the google loophole that created overnight million with timestamps YoutubeScribe.com

[0:00] It was the ultimate loophole - a way to buy
rankings on the first page of Google behind
[0:04] the guise of a trusted brand.
[0:06] Websites made millions of dollars
selling sponsored posts.
[0:08] But what seemed like the ultimate Google 
cheat code suddenly came crashing down…
[0:13] Today, we expose the rise and fall of parasite SEO.
[0:17] Let's start with a basic Google search.
[0:19] Let’s say that I want to research the best
identity theft protection services.
[0:24] So as I scroll through the ads and to the regular blue
link results, we see this post from Times Union
[0:30] about the “Best Identity Theft Protection services.”
[0:33] Now, when I click to the page,
everything looks great!
[0:35] In fact, Times Union traces
its beginnings to the 1800s.
[0:40] And today, this New York-based news publication
is owned by Hearst – the company behind household
[0:46] names like Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and dozens more.
[0:50] But if we take a closer look at the page on the
so-called “best” identity theft protection services,
[0:56] there are a few things here that I’m pretty
sure average web surfers will miss.
[1:01] Take this light-grey text at the top
of the page: "Paid Advertising."
[1:05] And look at the byline.
[1:06] This article is written by a company
called "Norcal Marketing."
[1:10] Now, if we scroll through the identity theft
service recommendations, you’ll notice
[1:14] that they’re all affiliate links.
[1:16] And this means when you click on these links
and make a purchase, the affiliate, or in this case,
[1:21] Norcal Marketing, is compensated.
[1:24] And we’re not talking about a buck or two.
[1:26] Services like Lifelock and Aura reportedly offer
commissions of over $100 per qualified enrollment.
[1:32] Now, there’s nothing wrong with affiliate
marketing or paid advertising.
[1:36] But it becomes an interesting discussion
if we think about the motive behind these
[1:40] product recommendations.
[1:42] Are these product recommendations genuine
or are they recommended because they pay
[1:47] affiliates the highest commissions?
[1:49] Now, the reason this question is important
is because roughly 82% of Americans say
[1:53] they mostly trust the results they see on Google.
[1:56] Which now raises even more important questions.
[1:59] Who wrote these articles and what's so special
about them that 82% of Americans would trust
[2:05] them with their purchasing decisions?
[2:07] It might not sound like a big deal if
it’s an article on the best keychains.
[2:11] But when we’re dealing with products that
can potentially cause harm to one’s health,
[2:15] finances, or even security,
it becomes a big freaking deal.
[2:20] I mean, what if one of the recommended identity theft
services wasn’t actually providing monitoring services,
[2:26] but instead, they were selling customer’s
personal information like social security
[2:31] numbers behind closed doors?
[2:32] Or what if we were researching the best weight loss
pills and some random website was recommending
[2:37] a dangerous drug that could potentially
lead to addiction, illness or even death?
[2:43] Would you have checked the byline or
researched the credentials of the author?
[2:46] Probably not.
[2:47] So how is it that a marketing company or
pretty much anyone with the right skillset,
[2:52] able to shortcut their way to the top of Google’s
search results behind a trusted brand?
[2:57] Well, there's a term for what’s happening
here and it’s called "Parasite SEO."
[3:01] Parasite SEO is a marketing practice that’s made
some websites and marketers a lot of money…
[3:07] but the real story is who is getting rich off of
these search results that come off to regular
[3:12] people as “Google’s recommendations?”
[3:15] Now, before we can answer that question, you need to
understand the appeal of parasite SEO and how it works.
[3:22] So, SEO stands for search engine optimization
and it’s the process of optimizing a website or
[3:27] webpage to improve its rankings in search engines.
[3:31] Now, when we introduce the word “parasite” to
the equation, it means that someone is attaching
[3:35] their brand, or in this case, affiliate links, to
highly authoritative websites, like a parasite,
[3:43] to more easily gain visibility in search.
[3:46] And it’s clear why people do this.
[3:48] Getting to the top of Google’s search results for
popular and commercial queries like ‘best identity
[3:53] theft protection services' is obviously very lucrative.
[3:57] And that contributes to competition,
making it a cutthroat topic to rank for.
[4:01] Now, when it comes to ranking in Google, it’s
helpful to have a domain that Google trusts as
[4:06] being highly authoritative, and that's
something you can't build overnight.
[4:10] Building a reputable website from scratch
requires hiring a team of SEOs, writers,
[4:15] designers and developers, easily costing millions of
dollars – not to mention, this will take years to build.
[4:23] But if these websites with high authority and
trust are so valuable, who would be willing to
[4:29] be a so-called “host” for these parasites and
risk promoting products on their platform that
[4:35] they haven’t even checked out?
[4:36] The answer is clear if we answer these questions.
[4:39] What type of sites have very high trust
and authority, cover a vast array of topics
[4:44] from health to business to finance to lifestyle
to entertainment, and are desperate for a new
[4:52] source of revenue.
[4:52] There’s one that checks all the boxes: print journalism.
[4:56] Most print newspapers have had websites since 
the 90's or early 2000's, giving them decades to
[5:02] establish themselves as authoritative
sources of information.
[5:06] And over the years, they’ve earned tons of backlinks
from other websites, which is and has been one of
[5:11] Google’s most prominent ranking
signals from its inception.
[5:15] And in case you haven't heard, print
journalism is in desperate need of cash.
[5:21] Print media is dying, with over 2000 American
newspapers shutting down from 2005 to 2021.
[5:27] In fact, the number of American journalists
working in 2020 was half of what it was in 2008.
[5:34] So with a struggling business model, those that stay
in business have to keep the lights on somehow,
[5:40] and one easy source of revenue that some news
websites discovered is to sell sponsored posts.
[5:46] And because SEOs are buying sponsored posts
and actually ranking them, that’s why we see
[5:50] results like this one from Dallas News
on the best weight loss medications.
[5:55] It looks like a genuine article from a trusted
news outlet, but if we check the byline:
[6:01] it's actually authored by a familiar
name – Norcal Marketing.
[6:04] But wait, where's the disclosure
that this is  an advertisement?
[6:07] Ah, there it is up above the article in the tiny
off-color font, labeled as "Marketplace."
[6:14] Click to expand that because that’s
what everyone does…
[6:17] And there's the disclosure, cleverly hidden away.
[6:20] Now, how widespread has parasite SEO gone?
[6:23] Well, if we look at DallasNews.com’s "Marketplace
posts" aka their sponsored posts directory, we’ll find
[6:29] a dozen or so posts.
[6:31] And these are typical listicles with affiliate
links in lucrative niches like higher education,
[6:37] health, and gambling.
[6:38] And it doesn’t stop here.
[6:40] They also have a "branded-content" directory and
we found around 70 posts that were published in
[6:45] September 2023, coming from sources
like "Rise Advertising," "Originated Media,"
[6:51] and of course, "Norcal Marketing."
[6:53] Now, because we keep seeing Norcal Marketing,
I took their name over to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
[6:58] and did a search for articles
where they have a byline.
[7:00] And to my surprise, I found nearly 700 pages
from news sites that I’m sure you’ve seen before.
[7:07] Sfgate, Mysanantonio, Timesunion,
and Dallasnews to name a few.
[7:13] And just look at how classy these topics are.
[7:16] Now, considering the scale that these
companies are buying sponsored posts at,
[7:20] I think it’s safe to assume that the ROI
has been very positive for advertisers.
[7:26] And while we don’t have the exact details of
the agreements between host and parasite,
[7:31] we can look to sponsored post marketplaces
like Publisuites to get a glimpse into the market.
[7:36] Based on our research, we found that buying
a sponsored post on a website with an Ahrefs
[7:41] Domain Rating of 80 or higher will run
somewhere in the range of $500 to $1,260.
[7:48] And some of the larger online media publications
in dining, travel, and technology verticals are charging
[7:54] over $4,200 for a sponsored post.
[7:57] Now, given that paid articles like the ones
we’ve seen can cost several hundreds or even
[8:02] thousands of dollars, it’s safe to say that these
local newspapers seem to be doing a good job
[8:08] of cashing in on the trust and reputation
that they’ve built up over the years.
[8:13] I mean, if Dallas News is posting 70 sponsored
posts per month at a cool $2,000 per sponsorship,
[8:19] that’s $140,000 made that month.
[8:22] That’s a lot of money.
[8:24] But perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of
parasite SEO are probably the advertisers.
[8:29] To better understand this, just look
at this URL from Forbes.
[8:33] It gets roughly 20,000 monthly visits
from Google, which is pretty good.
[8:37] But because of the commercial nature of the topic,
buying that same traffic from Google ads would cost
[8:43] them over $200,000 per month!
[8:46] And check out this page on TimesUnion 
on the best online casinos.
[8:50] At one point, it had over 50,000 monthly organic
visits with a traffic value of over $300,000 per month.
[8:58] And because SEO delivers free and consistent 
traffic that doesn’t fade over time, they were
[9:04] getting that same value month after month
without spending an additional dime.
[9:09] Now, this seemed like a clear slam dunk win
for marketers who were able to effectively
[9:14] buy overnight success from trusted websites.
[9:17] And it was – at least not for everyone.
[9:20] In August 2023, Google rolled out an algorithm
update that would shake marketers using this
[9:25] search engine optimization tactic.
[9:27] DallasNews’s branded content section went
from zero to nearly 2 million monthly visits fast.
[9:34] And now things are crashing down.
[9:36] Outlook India, another common parasite SEO favorite,
saw traffic to its sponsored listings go down by more
[9:42] than a third just weeks after the August core update.
[9:46] And if you dig deeper, you’ll find that the majority
of the traffic loss comes from listicles on very
[9:52] lucrative topics like this one on the best payday loans
which once had over 220,000 monthly organic visits.
[10:01] And this one, about the best skin lightening
creams that’s now pretty much at zero too.
[10:06] Now, while there are still many sponsored
posts out there masquerading as genuine
[10:10] and authoritative organic content, it seems that
the reliability and therefore profitability of this tactic
[10:18] may be starting to dwindle.
[10:19] And that’s the problem with building a business
on hacky Google exploits – especially when you
[10:24] don’t even own the platform.
[10:26] At any point, Google can pull
the rug out from under you.
[10:29] And if your entire business revolves around
publishing low-quality sponsored content
[10:35] on high authority websites, then the rug
pull is what you should expect.
[10:39] Now, I’m not here to tell  anyone how they
should or shouldn’t run their business or do
[10:44] SEO or affiliate marketing.
[10:46] But I’ve been there before and have taken all sorts
of shortcuts - some that cost me seven figures.
[10:51] And what I’ve learned is that what’s here today
and gone tomorrow is usually not something
[10:57] that’s worth investing much time,
resources, or effort into.
[11:01] And while making a quick buck is obviously
interesting to everyone, having a long-term
[11:07] mindset is going to help you build
a business that compounds year over year.
[11:12] And both SEO and affiliate marketing
are great ways to do this.
[11:16] We have a completely free beginner’s SEO course 
that’ll teach you how to rank pages in Google for
[11:20] the long term, and we have another free course
on affiliate marketing where you’ll learn how
[11:25] to build a revenue-generating affiliate business.
[11:28] Links are in the description.

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