Bingo Sites Ban Brand Link Building

The affiliate bingo world is set to change with the announcement from two affiliate networks of new rules regarding third party link building.  Ignite Bingo and Joy of Bingo who run Costa Bingo and Tasty Bingo respectively are the two main providers who have put the rule change into immediate effect.

As of this date onwards, affiliates are not allowed to acquire links for the brands bingo site terms from any third part sites for the purpose of deep linking to their own affiliate website.  According to the two networks, any affiliates found to be breaching these new rules will have their affiliate commissions withheld.

The reasons for the rule changes, according to the networks, are so that the brand owner can have greater control over the quality of the reader experience when a user searches for their branded terms in the search portals.

The decision is understandable in terms of the brands wanting to control the user experience, but they don’t control the search engines that use their own algorithms to decide how to rank sites and the reader experience.  Perhaps a better solution for the bingo site owners is to improve their own SEO strategy for the brand, instead of trying to artificially control the SERPS.

The question on everybody’s lips now is how are the merchants going to monitor the acquisition of third party links? And does acquiring mean getting a free link because someone has read your site and genuinely links back to you? Whats stopping the affiliates brand link building and then advertising a competitor?

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."