How to find affiliate sites and get out of the affiliate filter
Affiliate sites are created to monopolize regional search results. In the distant past, webmasters tried to manipulate the search results in this way. They created several identical sites for one company to occupy all the places in the TOP.
But since search engines want to give the user a real choice, monopolized SERP is considered unacceptable. Therefore, special algorithms have been configured that prevent the violation of search engines' policies. This under-estimation complicates the SEO-promotion of other web sites.
As a rule, the filter is automatic, but when complaining about an affiliate site, it can also be applied manually. The algorithm determines affiliates according to several criteria. The coincidence of several or even one parameter may become a reason for aliasing a filter.
Criteria that the algorithm can pay attention to when identifying affiliation:
- domain owner;
- hosting provider;
- contact info;
- domain name;
- identical product catalogs;
- single owner of accounts in analytics systems;
- Whois;
- IP address;
- domain age;
- links to each other;
- structure, design, content, and more.
The verification of information about the domain owner is performed by Whois. The service provides all the necessary information that is in the public domain:

Any of the above criteria may cause a filter to be applied. In the main, the algorithm takes into account a combination of factors, but individually, each criterion may not work in your favor. For example, the reason for posing restrictions is likely to be the matching up of content (catalogs and products) in conjunction with the same company contacts.
Affiliate filter features
If your sites took certain positions in the search results by key phrases, and then an update occurs during which only one website remains in the TOP, and the rest fly out well over a hundred or are excluded from the index altogether, then sanctions have likely been imposed.
If one web site wasn't excluded from the index and retained its position, then it was most likely recognized as more relevant, so the rest of the websites were pushed to the end or completely excluded.
A significant minus of the affiliate filter is that the consequences remain for a very long time. It isn't always possible to return to the TOP for several keys. Some SEO-experts assert that complete filter removal almost doesn't work.
How to detect site affiliates

Search affiliates with the help of Webconfs
How to prevent branch sites from being affiliates
- london.example.com
- newyork.example.com
Elimination of affiliate filter overlay causes
- Contacts. Contact information is often the reason why algorithms stick websites. Therefore, be sure to indicate different phones, actual addresses, mail. If you find your contacts on a foreign site, then immediately inform the search engine with the help of the support service.
- Uniqueness. If you find that you have non-unique content on the pages, rewrite it if plagiarism is detected exactly on your site.
Don't forget that you should also pay attention to the Title and Description. Each site should be as unique as possible; therefore, it may be worth even replacing styles. Pay attention to the structure, logos, and design. This doesn't guarantee absolute safety from the filter, but in aggregate, it can play a positive role.
This item also includes URL uniquelization. If you used the same address generation template on two websites, you need to change it. Don't allow the same catalogs or products on different sites, because all online stores are alike. The most important thing for a search is to be unique.
- Domain providers, domains, hosting, and servers. You need to buy domain names from one registrar for several web sites carefully, so it's better to close your personal information from everyone. The same domain owner, server or hosting provider talks about the connection between the sites.
- Links to each other. Linking sites among themselves, in this case, doesn't play in your favor. Navigating from the main site differs from linking different sites using key phrases.
- same contact information;
- same content;
- the same prices and a common catalog;
- incomplete whois match.
In this case, the owner must:
Conclusion
A sign of filtering is a recession in the positions of all sites except one.
To prevent affiliate sites from falling under the algorithm:
- include the region in the URL;
- write down different addresses and uniqualize the content;
- set regional affiliation with the help of Google Search Console and Google My Business.
- to find out the reasons how the connection was discovered. As a rule, the reasons are cumulative, that is, there are several factors;
- to eliminate existing deficiencies. You must completely uniqualize the site and its contents, edit the contacts, hide the domain information and so on.
This article is a part of Serpstat's Checklist tool

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