Starting April 1st Google is again making it more difficult for affiliates to get by
by making it mandatory for the display URL to match the destination URL.

In other words, if there is a product with domain cheapwidgets.com and you search for cheap widgets you may see ads with the following URL’s

  • cheapwidgets.com
  • cheapwidgets.net
  • cheap-widgets.com
  • widgetscheap.com
  • etc…

all pointing to the affiliate site cheapwidgets.com. This can be done no longer.
In Google’s words NO EXCEPTIONS. While it won’t affect every affiliate marketer, just trying to skirt by without owning a website will be more and more difficult.

For those of you who use tracking software, the following is acceptable as long as the final destination matches the parent domain in the display URL.

For example, the following would be acceptable:

* Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
* Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
* Landing page URL: www.google.com

Learning how to build a basic site and craft a landing page are all too important in the affiliate world of pay per click.