Product feeds+deeplinks=end of affiliates?

[Rich]

Ok, the title is a bit OTT, but I wanted to get people to read this.
(sorry about the grammer,spelling,etc - I ain't no writer )

Over the last week I've noticed an influx of affiliate sites using product feeds and also of merchant's sites getting a ranking boost due to this type of site.

Problem 1
There are lots of sites that use the product feeds to generate highly optimised pages, but not add a benefit to the user - other than get them to the merchant. Ok, that doesn't sound so bad, but I think its going to bite affiliate marketting in the arse soon. It sounds ideal, as the merchant and affilaite get what they want, but its likely that 'normal' people will rebel against the type of search results they are finding.

Obviously I can't name affiliates or sites here, but one of the larger comparison sites used to use other domains with highly SEO'd pages to get more users and those disappeared at one point - I believe due to a Google ban. I.e I think the comparison sites are fine, as they add info for the user, but the highly seo'd (get the user in, pass them out) domains are not what the user wants. (Hands up - I run a comparison site, but I'm trying to be fair)

Its just the sort of sites that have the product name as the only text on the page, and the rest of it being links, that I think could cause a general resentment of affiliates.

I guess the quesion is, if someone is searching by name for a particular product (the type of search these feed sites are optimised for) are they hoping to find 10 sites that point them to the merchant with an affiliate program, or do they want 10 sites where they have a choice.

Or is this just done to the search engine to handle?

Problem 2
I never used to think that PR was passed down an affiliate link, but now it seems it does. I think it always has, but in the past it was just relatively small as each site just had a few banners on it. Now there are affiliate sites with 1,000s of links pointing to one merchant, it seems to show up a lot more.

e.g. google search for a specific hp laptop

Inital reactions seem ok:- Manufacturer,Comparison site,Major retailer,(my)Comparison site, Comparison site, Comparison site, etc. Not great, but it's a very specific item with only a couple of uk sources.

But when you look at the Major retailer's (dabs) URL you see domain/2H8MWS?refererid=t5. t5 being Dabs internal tracking for a Tradedoubler link. So if it wasn't for affiliates deeplinking to the product, that page might not be there.
To be honest, I don't know whose affiliates link google has followed to this page, its not from any of the sites in the google results.

This isn't a great example, as dabs deserve the ranking they've got, but it shows how affiliates linking to merchants can help their rankings and so make it harder for affiliates. I think this is just going to be something affiliates have to put up with. If a networked made sure PR, or bots, couldn't pass though their links, the merchants would be tempted to move to a network that would give them this benefit.

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Just my views for the evening, would like to know what others think. I am tempted to make a pure, optimised, single product feed site, but I think it would be a quick boost and then a negative reaction as search engine catch up, and I don't want to risk something that could affect other sites.

[ianm]

I don't think it means the end of affiliates, I think it means greater competition and also perhaps a different type of affiliate.

Everyone accepts that the days of slapping a banner on a page and making megabucks from it are over. The field is perhaps open more now to affiliates with a technical ability (or those that can afford to hire it) who can make a use of the information.

In the short run, yes there will be an influx of sites all with the same or very similar content - but in the long run, there will be affiliates that find a unique way of using the product feeds to provide their visitors with a service (price comparison being an example of this). Those affiliates will attract a loyal user base.

Far from being the death of affiliate marketing, I would say the future is looking very rosey for the smaller affiliates - we now have a level playing field with the likes of Kelkoo and PriceRunner.

[NeilDurrant]

Rich,

I think point 1 has some valid issues...almost to the point whereby I'm torn as to exactly what I say here!

There aren't that many people doing this yet but I have the feeling that as discussing data feeds has been a hot topic lately there are more are on the way.

Will Google find a solution to this - perhaps eventually. But you could draw parellels with the multitude of espot affiliates which I don't think have yet been penalised.

If it does become a problem then maybe merchants will start to look at data feeds and place restrictions on their use. Recently a US merchant pulled their data feeds I know this caused upset amongst their affiliates but I believe their reasoning was that they couldn't see the value of just creating multiple mirrors of their own product inventory. (Damn, thats one of the bits I wasn't going to say!).

- Neil

[999gi]

We've had a few threads on this recently and I think most people agree with what you are saying (in particular there was a thread where someone was searching for boots).

I think in a few months the use of feeds will mean that the first 2 pages of google will be almost completely full of the same affiliate sites, and if your search term was Sony KV32LS80 you get lots of Comet feeds (as thats what comet call the product) whereas if you search for KV-32LS80 you'll get all Currys as thats what they call it (totally made up example by the way).

Im not sure google will do anything about it, but Im sure users will. Just take Kelkoo as an example. Every search you make you see Kelkoo near the top of the listings, and if you click through to them you generally get a load of irrelevant garbage such as a search result for that term with no results found. I doubt Im the only one who mentally filters out Kelkoo results as I know they are irrelevant, therefore making their rankings effectively worthless.

[watcher]

Perhaps general comparison sites will start to suffer. I tend to think that highlt focussed comparison sites, with very topical and relevant editorial will fare well. Throw in Google Adsense running alongside that editorial and the scope for dedicated players with knowledge (of both product and web programming) will do very well.

As Neil pointed out, the Espot sites don't seem to be suffering yet; in fact I think they are getting more prolific.

[ianm]

There is one important difference between product feeds and espot affiliate sites.

The product feed sites will at least be giving the visitor what they want. Whereas the espotting feeds are just placing an extra step in the users process.

It is also important to remember that for some merchants it would be impossible for Google to spider their product pages due to their use of fancy JavaScript menus. The affiliate using product data is therefore doing them a service by bringing their products to the surfers attention.

I make no bones about the fact that I'm a big fan of product feeds. But my sites aren't just a load of product pages - I go out of my way to provide sticky content as well to build up repeat visitors. I also tend to have sites based around themes rather than general product sites.

[NeilDurrant]

I doubt Im the only one who mentally filters out Kelkoo results

As a user I usually do the same and generally ignore their results but you know they still lead the field in terms of UK consumer traffic so they havent managed to turn off the majority of users yet!

Although as much as I find many of their results unhelpful I wouldn''t mind their positioning

[999gi]

Anyone want to own up to this one
http://www.designer-fashion-clothes-...derwear.co.uk/

Appears to be a Yoox feed with a PR6 thanks to having a backlink from another clothes shop

[ianm]

Originally posted by 999gi
Appears to be a Yoox feed with a PR6 thanks to having a backlink from another clothes shop

Not one of mine.

IMHO I'd say that this is a good example of how not to do it.

I looked at a few of the product pages, and clicked on the TD link and got taken to the Yoox home page. If you're going to pre-sell a particular product then you need to send the punter to the product page on the merchant's site and not force them to search for the product again.

[Edit]Just in case the owner is a member here. I'm not putting down the way you've done it - it's just not the way I would do it. If it works for you and you're happy with the results then at the end of the day that's all that matters.[/Edit]

[SillyJokes]

Yoox is an absolutely dreadful site to shop at.

I was trying to buy some stuff there and the checkout was so bizarre and complicated I gave up in the end and went to Bicester Shopping Village instead!

I have seen a similar site where the URL is simply a string of search phrases. The 'featured site' in the directory is actually paying for the click throughs from it while the rest of the closely targeted listed merchants are all invited to pay with a simple link back to the directory site.

You think "Gosh I must be linked on this directory of party shops," but there is a hidden agenda.

The 'featured site' naturally gets the lions share of the traffic and benefits from having this two of three page directory, the PR of which is 'funded' by links by their unknowing competitors almost totally dedicated to them.

[Rich]

Thanks for taking the time to read my post - didn't realise it was quite that long!

That Yoox feed site isn't that bad, at least it looks ok to the user. There are some much worse than that. The one that got me to post was a couple of IT sites using the dabs and MicroWarehouse product feeds. It should be easy to spot if you search on an IT product name.

I see your points about Google not filtering Espotting results (yet), I guess thats just going to be one of those things that gets worse before it (hopefully) gets better. I'm glad I don't run a search engine.

Targeting merchants with unspiderable sites was my original motivation when I created PC Hound, and its worked well so far. But merchants are, rightly, relising they can do it themselves (e.g. Dabs new site layout with friendly urls). If they are also getting a lot of incoming links to these pages from product feed sites then they are likely to come out on top. I guess this is just something that will mean affiliates will have to change over time - which is good.

I think affiliate marketing is going to stay interesting for a while, but it could get harder.