Google’s spam update vs. AI affiliate sites: An SEO experiment

Bear in mind when it was simple to rank partial-match domains and headings to commercially meant search queries?

When paired with the correct methodologies and conversion-optimized widgets, you can silently earn tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in affiliate income monthly with minimal upkeep.

It was attainable to get by with simply updating articles for relevancy and freshness alerts, for instance.

Strain-testing Google’s spam replace

Earlier than the experiment, I had spent a number of months scaling an affiliate initiative in a way more above-board manner for a longstanding web site in a YMYL category.

We had success with hiring material specialists (SMEs) to jot down useful, instructional content material that truly knowledgeable readers.

Whereas the brand new content material primarily focused commercially meant key phrases, that wasn’t the web site’s sole function for current. There have been additionally 1000’s of pages of user-generated content material (UGC) that impressed the brand new content material, and guests would navigate from them to transform, as effectively.

We had model belief, authentic analysis, knowledgeable insights, and every thing else you’d anticipate from a good writer.

It was an ideal combine: verticalized legacy UGC with 1000’s of earned backlinks and a industrial lever that served a preexisting demand whereas adhering to {industry} finest practices. It was a really useful expertise.

The experiment: Scaling AI with out belief

If the primary mannequin was constructed on belief and earned authority, this one would take away these alerts fully. 

Throughout that point, influencers on LinkedIn had been doing the identical factor. Besides they had been utilizing AI to generate 1000’s of pages by scraping and rewriting content material, or by programmatically aggregating public knowledge.

That’s once I searched in my sofa pillows for a number of {dollars} and purchased three domains that partially matched the next queries: “finest welding colleges,” “finest plumbing colleges,” and “finest electrical colleges.”

The purpose? Deliberately take a look at a set of low-trust, high-scale ways which are generally promoted on-line and see how lengthy they might persist.

I then used AI to make the web sites fairly, fetched public knowledge with a vibe-coded Python API name, and used ChatGPT to template all the subheadings and paragraph textual content you’d sometimes see rating throughout the net. 

Inside a number of hours, with the assistance of liquid content material, I revealed 1000’s of bottom-funnel pages throughout three web sites. I used to be in a position to inject public knowledge, goal superlatives by program sort and state, and embody a listing with particular person, templated pages per faculty.

I even leveraged aggressive inner linking practices that prioritized crawl protection over consumer intent.

The setup violated virtually each long-term belief sign — which made it a helpful take a look at of how the system would react.

All three websites shared the identical traits:

• Zero model alerts.
• Programmatic AI-generated content material.
• Public knowledge aggregation.
• Aggressive inner linking.
• No authentic analysis or authorship alerts.

Dig deeper: What 4 AI search experiments reveal about attribution and buying decisions

Confirmed: The information exhibits Google’s spam updates work

The web sites labored briefly. Indexation was quick, pages surfaced for long-tail queries, and impressions climbed sooner than anticipated.

Inside their first couple of months, all three web sites had been producing about 200 in-market clicks every.

However as you possibly can see, they flatlined laborious in the course of the first December spam replace since their inception. The truth is, clicks dropped to 0.

I attempted turnkey knowledge updates and including a number of performance-boosting plugins, however they by no means recovered.

In isolation, I’m not sure that any single one among these ways induced the failure greater than one other. Together, these ways produced a web site whose solely defensible worth was rating in and of itself. As soon as that sign stopped being helpful, nothing remained

The perception isn’t that the web sites failed — it’s that Google tolerated them simply lengthy sufficient to be taught from them.

Does affiliate content material advertising and marketing nonetheless work?

Sure, affiliate content material advertising and marketing nonetheless works as a monetization layer, however not as a development engine.

There are many web sites that present a useful consumer expertise whereas adhering to finest practices and producing affiliate income.

As to how, consult with Google’s documentation on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, the place you possibly can be taught extra about evaluating whether or not your web site is publishing “content material that’s created primarily for individuals, and to not manipulate search engine rankings.”

• “If the ‘why’ is that you just’re primarily making content material to draw search engine visits, that’s not aligned with what our methods search to reward. When you use automation, together with AI-generation, to supply content material for the first function of manipulating search rankings, that’s a violation of our spam insurance policies.”

Nevertheless, even when following finest practices, the rise of AIO, the nice decoupling, and dozens of different elements have made affiliate internet marketing much less profitable than it as soon as was.

Luckily, there’s an alternate. 

Dig deeper: Inside Google’s secret search systems: 1,200 experiments, AI agents, and entities

The place is content material heading in 2026?

The actual takeaway isn’t that Google cracked down on spam, or that affiliate content material advertising and marketing stopped working. It’s that companies constructed on a single, cheaply replicable distribution channel are uncovered the second that channel adjustments.

The following period of content material will more and more drawback companies that deal with search as their sole distribution channel.

As an alternative of specializing in simply replicable subjects, many {industry} practitioners are shifting towards verticalized analysis and benchmarks that spark actual conversations inside communities. 

Content material is now not a collection of pages meant to rank. Somewhat, it’s a mix of discovery, discourse, and thought management that spans many channels.

Discovery, discourse, and thought management

Hypothetical: You’re a SaaS enterprise within the monetary expertise house that gives companies with enhanced monetary forecasting.

As an alternative of publishing touchdown pages that focus on “finest monetary forecasting software program” or “most reasonably priced monetary forecasting software program” (the SaaS equal of bottom-funnel rating pages), think about doing deep dives with {industry} leaders who’ve one thing useful so as to add to the dialog.

Depend on their insights to establish the biggest gaps in monetary forecasting in 2026 and validate: Does my product really resolve this? If it does, you’ll have discovered an ideal wedge into the group.

If not, there’s your roadmap.

Use these problem-and-solution insights to develop touchdown pages with interactive assessments paired with benchmarking experiences knowledgeable by industry-leading organizations.

The “why” is that the content material exists to assist organizations contextualize each the place they’re and the place they wish to be.

Whereas these assessments or research might not rank within the first place in Google for high-volume search queries, you possibly can as a substitute leverage owned channels, associate distribution, paid media, and extra to place them in entrance of your very best purchasers.

These insights function a launching pad for speaking learnings from actual conversations that aren’t simply replicated. By doing so throughout many various channels, you successfully improve your capacity to be all over the place.

When you execute effectively and supply true worth, not solely do you contribute to a group, however chances are you’ll unlock the expansion you’ve been in any case alongside.

Firms like Stripe and its “Developer Coefficient” and HubSpot and its “State of Marketing” are doing this precise factor.

Dig deeper: 3 GEO experiments you should try this year

Content material in 2026: Fewer pages, deeper moats

This mannequin seems very totally different from scaling 1000’s of programmatic pages. It additionally comes with tradeoffs:

• Slower suggestions loops.
• Much less attributable ROI.
• Fewer “fast wins.”
• Extra dependence on distribution and partnerships.

In 2026, content material is about fewer pages, deeper perception, a stronger standpoint, and belongings which are tougher to duplicate.

The spam replace didn’t kill my area of interest web sites for Christmas, nevertheless it uncovered how skinny the margin is for something constructed with out belief.

Search advertising and marketing isn’t about avoiding content material penalties — it’s about constructing issues that may’t be simply copied with AI.