Parasite SEO 2024 – highlights

Some publishers did not wait for Google’s penalties – they indexed their sites with coupons from Google.

Calm after the storm  – what happened after May 2024?

Google announced that the Parasite SEO problem would be addressed at an algorithmic level shortly. Nothing of the sort has happened.

The whole story is significant for publishers struggling to get additional monetisation for their sites. The search engine’s nervous reaction shows that, although the risk of manual interventions is still high – it is better to plan and implement narrowly themed site monetisation activities on themed subdomains than strictly within your main domain. Admittedly, during manual interventions, Google has limited itself to penalising directories, but it cannot be ruled out that penalties will one day affect entire domains.

(This is also an interesting issue that needs to be discussed in more detail. First of all, every site penalised is a Google publisher in AdSense. Consequently, sitewide punishment of its good publisher = a cut in the revenue generated by the ad network).

Parasite SEO – content marketing on steroids

As I write this text, publishing guest posts on external sites is still one of the most popular methods of acquiring links to a website in Poland. It is a simple, pleasant method because by sowing widely, we will always harvest something. Let’s civilise linkbuilding and give it more strategic charm.

How do you prepare for Parasite SEO activities step by step?

There are a few points that are worth discussing before starting.

• Clearly defined strategic goals – is the aim to bring in money from publishing, or to build awareness and reach?
• The speed of building a position on the main keyword from a sales/conversion of traffic perspective.
• Long/overdue exposure in search results would be a nice bonus.
• Natural placement on the publisher’s site – preferably permanent internal linking that will not be ‘spoiled’ by subsequent guest publishing by the publisher.
• The publisher’s flexibility and cost-effective collaborative amendments — for Parasite SEO to work and do well, you must collaborate and make appropriate amendments.
  Since publications benefit not only clients but also publishers, it is worth keeping an open mind for changes that may occur in the course of subsequent client activities.
• Content created in a subject silo model – even if this means ordering more than one publication from the same publisher.

Objectives for Parasite SEO activities – traffic and conversions or filling a hole while building positions?

As with any action we take, we need to be clear about our objectives. Are our plans created to drive more traffic to the site quickly or to sell products and services directly?

If we are concerned with maximising sales, then we are more interested in linking to our particular site than we are in linking to the target place where the product is purchased. This is a slightly more complex task, and working out how to link with the publisher will be necessary. Many times, without hiding affiliate links, sites are quickly targeted by Google and will, therefore, not rank properly in the search results.

Important: A popular way to circumvent restrictions on this type of activity is to link via a link shortener built within our domain. In this way, we can optimise the flow of SEO power and use it in the future.
When our actions aim to position a site (ours or our client’s), it is quite simple — we link to the referring or complementary content section of our target site.

Selection of sites for Parasite SEO

In addition to the publisher’s flexibility and openness, we are primarily interested in finding a site that allows us to build traffic to the publication quickly.

In this case, there are specific aspects that I am watching out for:

1. Understanding and acceptance of the subject I want to promote – I have more than once encountered a situation in which a publisher accepts all texts in the first year of publication and then, due to a lack of understanding of the requirements and legal restrictions, withdraws from this, removing publications placed on the site. Apart from destroying the potential revenue stream from the content – this often complicates the long-term strategy of the activities carried out. For this reason, it is advisable to ensure that the publisher/platform provides adequate guarantees in the event of early removal of publications.
2. The topicality of a site is not the most important thing, but it does make things easier. There are many myths surrounding the thematic nature of the site, but from the point of view of ease of publication and openness on the part of the publisher, it is better to look for those who deal with the subject you are interested in than to create this area on your own.
   1. The site’s thematic nature makes it easier to negotiate fantastic internal linking — with little effort, you can get more referrals to your publication.
   1. If you want to base your efforts on something other than topicality – prepare a list of keywords you care about (extensive!) and check what domains are positioning in the top10 and top20 for the keywords you are interested in. If you see sites there that allow you to publish content yourself – you know what you can do about it 😉.
   1. You can exclude competing domains from the list, and the rest is a matter of free negotiation. Remember that a guest post done head-on is also an opportunity for Parasite SEO activity.
3. Current distribution of backlinks and anchor texts on the site. The more ‘SEO’ links, the more likely there will be fluctuations in traffic to parts of the site in the future.
4. Position building over time is worth analysing a few published posts on the site. Are they building organic traffic? Do they rank in search results?
5. Is the site on Google Discover and Google News? With good optimisation and topicality, this is free traffic that both the publisher and you can use with your themed service.
6. How does the service monetise its traffic? Does it use Google’s advertising solutions?

Creating content for Parasite SEO  – a good plan, first and foremost

Like our website’s content, the Parasite SEO publications should be well-prepared. Pay attention to a few things.

1. Content gap to complement our content needs. For the sake of constancy and quality of action, it is worth preparing a comprehensive analysis of whether and for which keywords in our category the website is already positioning (or which content it already has). In this way, we can quite easily:
   1. create content that, apart from competing in the search results, does not have an uphill battle internally (we avoid the problem of cannibalisation).
   1. Knowing that the website contains a lot of content in our specific field, we can negotiate strong and efficient internal linking (vital for SEO, especially in the era of AI).
   1. This is a very cost-effective option: We buy exposure in an existing publication and pay for link maintenance (e.g., monthly amounts). Especially when browsing overseas sites, you can see that many times, you don’t need to plan the content at all — you just need to appear where the position is already done.
2. When planning content for publication, it is worth building entire thematic silos. For example, suppose you want to be in the top10 for the phrase ‘weight loss pills ranking’. In that case, it is worth planning a series of supporting texts within the same domain and negotiating a better price for multiple publications with a link to the main text. In this way, by staying close to the main theme of the site, we build ourselves our own silo with appropriate internal linking.
3. As with the content we create on our pages – matching the intent and managing it seamlessly is critical. Therefore, when planning the keywords for which we want to publish content, let’s ensure that we also match the intent. Taking care of the UX of the content will certainly translate into better results.
4. It is worth considering and paying for additional website promotion — linking from the homepage can significantly improve an entry’s position in search results.

Important: The current distribution of guest post positions on Forbes shows that even when we have a lot of content about the same thing – everyone can garner some traffic for themselves. When covering the same topic again, it is worthwhile to:

• Analyse all the posts published on the site so far on the topic.
• Check their internal sub-linking and outbound links. Often, the advertiser ends their relationship with the publisher and does not extend the acquired links to the site, or the outbound links are broken. By doing a bit of outreach, we can quickly acquire a relevant link to our site.
• Let’s gather all the keywords that competing subject posts are positioning for.
• When creating your text, let’s ensure the new content’s UX is good —start with a summary and bullet point the most important information against the other texts.

Link the entry relative to the competition externally.

Is it necessary to link externally to Parasite SEO?

Yes and no. First and foremost, linking from a lower level — so-called tier 2 — must be qualitative.
It is our responsibility to the life and effectiveness of the publisher/website from which we are gaining traffic.
Although Google copes with low-quality links and devalues them independently, a publisher who sees a sudden influx of poor links may remove the publication.
Indeed, linking externally to Parasite SEO efforts requires attention to continuity. Historically, I can remember many situations where companies created so-called ‘rats’ – mutually linking to each other and to other series of publications, which, when the publisher’s policy changed, were broken and did not work as originally intended.
For this reason, if you are planning sub-linking activities, link only to Parasite SEO and not in addition to each other. Simplicity of linking is key here and ensures the best results.

Whether and how to monitor Parasite SEO activities?

From a purely business point of view, if something cannot be measured, it cannot be taken seriously.

The palette of available solutions varies depending on our primary objective before undertaking Parasite SEO activities. Some worthwhile options to consider:

1. Visibility of published entries – i.e. how many and which keywords they rank for in Google. Monitoring this element will be crucial for further linking activities (Linking at a lower level – so-called tier 2).
2. The amount of traffic provided from publications.
   

In the case of linking to owned sites, the referrer report in Google Analytics 4 will be a great way to monitor the effectiveness of your efforts. By the way, I do not recommend tagging posts using UTM codes unless our goal is not to gain SEO ‘power’.

We can track click and traffic data in GA4 for clicks on a pre-prepared shortcode. In the case of clicks on the previously prepared shortener, we can track click and traffic data in GA 4.

3. Measuring conversions from Parasite SEO activities over time — here, the issue is a little more complicated, but using the conversion path report, we will be able to ‘weigh’ the role of the links acquired and activities carried out over time.

 4. It is worth noting that, depending on the goal set for Parasite SEO, its contribution to conversion building (place in the path) will change. If the target is building the position of the landing page, a falling share of conversions will be natural.

Quo Vadis parasite SEO? About ethics, risks and long-term perspectives

Given Google’s negative attitude towards the practice in question and the risk of manual intervention for the publisher, it is worth raising the topic of responsibility and reasonableness in the actions carried out.

The effectiveness of Parasite SEO activities and long-term peace of mind depends on each party. The publisher needs to manage the amount of this type of content published well. Better control over the quality of the content, its optimisation, and its fit with the site minimises the risk of being unnatural in the eyes of Google. Good management of the process and sales is also an opportunity to build a long-term page view base for your site.

We, as SEO professionals, should focus on the long-term maintenance of the value of the sites from which we acquire links. I know that none of us have the time to do this, but it is only when we keep this in mind that we can sustainably build quality traffic to our sites.

Parasite SEO, when attempted to be civilised and put into a long-term strategy, is what link building should be — acquiring (primarily) SEO ‘power’ and (as much as possible) additional traffic to our website page.

However, for this ecosystem to work as it should, it is crucial to develop an open relationship between clients and publishers — open enough to respect each other’s sites and SEO budgets.

About the author

Łukasz Rogala – SEO/SXO strategist

Łukasz Rogala is an SEO/SXO strategist with 13 years of experience in the industry. He has extensive knowledge of both in-house and agency work and uses this experience to provide high-quality custom tactics to his clients. Currently, he is focused on developing his boutique SEO and content agency, VerticalSEO, and is responsible for technical SEO for Warner Bros. Discovery in Poland. In the past, he has executed SEO activities for major brands in Poland and supported their international operations. Łukasz prefers to focus on content SEO in the morning, technical SEO at lunch, and linkbuilding in the evening. This approach allows him to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Additionally, he serves as a judge for international SEO/SEM competitions, including the European Search Awards, Global Search Awards, and UK/US Search Awards.

You can find Łukasz at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukaszrogala/?originalSubdomain=pl