"Canned" Affiliate Text - geek/talk: Signature-free discourse for serious web publishers

wsz · 03-01-2003, 12:34 AM

Hmmm... I'm not sure which forum section this belongs in. So, mods, feel free to move it.

Anyway,

Publishers familiar with CJ and BeFree will have seen their "content links," which have a page-worth of "canned" text promoting a particular sponsor, with descriptions of all of the features, etc.

(Yes, I know that the "ideal" situation is to write up your own customised text review.)

However, I am wondering about other publishers' experiences with just directly cut-n-paste -ing those canned text-blobs into their own site templates.

Have you gotten those pages into mainstream search engines? Have you been penalised for duplication (i.e. other affiliates are using the same text)? Do you have to rely upon PPC engines to get traffic?

Do you generally use these as stand-alone pages, or do you use them as pre-sell pages, where your normal content page links to the page with the content-link stuff?

Thanks in advance...

Rhea · 03-01-2003, 08:00 AM

Interesting questions. I have two pages on one of my sites that run content from a CJ merchant. Neither of the pages has been penalized by Google (they have the PR one would expect based on depth and the index.html PR). Also I don't think my site as a whole has been penalized.

I'd be interested in hearing from our resident SEO folks about this topic, primarily because I suspect that penalization for content duplication has been blown out of proportion. I suspect that Google will tolerate some duplication, but not a majority of it.

One of my sites has food and cooking jokes, humor, etc., and the bulk of the content can be found on various other sites on the internet. That site hit Google with a PR of 6 and has held at that PR for a year. I tweak the content for grammar, spelling, syntax, and I also tweak it to improve readability, so perhaps my content isn't appraised as being a duplication. And it can't hurt to rewrite the title of the article.

Jack · 03-01-2003, 06:37 PM

If it is just a few lines of text, then it probably won't matter at all. However, if the text makes up the majority of your page, there is a small chance you could be penalized.

I have in fact had many pages back from when I did a lot of PPCSE indexed in engines and ranking decently. These pages were usually complete copies of sales material provided by the merchant.

03-01-2003, 12:34 AM	#1
wsz Registered User Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 614	"Canned" Affiliate Text Hmmm... I'm not sure which forum section this belongs in. So, mods, feel free to move it. Anyway, Publishers familiar with CJ and BeFree will have seen their "content links," which have a page-worth of "canned" text promoting a particular sponsor, with descriptions of all of the features, etc. (Yes, I know that the "ideal" situation is to write up your own customised text review.) However, I am wondering about other publishers' experiences with just directly cut-n-paste -ing those canned text-blobs into their own site templates. Have you gotten those pages into mainstream search engines? Have you been penalised for duplication (i.e. other affiliates are using the same text)? Do you have to rely upon PPC engines to get traffic? Do you generally use these as stand-alone pages, or do you use them as pre-sell pages, where your normal content page links to the page with the content-link stuff? Thanks in advance...

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03-01-2003, 08:00 AM	#2
Rhea Registered User Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex. I could pinch them. Posts: 1,887	Interesting questions. I have two pages on one of my sites that run content from a CJ merchant. Neither of the pages has been penalized by Google (they have the PR one would expect based on depth and the index.html PR). Also I don't think my site as a whole has been penalized. I'd be interested in hearing from our resident SEO folks about this topic, primarily because I suspect that penalization for content duplication has been blown out of proportion. I suspect that Google will tolerate some duplication, but not a majority of it. One of my sites has food and cooking jokes, humor, etc., and the bulk of the content can be found on various other sites on the internet. That site hit Google with a PR of 6 and has held at that PR for a year. I tweak the content for grammar, spelling, syntax, and I also tweak it to improve readability, so perhaps my content isn't appraised as being a duplication. And it can't hurt to rewrite the title of the article.

03-01-2003, 06:37 PM	#3
Jack Join Date: Aug 1999 Location: Northern Virginia US Posts: 601	If it is just a few lines of text, then it probably won't matter at all. However, if the text makes up the majority of your page, there is a small chance you could be penalized. I have in fact had many pages back from when I did a lot of PPCSE indexed in engines and ranking decently. These pages were usually complete copies of sales material provided by the merchant.