The "Google Inferno" is the final resting place for irrelevant search engine content, AKA "Results Page 20." In my opinion, affiliates end up in the "Google Inferno" when they fail to build relevant pages or sites. After all, affiliate marketing is a symbiotic relationship: Merchants provide affiliates with important marketing tools (creative, data feeds, DRMs, etc.) with the understanding that affiliates will in turn deliver new and unique customers. In order to meet merchant expectations and drive sales, affiliates need to incorporate these merchant tools into their own original content, insight and merchandising strategies.

Affiliates that understand the dynamics of this relationship likely rank favorably because their sites are rich with relevant information. Search engines fiercely compete with one another to provide the best and most pertinent search results on the planet. Therefore, they dutifully police the relationship between affiliates and merchants to ensure that the masses only see sites containing relevant content. Affiliates who employ generic SEO tactics to build duplicate pages fail to add value, and ultimately end up in the inferno.

My No. 1 piece of advice to affiliates is to focus on adding value, not only to the merchant and to the customer, but to the search engines as well. If you are either a fallen affiliate or just entering the SEO affiliate game, applying simple analytics and some elbow grease to your website may help you secure the ranking you desire. Below are four suggestions that might help you meet your SEO ranking expectations:

1) Analyze customer purchase history. Look and see what your customers purchase. Understanding customer buying habits will enable you to aptly position your site and meet their needs. The Overstock.com team frequently instructs our affiliates in the Linkshare network to examine and act upon information listed in their sales reports.

2) Place multiple merchant listings on the same page. This tactic not only adds value in the form of comparative shopping and decision-making information, but also solves the duplicate content dilemma. This tactic can easily be automated, and is geared toward data feed driven affiliates.

3) Write original content. I understand that this can be a long and tedious process, but writing original content really helps affiliates separate themselves from the pack and improve their rankings. More importantly, this strategy can also help affiliates play to one of their chief strengths: niche marketing. Often, great niche marketers add more insight on a specific product or service than a merchant.

4) Review weblogs. Figure out how searchers are locating your website and mold your site to target those keywords.

In the short term, some affiliates will find ways to stay one step ahead of Google. However, their feet will always be close to the fire. Affiliates that take a step back, evaluate their sites and plan for the long term, will be the ultimate winners in the SEO game. Remember, it's not just about being found by Google to be the most relevant site; it's about being the most relevant site.