Syndication reference guide

Transcription

1 Syndication reference guide

2 Disclaimer Copyright 2012 Bazaarvoice. All rights reserved. The information in this document: Is confidential and intended for Bazaarvoice clients. No part of this document may be shared with anyone outside your company or your company-partners without prior approval from Bazaarvoice. Is provided as is without warranty of any kind either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Is periodically updated to be in sync with the improvements and/or changes in our product offers. May be changed without notice. Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are not guarantees of a specific result. You bear the risk of using this document. Bazaarvoice is not liable for any technical or typographical errors that might be inadvertently present in this document. Bazaarvoice might have patents and/or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, or legal rights to any other intellectual property in any Bazaarvoice service or product. All Bazaarvoice brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bazaarvoice in the United States and may be protected as trademarks or registered trademarks in other countries. All other product, service, or company names mentioned here are claimed as trademarks and trade names by their respective companies. Contact us: 3900 North Capital of Texas Highway Suite 300, Austin, Texas Toll-Free: (866) Phone: (512) Fax: (512)

3 TOC Contents Content syndication...4 Content syndication: Implementation options...4 Standard implementation options...4 Inline syndication...5 Showcase...5 Syndicate directly without display...6 Self service: Syndicate to non-bazaarvoice clients...7 Content moderation...8 Configuration options...9 Syndication defaults...9 Display options...10 Input field options for reviews...10 Input field options not available...12 Product feed types...12 Product feed requirements...12 Schedules...13 Reports...13 Syndication by Destination report...13 Syndication by Source, Summary report...14 Syndication by Source, Product report...14 SEO and syndicated content delay

4 Syndication reference guide Content syndication Collect user-generated content about the products or services on your site and distribute the content to channel retail partners to increase overall review volume. Syndication enables you to take an active role in increasing review volume, improving product coverage, and therefore selling more successfully through retail channels.consumers trust other consumers and the more opinions and testimonials a product has, the more it stands out from competing products. Content syndication lets organizations capture customer sentiment and immediately share it with top retailer sites. With Bazaarvoice s world-class network, you can turn a single consumer opinion into a multitude of impressions. For example, product reviews submitted through a major laptop manufacturer s site could be syndicated to appear on the product pages of a big-box retailer. Key capabilities Fill content and information gaps on product and purchase pages Maximize the amount of fresh SEO-friendly content Increase conversions and revenue per visitor Decrease return and bounce rates See this case study which shows how syndication creates a dramatic increase in review volume. Content syndication: Implementation options Bazaarvoice offers syndication implementation options that accommodate varying business and technical requirements. Standard - The standard implementation provides a fully-integrated syndication solution for brands and retailers who have full implementations of ratings and reviews. Two design options allow the retailer to tailor the experience on their site. Syndicate directly without display An option for brands who do not have technical resources to complete a full implementation of ratings and reviews, but want to collect and syndicate content into the retail channel. This implementation option is also useful if you choose not to display reviews on your site. Self service Self service allows you to provide retailers who are not current Bazaarvoice clients with the functionality to display your ratings content (with some limitations) with minimal integration effort. Standard implementation options Bazaarvoice retailer clients can display syndicated content from brands in one of two ways: inline or showcase. 4

5 Content syndication Inline syndication Retailers can display syndicated content alongside their native review content. By default, all syndicated content includes the following attribution: Logo or other icon that represents the company providing the content Statement that identifies the source of the content, such as Customer review from brand.com Bazaarvoice recommends inline display because it: Provides a greater boost to conversion rates Provides a brand benefit to participating brand owners Clearly shows which content is sydicated and which is native Retailers can also specify whether syndicated content is displayed after native content or mixed with native content, typically by the date of submission. The following image shows an example of a syndicated inline review displayed with attribution. Retailers can choose to display inline syndicated content without any attribution. However, our recommendation is to use attribution to preserve the authenticity of both native and syndicated content. Showcase With a showcase implementation, syndicated reviews appear in a popup window that resembles the brand's review landing pages. This implementation method isolates syndicated reviews from native reviews. 5

6 Syndication reference guide The following image shows an example of a showcase display. Syndicate directly without display You have the option to collect and syndicate content without displaying it on your site. A Bazaarvoice representative will work with you to determine the number of syndication destinations that are expected to go live after launch. Actual retailer destinations need not be named at the time of contract signing, and you can choose to delay the start of syndication to retailers until you have reviewed the content collected and are comfortable with it. Bazaarvoice hosts both the review submission container page and the review landing page. You can allow anonymous submissions or a light-weight authentication method provided by Bazaarvoice. 6

7 Content syndication Technical requirements To use this type of syndication, you must be able to create the following: A CNAME entry for you implementation (e.g. reviews.<brand>.com) A product catalog feed that adheres to the Bazaarvoice standard Self service: Syndicate to non-bazaarvoice clients Brands can syndicate reviews to retailers who are not Bazaarvoice clients. To enable self service, brand owners must add target retailers to their contract with Bazaarvoice. Bazaarvoice then provides the retailers with sample HTML and JavaScript code so they can implement a summary of the syndicated content on their product pages. The following image shows the display of the review summary block on a retailer's product landing page. 7

8 Syndication reference guide When a visitor clicks the summary for syndicated content, they are directed to your product landing page where they can read the reviews as shown in the image below. Technical requirements To use the self-service type of syndication, you must be an existing Bazaarvoice client with an implementation of syndication on your site. Content moderation To syndicate content to retail sites, brand owners must agree to include the following requirements in their moderation rules for syndicated content: No mention of any retailer's name No mention of any competing brand name No mention of pricing Note These rules apply to syndicated content only. 8

9 Content syndication Configuration options This section identifies the following types of configuration options: Syndication options Display options Input field options for reviews Input field options not available Product feed requirements Schedules Syndication defaults Option Include Inactive Products Description Indicates whether to syndicate inactive products. Recommended ; on by default Schedule Specifies whether to export a feed once per day or once per week. Once per day Excluded Moderation Codes Identifies the content codes to exclude from syndication. RET, PC, PRI, STP, and INC Send Through Moderation Specifies whether to send content through the destination client s moderation process. No Product Matching Strategy Bazaarvoice uses the following fields in the matching table to match products. These fields are required in the data feed sent to Bazaarvoice: External ID EAN UPC ISBN (for books) Manufacturer or brand's part number Brand name 9

10 Syndication reference guide Display options Option Attribution Description Identifies the source of the syndicated content and displays attributes that pertain to the source client and content. Recommended Display Location Specifies the location of the syndicated content; pick one of the following options: Place syndicated content after native content Mix syndicated content with native content Mix syndicated content with native content Input field options for reviews Option Rating Description Overall rating that is given by the reviewer. Recommended Rating dimension Specifies whether to syndicate secondary rating dimensions, as follows: Syndicate matching elements Imports content only if a matching rating dimension with the same external ID is configured at the destination Syndicate none Syndicate matching elements Pros List of top Pros associated with the product. Cons List of top Cons associated with the product. Recommended User has indicated that he or she would purchase the product again. Display locale Locale of the relevant submission form, such as en_gb, en_us, or fr_ca. No Reviewer Display name and ID of the user who submitted the review. No 10

11 Content syndication Option Reviewer location Description Self-reported location of the reviewer. Recommended Reviewer nickname Alias or nickname of the reviewer. Context data values Contains a set of additional data values that depend on the matching strategy that is specified for the context data values. The following choices are available: Syndicate all Syndicate matching elements Imports content only if a matching rating dimension with the same external ID is configured at the destination Syndicate matching elements Submission time Date and time at which the review was submitted. Title Reviewer-supplied title of the review. Review text Text of the review. Tags Contains a list of children elements that are associated with the review and grouped by the <TagDimension> element. Additional fields Contains a list of questions that users are prompted to answer when they submit a review. No Featured Number of reviews that have been featured. Client response Describes every direct response from a client to a user, including the name of the representative who responded to the content, the representative s department, and the text of the response. No Ratings only Indicates whether the review length is smaller than the ratings-only threshold; applies only if an XML flag is set or if the following elements contain no content: <ReviewText> <Pros> <Cons> No Video (YouTube) Displays an embedded mini-player with a slate from the video and YouTube logo Photos Syndication of photos from the source to the destination Optional 11

12 Syndication reference guide Input field options not available The following input-fields cannot be syndicated: Hosted video Badges Comments Profile links Social button links Feedback votes, like the following examples: Helpfulness feedback Inappropriate votes Best answer votes Product feed types You can send one of these two feed types to Bazaarvoice: A full product data feed (all products are in the feed at all times) An incremental product data feed (new or disabled products in the feed) Consult your Bazaarvoice implementation team to determine the feed type that works best for you. Product feed requirements If you want to participate in syndication, the following information must be included in the product data feeds: Brand Category (optional but highly recommended) Product name Product description Unit Processing Code (UPC), European Article Number (EAN), or International Standard Book Number (ISBN), as appropriate Manufacturer's Part Number (MPN) Model number (optional but highly recommended) Product image Product page URL 12

13 Content syndication Schedules The schedule for matching of products is largely dependent on the way products are matched. These are the two schedules: Automated: As new products are added to a product data feed, syndication takes place automatically. For this type of schedule, the data in both the source and the destination feeds must match. For instance, the manufacturer part number and brand must match in both feeds. By default, the export and import feeds run daily and the automated matching process runs nightly. Non-Automated: This type of schedule utilizes the product data feeds from both source and destination. Products are matched with the assistance of a Bazaarvoice proprietary matching tool. The non-automated matching process is scheduled to run every 14 days. Discuss the best strategy for your business with your Bazaarvoice implementation team. Note Syndicated content will be displayed approximately 24 hours after the matching process (all approved incremental content outside of the seven day SEO delay). Reports The Bazaarvoice reporting tools can help you analyze the effect of content syndication on your ratings and reviews implementation. These reports are available in Excel format and can be easily exported. The following shows a sample report. Syndication by Destination report For organizations that syndicate content to other sites, this report shows aggregate data for each product, so you can see the impact that content collected on your site has at destination sites. This impact is measured for each product at each destination by showing the increase in review volume and average rating. For example, the report 13

14 Syndication reference guide might show that reviews syndicated from your site have increased the total number of reviews for your product or service at a destination site by 150% and has helped the average rating for that product or service increase by 14%. For each product where you syndicate reviews, this report shows the: Destination site Number of reviews at the destination site before syndication Total number of reviews for a product after syndication Percentage of growth in review volume Average product or rating at the destination site before syndication Average rating after syndication Percentage of ratings growth The report is generated as an Excel spreadsheet. Log into Bazaarvoice.com and click Reports to generate a new version of this report or to download a previously generated report. Syndication by Source, Summary report For organizations that display syndicated content, this report shows aggregate data for each organization that provides syndicated reviews, so you can see the impact that receiving syndicated content has on your site. For example, a retailer can see that receiving syndicated reviews from a supplier has increased the number of products with reviews from 100 to 125 and that the average product for all products with syndicated content has risen from 4.0 to 4.3. The reports shows the following information for each organization that provides syndicated content on your site: Number of products with reviews before and after syndication and the percentage increase in overall volume Average number of reviews per product before and after syndication and the percentage increase in overall volume Average product ratings before and after syndication and the percentage of ratings growth Total number of reviews before and after syndication and the percentage increase in overall volume The report is generated as an Excel spreadsheet. Log into Bazaarvoice.com and click Reports to generate a new version of this report or to download a previously generated report. Syndication by Source, Product report For organizations that display syndicated content, this report provides product-level information for each site that provides syndicated reviews so that you can see detailed information about the impact that displaying syndicated content has on specific products, product categories, or services. For example, a retailer can see that receiving syndicated reviews from a television manufacturer has increased the total number of reviews for a specific model from 12 to 25 and that the average rating for that model has increased from 3.8 to 4.2. You can configure the columns for this report. The default configuration shows the: Product name, ID, page URL, and category 14

15 Content syndication Name of the organization that supplied the syndicated content First date that syndicated reviews appeared on your site Number of syndicated reviews Total reviews Average rating of the product before displaying syndicated content Average rating after syndication The report is generated as an Excel spreadsheet. Log into Bazaarvoice.com and click Reports to generate a new version of this report or to download a previously generated report. SEO and syndicated content delay At Bazaarvoice, we know that syndicated content is good for a variety of business reasons for our clients. For SEO, it is important that a single page shows the same content to users as it does for search engines. Therefore, syndicated content for a product always appears in the SEO integration file for that product. Google and other search engines identify a site of origin when they discover content for the first time. Sites of origin maintain the majority of the SEO value when content is syndicated to other sites. With Bazaarvoice s patent-pending syndication delay technology, approved content is made available immediately to the site of origin within the hosted JavaScript display as well as the SEO integration feed. Content is delayed for seven days before it is syndicated to destination sites within the hosted JavaScript display and SEO integration feed. This refined approach to content syndication ensures that the latest best practices for SEO are followed for the site of origin, typically a brand owner or manufacturer, as well as for all destination sites, typically retailers. 15

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