Over the years, it seems as though what began as a harmonious relationship between the number one search engine and the growing number of affiliate marketers is turning into a more disjointed one. In recent years, Google has made significant strides in controlling the user experience when using the search engine.

From controlling what type of content is acceptable, which sites affiliates can link to, how many ads appear in relation to published content, and even taking efforts to remove affiliate marketers from organic search results – the message seems to ring loud and clear. But, how does Google really feel about affiliate marketers now?

The following points were extracted from an Infographic produced by SEOBook and Lumin Consulting, appropriately titled Google’s Love/Hate Relationship with Affiliates. You can check out the full Infographic below.

Loves them:

• Many of Google’s earliest advertisers were affiliates
• AdWords is the largest online advertising portal in the world – largely due to affiliate efforts
• Google has invested in a number of affiliate programs
• Google runs another affiliate network – Google Affiliate Network, in addition to their AdSense program, which is the largest affiliate network

Hates them:

• In late 2009, without warning, Google banned over 30,000 affiliate AdWords accounts
• Linking to certain products or networks can result in an automatic ban from AdWords, however Google does not disclose guidelines to direct affiliates to allowable networks or products
• It’s been noted that Google has taken measures to remove affiliate marketers from organic search results
• In 2010, at Affiliate Summit no less, Google’s Frederick Valleys said affiliates are largely “just and unnecessary step in the sales funnel.”

*I will venture to guess that little sentiment didn’t make him many friends in that crowd.

Internet Marketing Infographics by SEO Book

Google Talks SEO

Head of Google’s Webspam team, Matt Cutts, sat down to answer the question on many marketers’ minds, “Does Google consider SEO to be spam?”

Google’s Emphasis on Quality

Thousands of affiliate websites felt the impact of the Panda algorithm update. The first launch affected 12% of the rankings in the United States, and in round two, a more targeted change, impacted about 2% more.

The common thread seems to be that Google, along with all search engines, wants to provide quality content that offers real value to searchers. If you’re an affiliate and your website is covered with more ads than the classified section of the newspaper there is little to no value for a reader.

The bottom line is this: Don’t duplicate content, beef up your empty pages with lots of engaging and unique content, equalize your ad-dominating page ratios, and add a human touch with content that people will actually want to read.