Written by Brook Schaaf

Many sites (affiliate and otherwise) have seen sustained drops in Google traffic over the past year. The two main reasons for this seem to be HCU, the Helpful Content Update, which dates back to 2022 but seemed to have had the strongest effects on sites starting last year, and Site Reputation Abuse, which took effect in May of this year, perhaps most visibly with Vouchergeddon.

For some sites, the consequences have ranged from deleterious to devastating. Last month, Julien Brault of fintech company Hardbacon attributed its bankruptcy to Google, which “decided it was the end of affiliate.” This past week, Joshua Tyler announced the end of the entertainment site Giant Freakin Robot. Content creator Morgan wrote on X: “If you were hit by HCU, do not expect a recovery anytime soon.”

The climax (or perhaps nadir) of this story may have been the Google Web Creator Conversation held on October 29th at their Mountain View headquarters. Tyler wrote: “The idea that this might be a funeral [as it was later dubbed], was put forward as a half-joke by one of the shadowbanned attendees during our first Q&A session, in which we asked questions and got no answers…only the Googlers laughed.”

Lars Lofgren, Marie Haynes, and Harry Clarkson-Bennett each recently posted their own takes. The topic even made Adweek, which cited an estimated lost traffic value of $7.5 million or more for a handful of sites. 

So what comes next? 

None of the commentators seemed optimistic that small sites would recover traffic. In fact, they anticipated less traffic would come as content can be absorbed into generative search results. But that still leaves a transaction uncompleted if the query relates to something commercial, as many do. Affiliate links will naturally be one form of monetization for publishers to use, and they can buy traffic or get it from the next generation of search engines.

As with an actual funeral, we must grieve for what has been lost (frankly, killed, if your perspective is embittered), then reorient and go back to work. 

The affiliate model itself remains alive and well.

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