If you've been in the affiliate marketing game for a while you've probably been pondering the answer to the question, “What is Google's flipping deal?!”
It's been an interesting ride over the past few years as an affiliate marketer and it's certainly been a tale of three competing objectives: Making a living, pleasing your customers, and pleasing the big G.
To say the relationship affiliate marketing has had with the overlord of search has been tumultuous is an understatement.
Sometimes it seems they love us like when Google invests millions of dollars into the industry, but sometimes it seems they hate us such as when they wiped out thousands of affiliate's adwords accounts overnight with no explanation.
Maybe the left hand of Google doesn't know what the right hand is doing 🙂
Perhaps this infographic from search engine optimization website SEOBook will give you some clarity of how affiliate marketing is seen in the eyes of Google:
