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Originally Posted by Shopping King  Newbie, I looked at that babyexpress page you pointed out and I must say I was a little surprised with what I found. On the actual page, I saw the trademark Baby Express listed only 2 times and I personally think this is fine. However when I looked at the underlying source code, the trademark babyexpress has been used 57 times on this single page.
Surely this helped get this page into a number 2 position by simply keyword stuffing this merchant’s trademark?? Am I majorly misunderstanding something here? I am more than happy to be corrected by you BCL if I have missed something - please. |
OK, let's look at the page. On the surface of the page, which is a page about this particular shop (listings on other pages lead readers to it for more details about this shop) the shop name is mentioned in the title and headings as you would expect, and a couple of times in the text. When I saw your message, I was surprised at the 57 but looking at the source, I can see where you get them - all those links.
The links are all network deeplinks to categories which require including the URL that we are linking to. On shops on our network, like this one
Unique Kids - a stylish range of products for babies, boys and girls you have the same design but the links don't need the landing URL in them
I could add a redirect so the babyexpress links appeared like this and that might lead to accusations of disguising the links.
The display ads on the right are our standard design where we feature a typical product which has a link to the product, sometimes to the category, but always to the shop under it. These are used on many pages throughout our sites. We use this design for the benefit of both the reader (so they know where the link goes) and the merchant (helps build their brand).
So, the presence of the term in the code is for functionality,
seo is a byproduct - and to be honest, it never occurred to me that the links would feed the
seo because I don't spend much time fretting about it. In fact, I would have thought that the google algorithm discounts them but you'd have to ask a
seo guru about that.
Like I said earlier, it's harder to have set rules for
seo than sem because it is less controllable and more complex.
Perhaps intention and effect are better criteria on which to make the judgement calls.
Are those keywords there merely for
seo purpose or do they have a valid function?
Is the effect to mislead the customer (eg use babyexpress keyword to get them to the page only to send them to a different shop or adsense)?
Is the aim and effect of the search engine listing to get them to go beyond the natural listing for a special offer, non-existent coupon etc?
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Originally Posted by Shopping King For the record, I am not trying to be rude or point fingers to any member on this forum but moreso trying to create discussion by ALL members on this forum and try to understand this trademark issue more. |
Not a problem, I don't hide my identity or methods, and I encourage my merchants to ask for explanations if they have any concerns. They have the right of veto.
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Originally Posted by Shopping King But my question remains, are merchants aware affiliates are doing this? Would they approve if they knew? I do not have the answers here but assume they don’t really know the extent of this issue as if I were a merchant I would oppose this despite suggestions that it’s better to have affiliates in the other nine positions on a page where they have searched for my trademark. |
Some merchants are more aware of what affiliates do than others.
This shop certainly knows about this page as they send me updates when they add or remove categories or if there is a particular product they want featured. It acts as a single reference page for their promotion throughout our sites - which is the primary purpose of this page.
I could change all those links to OEPL redirects which would remove your objection.
Would that affect the search engine listing? I don't know.
If it did, would the merchant benefit or lose? You tell me. It might depend what takes its place.
If this page did drop out of the google listings, would it affect the sales I make for this merchant. No - I know how people use my site. They don't come in via these merchant reference pages.
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Originally Posted by Shopping King Personally I do not agree that their competitors could fill these other 9 spaces as if I were a merchant and saw a competitor of mine targeting my “trademark”, I would simply litigate against them. |
If a competitor (or unfriendly party) is targetting a merchants keywords, then it would be understandable to object but merchants could find some solace in the fact that if someone types in your brand/URL, they intend to go to you and anyone who tries to intrude in the line with a competing brand (via sem or
seo) is often seen as irrelevant or intrusive. Put your customer hat on and type in teleflora. Are you lured to competing florists? Or are you likely to click on the first teleflora.com.au that you see - either the sem one (which is incidentally an affiliate link) or the top organic listing?
When it's affiliates, again it comes down to the effect on the merchant. Is it to their benefit or not? The answer will vary depending on the merchant and the keywords.
It's often not the trademark of the merchant that is the issue, it's products. So if Shop A sold bluewidgets, they might like to have their listing for bluewidgets at the top and various of their affiliates below promoting them as the seller of bluewidgets.
If the merchant has trouble getting their own listing there for bluewidgets, they might even ask a couple of affiliates to try targetting that keyword.
However, if the merchant is comfortable with their
seo listing, they might not want to encourage lots of affiliates to compete with them for the bluewidget keyword. This is one of the arguments against giving out datafeeds.
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Originally Posted by Shopping King Again, I would like to get any merchant on this forum advice on this particular issue to get their point of view. |
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