How I Cleaned Up My Affiliate Strategy, Got More Clicks & Made Google Happy

Affiliate links are great… until they aren’t.

You know the deal. You write a solid post. It ranks. It gets traffic. But it’s littered with affiliate links.

In case you missed the memo: Google crushed gazillions of affiliate sites with its HCU update back in 2023.

And 99.9% of them have yet to recover.

Is Your Site Nothing More Than A Doorway?

No one knows for sure how Google applied its HCU classifier; it hit a ton of informational sites, killing most of them within 6-12 months. Those that managed to hang on did so because they had decent social or newsletter subscribers.

If your business model relied on adverts or affiliates – or both – and not a tangible product or service, you no longer serve a purpose inside Google’s search engine.

One operating theory about the HCU classifier goes like this: if your site is a doorway, meaning users go from the SERPs to your post and then straight to an affiliate offer, you’re “not being helpful” – and Google wants to cut you out.

This is why SEO types on X constantly claim Google hates affiliates. It doesn’t HATE affiliates, it just hates pretty much anything and everything these days.

Affiliate sites done in the traditional way were just easier targets; they have lots of tells, things an algorithm can quickly spot and isolate. Like:

• Cloaked links

• Low dwell times

• High bounce rates

• Zero scroll depth

Things like dwell time, the number of pages visited, and engagement (scroll depth, for instance) matter. And, thanks to Chrome’s tentacles which act as Google’s nervous system, analysing and tracking everything people do on the web, these things are most likely part of Google’s mysterious ranking process.

Bottom line? The lower these metrics are across the board, the worse your site does. This is why HCU was a site-wide classifier; it took a snapshot of your entire site. Not a single page or post.

So, how in the heck can you still do affiliate marketing, please Google, and increase engagement metrics on your site?

My Method For Doing Affiliate Marketing That Google Loves

Late-2023 and most of 2024 was a low-point for me. All of my sites were smashed by HCU and all of a sudden my bills and outgoings started to look very intimidating.

I cut costs, let staff go, sold things I didn’t need (that baritone guitar I never play, old phones – whatever I could spare).

And I went on lots of long walks. No headphones. I just walked and walked and walked, and thought about things.

I asked myself: what does Google want to see, what kind of signals is it tracking. 

I came up with plenty of theories, tested them, and most failed.

But then I hit on one that I thought had legs because it was simple and something I could actually do pretty easily: increase engagement metrics on my site.

If a user is looking at more pages that means my site is being more helpful (I know this is something Google looks at closely). And it makes sense too; it’s like the antithesis of bounce rate.

More pages viewed = happier users. Simple.

Here’s the exact approach I use to do this…

Instead of packing affiliate links inside my content, I started building clean, conversion-focused landing pages using my go-to theme of choice, Ollie (with the Pro version installed).

Then, I used a plugin called Internal Link Juicer to automatically link specific keywords in my posts to those pages.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Build a High-Converting Landing Page

I create a simple, conversion-focussed landing page for every offer / product I promote. I use Ollie Pro for this. But you could just as easily use the free version.

This landing page is 100% focussed on conversion – everything is above the fold and there’s only one thing to click on: the button for the affiliate link.

My content – all the posts and pages that link to the landing page – does all the leg work, this page is just there to close the deal.

There’s no header, no other links – just the affiliate link. This limits the reader’s options: they can click the link and find out more, or close the page. Most tend to click the button.

Curiosity is a powerful thing.

For the content, here’s what I include on the page:

• What the product does

• Why it’s useful

• Who it’s for

• A clean CTA button (affiliate link)

Everything important is above the fold. People land, scan, and click. Easy.

Step 2: Noindex That Page

These landing pages don’t need to rank. That’s not the point. I noindex them, so Google doesn’t even bother crawling them.

They’re built to convert, not rank.

If you wanna get really fancy, you can even do these pages programmatically and can build hundreds of them a day, although I wouldn't recommend that.

When it comes to proper, focussed affiliate marketing less is definitely more.

You’ll need good content to support these pages, though. Good content is the key here. Even if you’re using AI to generate content, there’s no excuse for producing weak content.

Check my guide on how to create AI content that doesn’t suck – again, it’s very simple to implement and it’ll make a massive difference to how people view your site and brand.

Step 3: Link From Content To Your Landing Pages Automatically

If the landing page is not indexed, how does it get traffic? Simple: from my existing posts and pages.

With this approach, every post on your site can become a supporting page for an affiliate offer.

You don’t even have to manually do the links. Using Internal Link Juicer (and a little pre-planning) the entire process runs automatically in the background.

For instance, say you’re promoting a food delivery service. You don’t have any posts yet but you’re about to work on 20 or more.

Create the landing page, get it look good. Next, think of a bunch of phrases you would naturally use in the posts that will support this offer / landing page. For instance:

• The food delivery service I use.

• The best food deliver service I’ve tried to date.

• The best value food delivery service.

• My go-to food delivery service.

You get the idea. Now, when you’re creating your posts all you have to do is make sure these keywords and phrases appears inside your content.

Once the post goes live, Internal Link Juicer will automatically link them to your food delivery service offer landing page.

Overtime, this will send plenty of traffic to your landing page. And the best part? It’s completely free to do and does not require any paid tools.

You can even do it manually if you like.

Get creative, you know how you write, so just plug these keywords and phrases into Link Juicer when you’re setting up the landing page.

The end result is automatically scaled internal links to your landing pages. If you have a lot of content, this can deliver massive results really quickly.

Why This Works So Well

• Cleaner content: My blog posts read better. No sketchy links everywhere.

• Better UX: Readers click a keyword, land on a sleek page, and convert.

• More engagement: Instead of bouncing, users visit two+ pages. Google loves that.

• Affiliate links stay hidden: They only appear on the landing page, not in the content Google is indexing.

• Higher trust: Readers feel like they’re getting a recommendation, not a sales pitch.

Bonus: My Site Looks Cleaner in the SERPs

Instead of articles packed with cloaked affiliate links, my posts look natural. No red flags. No affiliate footprints.

And because the user flow goes: Google → Article → Internal Page → Conversion

I get longer sessions, more pageviews, and better rankings over time.

Instead of a user coming to my site and viewing only one page, they view two: the post and the landing page before converting.

Does this negatively affect conversions and commissions?

Honestly, I don’t think so. I haven’t noticed any drop-offs since I’ve implemented it. In fact, thanks to HCU my traffic has been lower but my commissions are increasing.

You can still do your boilerplate Best X Product list posts. These are fine. Everybody does them.

This strategy is a method for just expanding your offer’s reach across your entire site without negatively impacting your site’s overall SEO.

Another bonus? It keeps everything a lot more organised.

I use Thirsty Affiliates to manage the affiliate links, Ollie Pro for the landing pages, and Internal Link Juicer for auto-linking.

Thirsty Affiliates and Link Juicer are both free plugins. Ollie Pro is paid. But you can do this with the free version of Ollie or whatever theme you’re using.

The Takeaway

The Click, Click, Boom strategy – trademark pending – isn’t a fix for Google’s HCU nor is it a magic bullet that’ll 10x your earnings.

But it does allow you to cover way more ground, use your existing informational posts are supporting posts for affiliate offers, and – most importantly – it keeps affiliate links off these pages and increases your engagement metrics.

You can then spread your net wider, cover more ground, get more clicks between pages on your site and after a few weeks of crawling by Google, who knows – maybe your site will no longer be viewed as a “doorway site”.

It’s simple, right? The best things always are. Happy hunting!