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FRED: Google's
Deadliest Update Ever?

Thousands of Content Based, Affiliate Income Websites Were Hit Hard By Google's FRED.

Did Google Kill YOUR site on March 8, 2017?

FRED: What is it & Why You Need To Know

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Home / Ask EelKat Anything / FRED: Google's Deadliest Update Ever?

By EelKat Wendy C Allen

Author of Cozy & Gothic Fantasy, Sweet/Fluffy M/M Furry Romance, Cosmic Horror, Space Opera, & Literary SoL genres. I write Elves, Fae, Unicorns, & Demons.

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March 8, 2017, Google Unleashed FRED

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Today's question about web building, content sites, and affiliate marketing comes from The Warrior's Forum. Quote below are from three different people.

Read the full thread HERE.

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While my original answer to this question about Google's FRED update appeared on the thread linked above, my answer here on EelKat.com is longer and has more detail then the one posted on the original forum.

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Google's FRED Update
What is it and how was EelKat.com effected by it?
My Answer:

Yes.

I did just link to the Warrior's Forum from my web site.

Here, have another link to it.

Links are the topic of discussion here today. Might as well blast you with as many as possible and prove the point I'm trying to make by actually doing instead of just talking about it right?

Can't have poor quality links on my site after all... not after Google's FRED update and it's backlash at sites with a lot of links, right?

Let's see? How many links does it take to get to the center of Google's latest tootsie roll tootsie pop? Let's find out...

90% of the people reading this, just fell back in horror and asked: "Wendy, what the hell are you doing on the Warrior's Forum! That's the biggest, evilest, darkest, dirtiest black hat SEO community on the internet!!!!"

Yep. It is that. One must know one's enemy if one is to outrank them. ;)

That, and I have to keep on top of cutting pirates and copyright infringers off at the knees. You'd be surprised how many "Get rich quick" WSO's of the Warrior's Forum are made 100% out of content scraped off my website. That place is riff with scam artists stealing my articles off EelKat.com and selling them as WSO's for "a one time low price of just $99.99 for my 10 page report on how to self publish on Amazon!" Those 10 pages, that you can find here on my site for 100% FREE, because I don't charge for the advice I give to new writers looking to get started in self publishing.

THAT'S why I'm on the Warrior's Forum... to hunt down people who steal articles off my site. No where on the internet will you find scam artist pirates selling stealing my articles more then you will on the Warrior's Forum. When it comes to the Warrior's Forum, I seem to be one of the most stolen from authors.

7 out of every 10 "WSO reports" on self-publishing, Kindle authorship, writing Erotica, building content based web sites, and freelance content writing careers are 100% scraped right off my website. Yes. Why bother paying $399 for a 15 page report off the Warrior's Forum, when you can read the ORIGINAL, from the ACTUAL author, right here on my website for FREE?

But, Warrior's Forum is not all evil.

No. In fact. MOST Warriors are actually real live Internet Marketers looking to give and get advice on making money online. The Warrior's Forum is actually one of the #1 best places on the internet to get information on how to build a web site. I've been on the Warrior's Forum since 2007 and the help I've gotten from others there, has far outweighed the scam artists that lurk on the site.

But, that's where I first got wind of FRED. I knew something had happened, and I wasn't sure what, but it looked like a Google update and it looked like a big one, and I knew if it was a Google Update, then surely there would be no better place to find out what it was, then the Warrior's Forum.

Yep. I was right. It was a Google Update.

THOUSANDS of sites are being turned topsy turvy. Massive amounts of sites have had their life lines cut off. Thousands more have been shot straight to the top with no logical reason at all.

Did Google's FRED gave you a boost?

Same for me. 

By quite a lot actually.

My site was averaging 3,000 hits a month (pretty standard for the niche, {Sissification CBT Yaoi Unicorn Porn} which is super small and only has an estimated 7,000 die hard followers world wide) and suddenly I've got traffic coming out the wazooo.

Just checked my Google Analytics, so I could give you an exact number for this article... as of right now, 5 seconds ago (March 28, 2017 @ 11:20PM), my traffic this month so far is:

75,962 page views so far!

That's insane.

To go from 3,000 views a month to 75k after one Google update... I've been hit hard by Google updates before: Panda, Penguin, Pigeon, Phantom, Hummingbird, RankBrain... usually I am on the winning side of these too... in fact, the only time I was on the losing side was when I was writing for Squidoo, and my own articles did not get hit by Panda, which is why I was able to flee that sinking ship and come out on top.

The secret to making money online? It's staying up to date on the latest changes with Google and adjusting to meet, match, and exceed Google's expectations. 

It's being fluid and able to change gears mid stream. It's knowing when to jump ship. It's knowing when to grab on to the new ship cruising in. A lot of Squidoo writers lost their careers when Panda hit. Only a few of us were able to hang on for the ride and and sail to the top after Panda's typhoon sent shock waves across the internet. It's being flexible like that, changing with every change Google tosses out, that is the real secret to making money online.

I've seen minor ups and downs over each Google update. I've learned to track each update, study what Google wants, and make my content be what Google asked for, but never before have I been rewarded for my diligance in this level.

The side effects FRED has had on my site are insane.

I don't even know what to think about FRED at this point. This genre/topic/niche {Sissification CBT Yaoi Unicorn Porn} just doesn't get traffic like this, it simply doesn't happen. I mean, at 3k a month I was ranking the #1 most trafficked site of the niche, and now it's just gone ZOOM waaaaay over the top of anything reasonably expected for the topic.

I'm just sitting here eating marshmallow bunnies and wondering: is this a fluke or will this trend continue into the rest of the year? I can only wait and see what else FRED has in store for us.

I'm not entirely sure the full details of it yet, as it just happened March 8, 2017 so not a lot of research has been done into it yet. All that is really known is that is seems to have targeted affiliate sites - cutting traffic off almost entirely, from any "content site" that has HEAVY focus on affiliate links, with only minimal "content"

In other words, sites that post a 400 word "article" followed by several product links to Amazon, saw their traffic go from 1,000+ visits a day to ZERO visits at all - NONE - not even one - meaning Google unindexed their urls - blacklisted them, removed them from the search engine entirely.

On the other hand ACTUAL content sites, with articles 2,000+ words long, and only a single affiliate link here or there, suddenly saw 10s of 1,000s of page views overnight. With some sites going from 10 or 12 visits a day to 10,000+ visits a day.

Things have gone crazy right now for anyone with a content focused, topic based, affiliate monetized website (which is what I do, thus why my site was one of the one's effected by FRED).

If Google creates an algorithm change that effects content sites and affiliate marketing, then I want to know about it so I can be right on top of it and keep up to date of what is going on. Any change that effects me, I want to know about.

But what do we know about FRED?

Not much actually.

Google has yet to say anything at all about FRED.

Near as I can tell, from what I've seen on my own site, what my fellow SBIers are saying is going on with their sites, and what Amazon storefront owners are saying is going on with their sites (I'm on several small forums for these types of sites, so I'm seeing a lot of chatter - good and bad - from pretty much every one with an affiliate monetized, article based, niche-topic content site, right now)... near as I can tell the ONLY sites effects are content sites (which includes blogs, Amazon stores, SBI sites, and similar sites) that are posting daily articles, with heavy keyword focus, and are using affiliates.

From what I'm seeing, it looks like big articles, long articles, 2,000+ word counts are "IN" and being given a heavy boost; while small articles, short articles, articles under 1,000 words are being penalized.

Along side of, sites focused on affiliate marketing with LOTS of "buy this" content, being punished heavily; while sites with only minimal links and more focus on writing long content with a lot of information, are being given a boost.

This is proving what I already knew from Panda's attack on Squidoo and similar sites. Google wants sites that are providing useful and meaningful information for our readers.

Google does not want junky sites loaded down with crap.

Google doesn't like sites that are all about: "GIMMIE! GIMMIE! GIMMIE!"

Google wants sites that are helpful, useful, and have REAL CONTENT of REAL VALUE to offer to READERS, who are looking to READ something useful.

Well, Google has a history of trying to reduce spam and promote quality, so this update is only bad news for those of you out there who are trying to beat the system.

Google is punishing sites that are abusing the system and rewarding sites that are actually trying to help people. And that's exactly as it should be. 

Gone are the days when you could manipulate Google into driving you traffic, simply by stuffing enough keywords into your site.

Gone are the days of making fast cash, by plastering ads all over your site and sitting on your ass doing nothing.

Google wants people who put time and effort into creating good content. Content people actually want to read. Content people are actually searching for.

We already knew it, but Google is telling us once again, that content is king.

FRED clearly is targeting affiliate sites and content sites and any site focused on writing articles to promote traffic to product sales.

Basically, what happened was nearly all the losers were very advertisement heavy, especially banner ads, and offered little or poor quality content, which had no value for the reader. While all the winners were putting content over monetization.

It is very obvious that the sites hit hard by this had a lot of advertisement, outdated, thin and scraped content, a lot of spun content, a lot of not original content, and did not care about giving any real information to the viewer, caring only about getting clicks on their affiliate links.

And from the amount of sites effected... it appears to be one of Google's biggest updates ever, rivaling Panda's 2012 update that mass attacked content farms and resulted in places like Associated Content, Squidoo, and Yahoo Voices being shut down.

FRED Says: Content Is King!

What is Google FRED update telling us? What we already knew to begin with:

CONTENT IS KING!

I'm often laughed at and called out by internet marketers, because I put so much time and effort into writing super long articles that focus on content and information.

On the Warrior's Forum, I'm frequently told I am stupid for having a higher rate of text and a lower rate of affiliate links.

And yet, who is it who is weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth, bemoaning this FRED update? Those very same people who said I was stupid for focusing on writing super long articles full of quality content that provided valuable information to my readers.

Why did my site get a boost from the FRED update?

Because in 6,000 pages I haven't got one article with fewer then 3,000 words, several are over 10,000 words and my most trafficked pages have 20,000 words per article. At the same time only 1 in every 10 or so pages has an affiliate link on it.

While the Warriors focused on lots of quickly hashed out 400 word posts, stuffed full of keywords and packed to the teeth with affiliate links, I focused instead on content over promotions of products.

Why?

Why did I do that?

 Because I think of my articles as THE PRODUCT itself.

While they are focusing on driving traffic AWAY from their site to go buy affiliate products, I was focusing on driving traffic TO my site, to receive my products (my articles, being the products themselves.)

I'm not creating a bridge to a product, I am creating the actual product.

Why send people to someone else's product when I could be sending them to my own products?

My website is not a mass of ad copy to get you to buy someone else's products, my website is the product that people seek to consume. And THAT is why Google like's my site.

My site is focused largely on sharing information. I'm not pushing products or focusing on squeeze pages or trying to get people to buy anything. And THAT is what Google wants. Information for people with questions, seeking answers.

I have survived FRED.

And now you know why.

I have survived yet another web site slaughtering Google Bot.

Did you?

How has FRED effected you?

In other words, sites with links to affiliate products are a dime a dozen and do not offer anything new. They do nothing but send people to the same tired old products over and over again.

And now here's the kicker....

Contrary to what nay-sayers are saying, Google is NOT punishing content sites because of product links... Google's FRED is punishing sites because of the TYPE of links.

Google is REWARDING sites that DO NOT abuse the system...  Google is REWARDING content creators who create unique original content not available elsewhere.

Sites with UNIQUE user created product links are not being punished.

Naysayers are saying that Google is targeting sites linking to products for sale.

No... not what I've seen. I've spent the day looking at the sites saying they've been black listed and comparing them to the sites saying they got a boost. I'm seeing a trend that speaks out loud and clear: UNIQUE CONTENT is being pushed to the top, while shitty, shoddy, scraped and stolen content with heavy affiliate link promotion is being squashed like a bug.

If you are doing nothing but slapping up 400 words of scraped content and tossing affiliate links all over it, hoping to get rich quick, then Google's FRED is going to smash your site to smithereens.

If you were paying careful, close attention, you will notice not 1, but 4 money making links in that last box.

One is the link to the SBI affiliate banner. Did you find the other 3?

If you said: The videos; you were right.

Yep.  

YouTube videos are a way to monetize your website, WITHOUT using affiliate links. And, Google actually REWARDS you by boosting your site's rank, if you embed YouTube video on your pages. This is because Google owns YouTube and Google likes to promote sites that promote them.

You have reached the end of this article.

Embedded in this article you have passed, 14 money making links.

1 Google AdSence banner

9 product links to products I created

3 video links to AdSence monetized YouTube videos

and only 1, single, solitary affiliate link, and it's not actually what Google considers an affiliate link.... Why? Because I live in Maine, where Affiliate Marketing is Illegal and anyone who lives in Maine is not allowed to put affiliate links on their website site.

and THAT is why I survived Google's FRED update.

I survived because I have a lot of USER CREATED CONTENT, content that was created by me, myself. Not content created by others and curated on my site, but my actual own products.

USER CREATED PRODUCTS: art and books, in my case, but there are plenty of other products out there that you can create.

There are 14 money making links on this page, art, books and USER CREATED VIDEOS, but only 1 affiliate link.

And notice I emphasis USER CREATED videos. The videos are my own. They are no some one else's. That does make a difference. Sites that are getting a boost in traffic, have another common theme: embeded videos which they created themselves. Their own vlogs. Their own content.

And yes, that does mean, a common theme of sites being punished by FRED is they are curating videos. Sites that do nothing but promot OTHER users' videos, also took a hit from FRED. Google doesn't want an index of videos competing with YouTube. Google owns YouTube. They don't want you making a site and filling it with every video you run across. 

If you are linking to other people's videos, Google is gonna send FRED to bitch slap you.

Yes, 14 money making links is way too many for a short article like this. Don't do that on a normal page. But like I said earlier, thee was a reason I was going overboard with the links on THIS page in particular. To prove a point. And what was that point? That FRED is not punishing ALL links, as many nay-sayers are saying, but rather FRED is punishing a certain type of link: affiliate links.

Yes, there are 14 money making links on this page, but only 1 of them is an affiliate link. I did this to show you, that you don't have to plaster your pages with affiliate banners. You can still make money online without them. Just be a content creator.

Do you see the trend?

Google wants USER CREATED CONTENT: from articles, to products, to videos, Google wants things that YOU created YOURSELF.

Affiliate links are things created by someone else, hosted by you and thousands of others like you, and you and the thousands of others like you are paid to promote it. Meaning it's not UNIQUE content, because there are literally THOUSANDS of sites promoting that same affiliate links over and over again, no matter which affiliate link you are promoting.

Whereas user created stuff is UNIQUE to you and your website and not available elsewhere.

You will not find my articles ANY PLACE else. They are unique too my website.

You will not find my products for sale anywhere else, they are unique to my Zazzle store.

You will not find my videos any where else, they are unique to my YouTube channel.

The message is clear: UNIQUE CONTENT that is 100% genuinely user created, by YOU and YOU alone, is what Google wants.

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This article was originally written on: March 28, 2017

This page last updated on: April 7, 2017

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