Building a successful affiliate website isn’t as simple as designing a few pages or writing a blog post with compelling content. Even if you do your best and create a website you are proud of, there is still a chance it won’t rank the way you have expected. But, why is this happening? How can you improve your rankings without making major changes to your website? Worry not, we have all the answers! Keep reading this guide, and you too will know what the answers to these questions are. 

The importance of having an affiliate website that ranks high

There are so many things that need to be taken into consideration when entering the world of affiliate marketing. All of them are connected and will determine whether you will be a successful affiliate marketer and whether your website will have a good ranking. But, why is the website’s ranking such an important issue? Can you be a successful affiliate marketer with a not so successful website?

You can ask the best affiliate marketers abut this matter and they all will give you a short and simple answer. If you want to be good at affiliate marketing, you need to get noticed. And, to get noticed, your website needs to have a good ranking. Websites that have better rankings attract more traffic and are a source of a better income. It is as simple as that! Thus, if you are experiencing problems with your affiliate website, you will need to find a solution to them… and you will need to do it as quickly as possible.

So, why your website isn’t ranking the way you expected?

Affiliate marketing and SEO are constantly evolving. Techniques change and if you aren’t keeping up with these changes, there is a high chance your website won’t be ranked as high as expected. If that happens to you too, don’t let it overwhelm you. Instead, look for ways that will help you solve the problems you are experiencing. To help you out, we have prepared a list of the reasons why your website isn’t ranking on Google as high as it was expected. Read it carefully and you will learn how to improve your site’s rankings with ease. 

You haven’t indexed your affiliate website

Before we proceed to more complicated stuff, we need to start from the basics. The first and one of the most obvious reasons why your website isn’t ranking as high as expected is because you haven’t indexed it. Keep in mind that Google won’t show your website even if it is improperly indexed. So, to solve this problem, research how indexing works or simply find an expert who can take care of this task for you.

Man using his tablet

Every website needs to be indexed because that is what determines whether it will be shown in Google’s search results

Your affiliate website has been penalized by Google

In some cases, Google will penalize your website. But, why is this happening? Is there a way of preventing this from happening? 

Well, if you have tried to use some spammy tactics to get a better rank on Google, there will be consequences. Google can recognize these tactics with the help of a human reviewer. If a human reviewer suspects that a website owner has used spam, unreal links, or you have hacked a site, they will be able to file a report. If this happens to you, don’t worry. Google will present this report to you and will offer clear instructions on how to deal with these irregularities.

The keywords you are using are too competitive

Whoever thinks about <becoming an affiliate marketer>, will need to learn how to do effective keyword research. Keywords are an important part of SEO and affiliate marketing and can help attract the audience you want. With the help of simple tools, you can, in matters of seconds, find out which keywords are the most common among your target audience. But, this doesn’t mean you should start using those keywords as soon as you set up your affiliate website. These keywords are too competitive and won’t bring you the results you want. So, instead of using them, opt for keyword variations. They will give you better results. If you want to learn more about the proper ways of using keywords, check out Google SEO guidelines. Right there, you can find answers to every question you have regarding this matter.

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Keywords that are too competitive won’t do your website any good

Your content isn’t well-crafted nor interesting

Having an affiliate website that has no content won’t do you any good. You can’t attract your target audience if you have nothing to offer them! Thus, you should learn the best affiliate marketing and SEO techniques and learn how to create content that sells. It needs to be interesting and to engage people. But don’t overdo it. There is nothing worse than a website that is too plain or that looks cheap.

You aren’t following the most important SEO tips

In order to improve rankings, you should learn about the <SEO mistakes most affiliates make> and how to avoid them. SEO is the key to good rankings so you should do your best to follow the most important SEO tips when setting up an affiliate website.

  • Freshen up your content
  • Update meta descriptions
  • Look for broken links and remove them
  • Check for grammar mistakes
  • Choose your new links wisely
  • Add multimedia to your website
  • Update your website regularly
Man writing about affiliate websites

Write down the most important SEO tips that can help you with affiliate marketing

In case you notice any mistake or broken links, fix them as soon as possible! A well-maintained affiliate website is more appealing and will increase traffic to your website.

There you have it – these are the most common reasons why your website isn’t ranking. Do you have any questions regarding affiliate marketing? If so, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us! Our team will gladly answer every question you have.

Anica Jovanovic
Written by Anica Jovanovic

Anica Jovanovic is an online marketing specialist and copywriter for Advivus. She has worked intensively with SEO and copywriting for several years in the US market and has since worked for an online marketing agency helping clients to succeed with their online marketing efforts.