .edu magic or because of links.

For a short period of time, Google associated this two-word phrase with a type of topic (research) and chose to rank only pages that featured research, which at the time mostly consisted of university webpages.

Today, Google mostly ranks informational webpages for that two-word keyword phrase. In other words, informational content is authoritative for this two-word keyword phrase.

Links are the traditional measure of authority. Sites with more links are authoritative.

But language can be a signal of authority, too. This is evidenced in search results where the words that are used influence what is ranked more than the influence of links.

Links used to be the overwhelming deciding factor that powered webpages to the top of the SERPs. That is no longer the case.

Now it’s like natural language processing decides which race a webpage is going to run in and sometimes that race is on page two of the search results, depending on the user intent and what qualifies as authoritative for that type of content.

For some queries, informational content is going to race on Track 1 (analogous to the top half of the SERPs) and pages with commercial intent might qualify for Track 2 (analogous to the bottom half of those SERPs).

No matter how many links that commercial page may acquire, its content will never be authoritative enough to rank at the top for that keyword phrase topic.

To wrap up, what I want to do is introduce the idea that content can be authoritative in a way that has to do with the topic.

Users signal to Google (via their choices and activities) what kind of content is relevant to them. Content can either be authoritative for what users are looking for or not authoritative, regardless of links, based just on the content alone.

4. Comprehensive Content vs. Treating Visitors Like They’re 5 Years Old

When people think of authority, they sometimes think of being comprehensive, bigger, and at an intermediate level.

Stay with me, because authority and authoritativeness could be about understanding what users want and giving them what they want in the form that they want it.

Sometimes it’s in the form of a baby bottle. Sometimes authoritative means explaining it as if the site visitors were a 5-year-old.

For ecommerce, authoritative could be a webpage that helps the user make a choice and doesn’t assume that they know what all the jargon is.

Authoritative Content Can Be Many Things

For example, a site visitor could have the user intent of, “I’m dumb, what does XYZ mean?” In that case, authoritative content means content that is at the, “I have no idea” beginner’s level.

This may be particularly true for sites that are reviewing things that involve technical jargon.

A site that’s doing a round-up summary of top ten budget products might choose to focus on a quick and easy-to-understand summary that doesn’t have to explain the jargon.

In the full review webpage, it can have an explainer in a sidebar or tool-tips to explain the jargon.

I’m not saying that people are dumb. What I am saying is that sometimes it works out best to write content as if your site visitors lack intelligence because that’s the level many people may be operating at for a particular topic.

Seeing that there is a virtually inexhaustible supply of people who need to have things carefully explained, it can make for a winning strategy for long-term ranking success.

5. Let The Search Results Be Your Guide… To A Certain Extent

In general, it’s best to let the search results be your guide. There is value in trying to understand why Google is ranking certain webpages.

But understanding why a page might be ranking does not mean the next step is to copy those pages.

One way to research the search engine results pages is to map out the keywords and intents to the top ten ranked webpages, especially the top three. Those are the most important.

This is where current SEO practices can be improved.

Top Two Strategies That Can Be Improved

Imitate Top-Ranked Sites?

The general practice is to copy or emulate what the top-ranked sites are already doing except to “do it better.”

The idea is that if the top-ranked sites have XYZ factors in common then it is presumed that those XYZ factors are what Google wants to see on a webpage in order to rank it for a given keyword phrase.

Common sense, right?

Outlier is a word from the field of statistics. When webpages hold certain factors in common then those pages are said to be normal. The webpages that are different are called outliers.

For the purpose of analyzing the search results, if your webpage doesn’t have the same word count, keywords, phrases, and topics than the top-ranked sites contain, then that webpage is considered a statistical outlier.

Search analysis software will recommend the changes to be made so that the outlier page more closely conforms to what is currently ranked.

The problem with this approach is the underlying assumption that Google will rank content with the qualities that exist on webpages that are already ranked in the search results.

That’s a huge assumption with no logical basis.

Of course, another site that is statistically an outlier can outrank the top three ranked pages.

For example, I’ve ranked webpages higher than existing pages by doing things like explaining more or being easier to understand or including diagrams and original photos – and using keywords that the competition wasn’t using.

My pages ended up having not only a different keyword mix but the content, in general, was designed to better answer the question inherent in the search query.

That’s the difference between focusing on keywords and focusing on the search query.

In my opinion, it’s far better to understand the search query than to analyze webpages to identify Factors XYZ that may or may not have anything to do with why those pages are ranking.

The past several years of updates have been focused on better understanding what search queries mean and understanding what pages users want to see, in addition to other things.

So doesn’t it make sense to focus on better understanding what search queries mean and addressing that with your content in a way that’s easy for people (and search engines) to understand?

Analyzing the search results is a good thing to do in order to learn what the user intent is.

The next step should be to take that information and bring your best game to fulfilling the need that’s inherent in that user intent.

Create Pages That Are Bigger and Better?

The second strategy is creating content that’s better or simply more than the content of top-ranked competitors.

They’re both about beating the competition by imitating the competitors’ content but making it (vaguely) “better” or simply longer or more up to date.

So if they have 2,000 words of content, you publish 3,000 words of content.

And if they have a top ten list, outrank them with a top 100 list.

The concept is similar to a set-piece in a comedy where a clearly deranged man communicates his strategy for outselling a famous 8-Minute Abs video by creating a video called 7-Minute Abs.

Just because the content is longer or has more of what the competitor has doesn’t automatically make it better or inherently easier to rank or obtain links to it.

It still has to be useful.

So rather than focusing on vague recommendations of being ten times better or more concrete but completely random recommendation to be more than your competitor, how about just being useful?

Back to Search Results as a Guide

Mining the search results in a quest to understand why Google is ranking webpages will not produce useful information.

What you can possibly understand is the user intent and what I call the Latent Question that is inherent in every search query.

You can read about this here: Search Results Analysis: The Latent Question

6. Create Diversity In Your Promotional Strategy

It’s never a good idea to promote a site in one way. Anything that gets the word out is great. Do podcasts, write a book, be interviewed on YouTube, pop up on television, etc.

Be everywhere as much as possible so that how the site is promoted, how people learn about the site comes from many different areas.

This will help to build a strong foundation for the site that can overcome changes in the algorithm.

For example, if word of mouth signals somehow become important, a site that has focused on word of mouth type promotion will be ready for it.

7. Work To Prevent Link Rot

Link Rot occurs where links to a webpage are themselves losing links, thereby reducing the amount of influence they confer to your web page.

The solution to link rot is to maintain a link acquisition project, even if it’s a modest effort. This will help counter the natural process where links lose their value.

8. Website Promotion

Webpages must be promoted. A lack of promotion can cause a webpage to slowly and steadily lose reach, becoming unable to connect with the people who need to see the content.

Google’s John Mueller said:

“We use a ton of different factors when it comes to crawling, indexing and ranking.

So it’s really hard to say like, if I did this how would my site rank compared to when I do this. …those kinds of comparisons are kind of futile in general.

In practice though, when you’re building a website and you want to get it out there and you want to have people kind of go to the website and recognize what wonderful work that you’ve put in there, then promoting that appropriately definitely makes sense.

And that’s something you don’t have to do… by dropping links in different places.”

As Mueller said, it’s not just about having links added to webpages. It’s simply about letting people know the site is out there.

It can be through social media, by participating in Facebook Groups and forums, by local promotions, with cross-promotions with other businesses, and many other techniques.

Some call it brand building, where the name of a business becomes almost synonymous with a type of product or website.

9. Diversity Of Links

One of the reasons some sites bounce up and down in the search results is that there’s a weakness that sometimes has to do with a lack of diversity in the inbound links.

Anecdotal observations have noticed that sites that tend to sit at the top of the search results are the kind that has different kinds of links from different types of websites.

This may no longer be true with the advent of natural language processing (NLP) technologies that can put a stronger emphasis on content over links.

However, links continue to play a role – particularly the right kinds of links.

Setting aside the influence of NLP and focusing just on links, it may be helpful for a site to withstand changes in Google’s link algorithms by cultivating a diverse set of inbound links.

There are many kinds of links.

Resources links.
Links given in articles.
Links of recommendation given by bloggers.
Links in news articles.

It no longer matters if a link is blocked from being followed by a search engine using a link attribute called nofollow.

Google may choose to follow those links. Also, some links have value in building the popularity and awareness of a site.

10. Ranking Signals And E-A-T

There are many signals Google uses to rank a site. Google will even ignore links or spammy content in order to rank a site that is doing other things well.

Google’s John Mueller has said:

“A lot of times what will happen is also that our algorithms will recognize these kind of bad states and try to ignore them.

So we do that specifically with regards to links… where if we can recognize that they’re doing something really weird with links… then we can kind of ignore that and just focus on the good parts where we have reasonable signals that we can use for ranking.”

…we try to look at the bigger picture when it comes to search, to try to understand the relevance a little bit better.”

So there are qualities to a site that can overcome spammy links or SEO. What these qualities are can only be speculated about.

But I suspect that it has to do with how expert, authoritative, and trustworthy the content and the webpage is in itself.

11. Stay Aware Of Changes

In order to build a site that’s resistant to algorithm changes, it’s important to be aware of all of the announced changes to Google’s algorithm. Changes such as passage ranking, BERT, and how Google ranks reviews are all important to keep up with.

Try to understand what the subtext to the algorithm change could be, but do it by asking: How does this algorithm change help users?

When it comes to interpreting what an algorithm means, don’t speculate on motives. That’s always a bad idea and never helps to form an actionable ranking strategy.

Instead, think about algorithm changes from the perspective of how the change might help a user.

For example, the passage ranking changes could be interpreted as a way to surface more content for users because it previously had a hard time with long pages with less than optimal SEO.

The recent changes to how Google ranks reviews could be interpreted as Google expanding the range of sites that need to be trustworthy and accurate.

This means that it may be useful to focus on those qualities of trustworthiness and accuracy. Or it could mean being more authentic.

Focusing on the steps outlined above can help you build a high-quality site that can withstand changes to Google’s algorithm.

Featured image: Shutterstock/Fonstra

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SEO

Plot Up To Five Metrics At Once

Published

17 hours ago

September 7, 2024

Max

Google has rolled out changes to Analytics, adding features to help you make more sense of your data.

The update brings several key improvements:

You can now compare up to five different metrics side by side.
A new tool automatically spots unusual trends in your data.
A more detailed report on transactions gives a closer look at revenue.
The acquisition reports now separate user and session data more clearly.
It’s easier to understand what each report does with new descriptions.

Here’s an overview of these new features, why they matter, and how they might help improve your data analysis and decision-making.

▶ ️We’ve introduced plot rows in detailed reports. You can now visualize up to 5 rows of data directly within your detailed reports to measure their changes over time.

We’ve also launched these new report features:

🔎: Anomaly detection to flag unusual data fluctuations
📊:… pic.twitter.com/VDPXe2Q9wQ

— Google Analytics (@googleanalytics) September 5, 2024

Plot Rows: Enhanced Data Visualization

The most prominent addition is the “Plot Rows” feature.

You can now visualize up to five rows of data simultaneously within your reports, allowing for quick comparisons and trend analysis.

This feature is accessible by selecting the desired rows and clicking the “Plot Rows” option.

Anomaly Detection: Spotting Unusual Patterns

Google Analytics has implemented an anomaly detection system to help you identify potential issues or opportunities.

This new tool automatically flags unusual data fluctuations, making it easier to spot unexpected traffic spikes, sudden drops, or other noteworthy trends.

Improved Report Navigation & Understanding

Google Analytics has added hover-over descriptions for report titles.

These brief explanations provide context and include links to more detailed information about each report’s purpose and metrics.

Key Event Marking In Events Report

The Events report allows you to mark significant events for easy reference.

This feature, accessed through a three-dot menu at the end of each event row, helps you prioritize and track important data points.

New Transactions Report For Revenue Insights

For ecommerce businesses, the new Transactions report offers granular insights into revenue streams.

This feature provides information about each transaction, utilizing the transaction_id parameter to give you a comprehensive view of sales data.

Scope Changes In Acquisition Reports

Google has refined its acquisition reports to offer more targeted metrics.

The User Acquisition report now includes user-related metrics such as Total Users, New Users, and Returning Users.

Meanwhile, the Traffic Acquisition report focuses on session-related metrics like Sessions, Engaged Sessions, and Sessions per Event.

What To Do Next

As you explore these new features, keep in mind:

Familiarize yourself with the new Plot Rows function to make the most of comparative data analysis.
Pay attention to the anomaly detection alerts, but always investigate the context behind flagged data points.
Take advantage of the more detailed Transactions report to understand your revenue patterns better.
Experiment with the refined acquisition reports to see which metrics are most valuable for your needs.

As with any new tool, there will likely be a learning curve as you incorporate these features into your workflow.

FAQ

What is the “Plot Rows” feature in Google Analytics?

The “Plot Rows” feature allows you to visualize up to five rows of data at the same time. This makes it easier to compare different metrics side by side within your reports, facilitating quick comparisons and trend analysis. To use this feature, select the desired rows and click the “Plot Rows” option.

How does the new anomaly detection system work in Google Analytics?

Google Analytics’ new anomaly detection system automatically flags unusual data patterns. This tool helps identify potential issues or opportunities by spotting unexpected traffic spikes, sudden drops, or other notable trends, making it easier for users to focus on significant data fluctuations.

What improvements have been made to the Transactions report in Google Analytics?

The enhanced Transactions report provides detailed insights into revenue for ecommerce businesses. It utilizes the transaction_id parameter to offer granular information about each transaction, helping businesses get a better understanding of their revenue streams.

Featured Image: Vladimka production/Shutterstock

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SEO

Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Platforms To Maximize Sales In 2024

Published

2 days ago

September 6, 2024

Max

Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Platforms To Maximize Sales In 2024

Affiliate marketing has been experiencing explosive growth in recent years, so it’s essential now more than ever for brands to run affiliate programs of their own.

It involves brands hiring affiliates to promote their products and services and rewarding them with a commission from every sale.

As such, affiliate marketing is an excellent low-cost and low-risk way for brands to drive sales and brand awareness without hiring an in-house advertising and marketing team of their own.

Affiliate marketing spending worldwide is estimated at around $14 billion in 2024 – and the industry is predicted to reach a worth of over $38 billion by 2031.

Affiliate Marketing And SEO

Affiliate marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) both share a common goal of attracting relevant and high-quality traffic to a site with the goal of increasing sales.

As such, both of these marketing activities shouldn’t be perceived as two separate, competing entities.

Instead, you should look at them as one and the same that work together in perfect harmony to increase website traffic and generate more revenue.

The most successful publishers in the affiliate marketing space combine the two to get the best of both worlds.

SEO affiliate marketing involves choosing the right products and affiliate programs that attract the most search traffic and offer the best commissions.

Publishers often make the most of affiliate marketing by creating content that adds real value for their readers and prioritizes their experience.

Publishers often do this by creating “Best of” or “Top X” oriented posts that address their audience’s needs and pain points, while, at the same time, allowing them to monetize their content by using affiliate links throughout the posts.

By adding relevant and contextual affiliate links in such posts, publishers foster an authentic user experience that puts their readers first.

This is one of the most significant advantages of affiliate marketing compared to alternative marketing methods such as sponsored posts.

Today’s consumers are increasingly distancing themselves from heavily business-oriented content, as it’s often perceived as inauthentic and disingenuous.

By focusing on high-quality content that adds value to readers and combining it with relevant and contextual affiliate links, everyone wins!

Additionally, Google rewards publishers who create original content and add real value for their readers.

They reward such publishers by placing them higher in search results and driving more traffic to them.

But, in today’s highly competitive and increasingly dynamic market, how can brands find the time to manage and grow their affiliate marketing program?

The answer is with the help of the right affiliate marketing software that streamlines the entire process.

Once upon a time, running a successful affiliate marketing program meant manually managing every aspect – a time-consuming and inefficient process.

Thankfully, these days, affiliate marketing software and solutions have evolved to offer all the necessary tools in a single place, which simplifies the whole process and enables brands to optimize their programs and focus on growth.

Therefore, brands need to utilize the right affiliate marketing software to stay competitive and maximize ROI in today’s highly competitive affiliate marketing space.

This article will go over what affiliate marketing software is and what makes a great affiliate software platform.

We’ll also review the top 10 affiliate marketing software platforms that brands can use to take their affiliate program to the next level.

What Is An Affiliate Marketing Software?

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing software is a comprehensive tool that facilitates all aspects of affiliate marketing program management.

It allows brands to track, manage, and grow their affiliate marketing campaigns.

Most affiliate marketing software platforms share standard features such as affiliate onboarding, collaboration with affiliate partners, affiliate tracking and reporting, and referral, cost, and commission payment management.

What Makes A Good Affiliate Marketing Software Platform?

Though most affiliate marketing software platforms share many of the same features, what sets apart the good platforms from the bad is what’s important.

For starters, the actual platform must have an intuitive and user-friendly interface.

An affiliate marketing platform can boast all of the best affiliate tools and features available.

Still, it’s a moot effort if the dashboard is complicated for most people.

Additionally, since brands usually utilize a variety of Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms for ecommerce and affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing software platforms need to offer tons of third-party SaaS integrations.

The best affiliate marketing software platforms offer robust tracking and reporting capabilities.

Brands need to be able to precisely track their affiliate sales and access real-time granular data to measure the ROI of their affiliate campaigns effectively.

Additionally, a good affiliate marketing platform will provide brands with all the affiliate tools they need to launch, manage, promote, and scale their affiliate programs, such as flexible commission management and customizable real-time affiliate tracking and reporting capabilities.

At the same time, they should offer their clients peace of mind by providing the highest level of fraud detection and other security features.

Lastly, the best affiliate marketing software platforms mean nothing if there isn’t quality customer service available 24/7 to back it up. Readily available customer assistance is equally important for brands as it is for affiliates.

Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Software

1. Refersion

Screenshot from refersion.com, August 2024

With over 60,000+ registered merchants, 6.6 million affiliates managed, and $2 billion in affiliate revenue tracked, Refersion is one of the leading affiliate marketing software platforms on the market.

Its robust and highly personalized dashboard allows brands to manage all aspects of their affiliate program, such as monitoring all aspects of their affiliate activity with extensive real-time reporting capability.

Refersion offers brands all the tools they need to scale and promote their affiliate programs, such as managing commissions, payouts, and providing simplified tax automation. It also offers easy integration with popular tools like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

While Refersion does come with a higher price point than some competitors – starting at $99 per month – it’s hard to find a solution that offers the same level of top-notch affiliate tools, marketplace, and customer service.

Pricing:

The professional tier starts at $99/month (if paid annually) for up to 50 monthly order conversions.
The business tier starts at $249/month (if paid annually) for up to 200 monthly order conversions.
The enterprise tier is available with unlimited monthly order conversions – you’ll need to contact Refersion for pricing details.

2. Impact

Screenshot from Impact.com, August 2024

Impact is one of the biggest affiliate marketing software platforms for cloud automation.

Its signature product, the Impact Partnership Cloud, allows brands to automate their affiliate and influencer marketing campaigns. It offers a marketplace where brands can connect with a network of affiliates, influencers, ambassadors, and other possible partners.

The platform’s tools also include dynamic commissioning, reporting, advanced analytics, and third-party integrations for companies to track and manage their affiliate programs.

However, pricing is not readily available, and you must contact the Impact sales team for a custom quote.

Pricing:

Custom quotes are available upon request.

3. Tapfiliate

Screenshot from Tapfiliate.com, August 2024

For businesses primarily operating and generating their revenue on ecommerce SaaS platforms, Tapfiliate may be a great choice.

It features a range of automation capabilities, including an autopilot mode that can automate things such as onboarding new affiliates, sharing via social media, or even drip campaigns.

Tapfiliate easily integrates with major ecommerce players like Shopify and WooCommerce, and offers advanced tracking and reporting capabilities. However, most of the features are accessible only through the Pro plan, which starts at $149 a month – nothing to sneeze at.

Pricing:

The essential plan starts at $74/month for 1 team member and basic features.
The pro plan starts at $124/month for 5 team members and more advanced features.
The enterprise plan offers custom pricing for unlimited team members, unlimited tracking requests, a dedicated personal manager, and more.

4. Awin

Screenshot from Awin.com, August 2024

Awin, previously known as Zanox, merged with Affilinet in 2017 to become one of the largest affiliate marketing platforms, providing “unlimited access to over 1M vetted partners.”

It features a handful of marketing and reporting features you’d expect from such an extensive network, like tools for cross-device tracking, real-time reporting, and automated compliance management.

The platform’s Awin Access program is an interesting option for smaller businesses or teams newer to affiliate marketing, as it offers a straightforward setup process and flexible pricing to make joining the network easier.

Registration is free on Awin, but it uses a performance-based pricing model. This means brands pay a predetermined cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and specific pricing details are only available upon request.

Pricing:

Custom quotes are available upon request.

5. CAKE

Screenshot from getcake.com, August 2024

CAKE is another SaaS-based affiliate marketing platform, meaning you can access it from anywhere (with an Internet connection).

CAKE partners with a bunch of partners to offer a variety of streamlined and automated features. It’s known for its great tracking and reporting capabilities, which enable you to follow and optimize your campaigns in real time.

The platform boasts more than 500 advertisers, networks, and publishers across 50+ countries, and it offers 24/7 customer support to its users. It has customizable features, granular data analysis, and impressive fraud protection to give customers peace of mind.

Unfortunately, CAKE’s pricing is not readily available on its website. It also doesn’t feature any pre-made promotional tools for marketers, which doesn’t make it quite suitable for novice users just starting out with their affiliate program

Pricing:

Custom quotes are available upon request.

6. ClickBank

Screenshot from ClickBank.com, August 2024

ClickBank was one of the first affiliate platforms, launching all the way back in 1998. Since then, it’s grown to one of the largest affiliate marketplaces with over 200 million customers.

According to the company’s website, there are 300,000+ daily purchases made on ClickBank – and it boasts $4.2B in paid commissions.

ClickBank stands out for its native support for subscription services, which makes it easy for brands to create one-click, repeatable purchases. This allows them to provide monthly products without requiring manual monthly payments.

It also offers some of the standard features commonly found on most affiliate platforms, such as affiliate reporting, payments, commissions management, and third-party integrations. It’s quick and easy to list your products and set up affiliate programs on the platform.

However, compared to some of the other affiliate platforms on this list, it doesn’t offer a demo, free trial, or monthly pricing. Instead, ClickBank charges a one-time activation to list products on the platform and then a fee per sale.

Pricing:

One-Time Activation Fee: $49.95.
Transaction Fee: 7.5% + $1 per sale.

7. CJ Affiliate

Screenshot from cj.com, August 2024

CJ Affiliate is a well-known and reputable affiliate marketing platform. It offers access to hundreds of advertisers, publishers, and potential partners in one platform.

CJ Affiliate provides a customizable dashboard and a variety of reports and specialized tools, including advanced tracking and reporting capabilities. Most notably, it offers specialized tools, such as Deep Link Automation and Product Widgets, that enable brands to improve their affiliate program ROI.

While CJ Affiliate is a great choice for businesses of all sizes, it’s worth noting that the company doesn’t provide a free trial or demo, operates on a performance-based pricing model, and you’ll need to reach out for specific details.

Pricing:

Custom quotes are available upon request.

8. TUNE

Screenshot from Tune.com, August 2024

Designed for companies that require detailed tracking and analytics, TUNE allows brands to build, manage, and grow their affiliate partner networks through its proprietary marketing technology.

TUNE offers a flexible platform, which users can tweak and tailor to fit their needs. Within the platform, you have customizable tools, commissions, payments, and real-time affiliate tracking and reporting.

However, it doesn’t provide affiliate promotional tools like most other platforms, and there is no straightforward pricing listed on the website.

It does, however, list details on its different plans, including a Pro Plan with basic features up to an Enterprise Plan with features like custom integrations, premium support, enhanced fraud prevention, and more.

Pricing:

Custom quote available upon request.

9. LeadDyno

Screenshot from LeadDyno.com, August 2024

LeadDyno specializes in affiliate program promotion and perhaps offers the most promotional tools available in an affiliate marketing software platform.

LeadDyno offers tools that enable brands to create various promotional campaigns, such as email, newsletters, and social media campaigns, making it a wonderful choice for companies that want to expand the reach of their programs.

It provides a straightforward user experience that makes it easy to onboard affiliates, track your performance, and manage payouts. Extensive real-time tracking and reporting features give businesses the ability to monitor and optimize their campaigns.

Pricing is on the affordable side and LeadDyno offers a free trial – which not all tools on this list do!

Pricing:

The lite plan starts at $49/month for up to 50 active affiliates, one commission plan, one reward structure, and other basics.
The essential plan is $129.month and offers up to 150 active affiliates, three commission plans, and one reward structure, as well as other advanced features like a landing page, 1:1 call and video support, and more.
The advanced plan is $349/month and offers up to 500 active affiliates, unlimited reward structures and commission plans, and many other advanced features.
The unlimited plan is $749/month and offers unlimited active affiliates, unlimited reward structures and commission plans, and more.

10. ShareASale

Screenshot from ShareASale.com, August 2024

With over 20 years of experience, ShareASale has been around for quite some time. It’s a reliable solution for merchants and affiliates alike, and carries a variety of tools to help boost your affiliate marketing programs.

If you’re looking for an extensive network of affiliates and partners across a ton of industries, ShareASale is a good option for you. You’ll also get access to customizable affiliable management, real-time tracking, detailed reporting, custom banner, and link generation, and plenty more.

One thing to note: like a few of the other tools listed here, ShareASale uses a performance-based pricing model that includes a one-time network access fee and then transaction fees.

Pricing:

There is a one-time setup fee of $650.
Transaction fees: 20% of each affiliate commission, with a minimum of $35/month.

Wrapping Up

Great affiliate marketing solutions enable brands to easily launch and manage affiliate programs, as well as track referrals and sales made by their affiliate partners.

The best affiliate marketing software provides brands with all the tools needed to launch, promote, and grow their affiliate program.

At the same time, they provide customizable and easy-to-use reporting capabilities for real-time performance tracking.

Without reliable tracking and reporting tools, brands cannot effectively assess the success and profitability of their affiliate campaigns and partnerships.

More resources:

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SEO

Early Analysis & User Feedback

Published

2 days ago

September 5, 2024

Max

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has introduced a prototype of SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine.

The launch has sparked considerable interest, leading to discussions about its potential to compete with Google.

However, early studies and user feedback indicate that while SearchGPT shows promise, it has limitations and needs more refinement.

Experts suggest it needs further development before challenging current market leaders.

Study Highlights SearchGPT’s Strengths and Weaknesses

SE Ranking, an SEO software company, conducted an in-depth analysis of SearchGPT’s performance and compared it to Google and Bing.

The study found that SearchGPT’s search results are 73% similar to Bing’s but only 46% similar to Google’s.

Interestingly, 26% of domains ranking in SearchGPT receive no traffic from Google, indicating opportunities for websites struggling to gain traction.

The study highlighted some of SearchGPT’s key features, including:

The ability to summarize information from multiple sources Provide a conversational interface for refining searches Offering an ad-free user experience.
However, the research noted that SearchGPT lacks the variety and depth of Google’s search results, especially for navigational, transactional, and local searches.
The study also suggested that SearchGPT favors authoritative, well-established websites, with backlinks being a significant ranking factor.

Around 32% of all SearchGPT results came from media sources, increasing to over 75% for media-related queries.

SE Ranking notes that SearchGPT needs improvement in providing the latest news, as some news results were outdated.

User Experiences & Limitations Reported By The Washington Post

The Washington Post interviewed several early testers of SearchGPT and reported mixed reviews.

Some users praised the tool’s summarization capabilities and found it more helpful than Google’s AI-generated answers for certain queries.

Others, however, found SearchGPT’s interface and results less impressive than those of smaller competitors like Perplexity.

The article also highlighted instances where SearchGPT provided incorrect or “hallucinated” information, a problem that has plagued other AI chatbots.

While the SE Ranking study estimated that less than 1% of searches returned inaccurate results, The Washington Post says there’s significant room for improvement.

The article also highlighted Google’s advantage in handling shopping and local queries due to its access to specialized data, which can be expensive to acquire.

Looking Ahead: OpenAI’s Plans For SearchGPT and Potential Impact on the Market

OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood revealed that the company plans to integrate SearchGPT’s best features into ChatGPT, potentially enhancing the popular language model’s capabilities.

When asked about the possibility of including ads in SearchGPT, Wood stated that OpenAI’s business model is based on subscriptions but didn’t specify whether SearchGPT would be offered for free or as part of a ChatGPT subscription.

Despite the excitement surrounding SearchGPT, Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently reported continued growth in the company’s search revenue, suggesting that Google may maintain its dominant position even with the emergence of new AI-powered search tools.

Top Takeaways

Despite its current limitations, SearchGPT has the potential to shake up online information seeking. As OpenAI iterates based on user feedback, its impact may grow significantly.

Integrating SearchGPT’s best features into ChatGPT could create a more powerful info-seeking tool. The proposed subscription model raises questions about competition with free search engines and user adoption.

While Google’s search revenue and specialized query handling remain strong, SearchGPT could carve out its own niche. The two might coexist, serving different user needs.

For SearchGPT to truly compete, OpenAI must address accuracy issues, expand query capabilities, and continuously improve based on user input. It could become a viable alternative to traditional search engines with ongoing development.

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