XLMedia will push forward with a number of pre-planned strategic changes, following last month’s Google rankings demotion.
After the recent search ranking changes, the affiliate marketing company warned that its revenue could be affected.
A significant impact on the company
According to XLMedia, 107 of its websites have been impacted in some way, shape or form since the first announcement. 23 of these were either tier 1 or 2 sites, with the remaining 84 being either third or fourth-tier.
The majority of affected websites were within online casino. However, the company hasn’t noticed other verticals – such as personal finance – to be hit by these demotions.
XLMedia is working with Google to find out why some of its sites had their rankings impacted. The aim is for these changes to be reversed. However, at the same time, it’s going to progress with some of its strategic shifts. As part of this, it plans to adopt a more sustainable approach for growing its publishing assets.
Time to move forward
Stuart Simms, Chief Executive of XLMedia, acknowledged the need to move forward – regardless of its meeting outcomes with Google. His thoughts were as follows, as published on the company’s website.
“There is no question that we currently face operational headwinds, but fundamentally, I firmly believe in the underlying quality and sustainability of our business.
“However, I believe it is now time to accelerate a number of strategic measures that will create a short-term drag on revenue growth, but will ultimately strengthen our business by creating a much stronger and more transparent platform from which to grow.”
Simms also went on to say: “By proactively consolidating – and where necessary culling – our considerable tail of legacy websites and focusing a greater proportion of our efforts on monetising both tier 1 and tier 2 websites in addition to incubating new sites, we will significantly improve the medium-term prospects of the Group.”
