New Google Webmaster Help video alert! Matt Cutts has just released another video for webmasters on YouTube. This time, the target is unique content. Yes, this is a topic he’s addressed many times. This time, however, his sights are set specifically on those running affiliate sites.

Here’s the question that prompted this new video:

We have an ecommerce site, around 1000 product/pages on that site, so how can [we]create unique meta details for those pages? SEOtips, India

Cutts seemed a little exasperated as he read the initial question, and he even removed his glasses (for dramatic effect?) before answering. He said his response would have to incorporate a bit of “tough love” since it’s a topic upon which Google takes a firm position.

Changing Your Thinking

According to Cutts, affiliates need to change their thinking altogether if they want to get (and stay) in Big G’s good graces. For a better look at what exactly the search giant means by this, let’s review what Google’s official help pages have to say about affiliate sites:

Pretty cut and dry, eh? Cutts reinforces this stance in his video, by repeating that the question shouldn’t be “I have N pages, how can I make them unique?” Instead, affiliates should be asking themselves how many original pages they can create that are high quality and add value for the users.

Here’s the deal. Affiliates of course have products to sell, but many go about it the complete wrong way. They pull content directly from the merchant’s website for use on their own affiliate sites. This triggers duplicate content penalties because the content is, well, duplicate content. Then, these affiliates often use SEO tricks and linkbuilding techniques in order to artificially inflate their position in the SERPs and – voila – they are rewarded with ranking cookie-cutter affiliate sites just ready and waiting for customers.

This is precisely the scenario Google’s trying to avoid, and it most definitely makes sense. Thousands of websites with the exact same content, toiling away in vain to sell the exact same products, do nothing to better the Web. They simply pollute it with more of the same generic content that users must sift through in order to find the valuable stuff hidden within deeper search pages.

Is Google Out to Get Affiliates?

So is this a war on affiliates altogether? Does Google hate affiliates and desire them banished from the land? To answer this, let’s delve a bit further into Google’s help pages:

Google believes that pure, or “thin,” affiliate websites do not provide additional value for web users, especially if they are part of a program that distributes its content to several hundred affiliates. These sites generally appear to be cookie-cutter sites or templates with no original content. Because a search results page could return several of these sites, all with the same content, thin affiliates create a frustrating user experience.

Makes sense, then, why Cutts would reiterate this philosophy by posing this very relevant question in his video: “What makes your 1000 pages of affiliate content different from someone else’s 1000 pages of affiliate content?”

The answer? Nothing.

To be clear, we’re talking about lazy affiliates here, those who don’t attempt to add uniqueness to the Internet in any meaningful way. Their entire websites are copy/paste jobs, and they’re looking to unfairly rank through manipulation rather than bringing anything new to the table.

This has officially become an outdated way of thinking. In my opinion, Google does not hate affiliates. That said, G does want to see original sites that add real value and answer searchers’ queries in the best possible way. Therefore, affiliates are in a unique position here – they can craft entire websites centered around some gimmick that makes their site unique. This would help them break away from the masses and earn some much-needed Google love in the process.

Uniqueness – The Keys to the Kingdom

As we’ve been seeing before, the trend is still unique content. This is no different for affiliates, which I think is the message Cutts is attempting to get across in this latest video.

Google is well aware that not every website out there designed around an affiliate program is a thin affiliate page. That’s why adding your own content to the affiliate offers you present is the key to success and passing the litmus test for uniqueness a la Google. For example, adding original reviews of products, conducting tests and polls, and writing unique value-adding content about the products you’re promoting are all great ways to get started.

Google’s help pages specify that content taken directly from affiliate programs should play only a small role in your overall website offerings. If there’s only a bit of stock content surrounded by a sea of uniqueness, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Here’s the real trick: your goal should be to offer something to visitors that they cannot find on the original merchant’s website.

That’s how to reel in the sales.

If you can manage to build a community around your product’s niche; create a dialogue, then the money will come naturally. That’s precisely what Google’s urging affiliates and webmasters alike to realize. It’s about the users above all else, and offering something valuable that would benefit them instead of a series of thin stock affiliate pages is a serious step in the right direction.