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> Why exactly would Google want people to thoughlessly click on Amazon affiliate links I don’t think it’s specifically Amazon links, but if they’re mindlessly
by donmcronald 5y ago
> Why exactly would Google want people to thoughlessly click on Amazon affiliate links
I don’t think it’s specifically Amazon links, but if they’re mindlessly measuring metrics without thinking about “why” things happen, the affiliate link spam that dominates results might increase ad buys. Think about it. If you can’t rank on the first couple of pages due to affiliate marketing spammers, you might buy an ad. If you’re competing with some of those spammers for ad buys, you might pay more.
It’s just super poor leadership and a lack of critical thinking that has let it happen IMO.
- jsnell 5y agoSo we've an "if", a "might", a "might", and one more "might" with no supporting evidence, and that's directly contradicted by the screenshots in the article. Specifically, if the goal here was to bury the good content so that people would be forced to buy ads for it *there should be some ads pointing to said good content*. There aren't in the screenshot. I would suggest that you didn't really think this through. You've decided who the villain is, spent 10 seconds coming up with a illogical narrative where that is true, and then just state it as some obvious fact. Just like the author of the original article.
- navane 5y agoThe first hit he gets is a website plastered with ads. Boosting sales of ads is still a plausibele explanation. "But I bet it has something to do with the fact that all of the bikes they review are sold on Amazon and that every link uses an Amazon affiliate tag. It goes quite well with the dozen or so ads plastered across the site (some of which are autoplaying videos with sound)."