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Pricing Tables -- Good or Bad for SEO?

by MichaelAnthony
16 replies
  • SEO
    • |
We've all seen these pricing/comparison tables on Amazon review niche sites -- here's one from Niche Pursuits very public case study:

What’s the Best Safety Razor? | A Penny Shaved

As most of us know, that site was hit with a "thin content" penalty (and had a manual action against it for PBN links).

I run a couple of similar sites, and they all have pricing tables. The tables themselves convert great -- users click around on them, and over to Amazon. About 30% of users that hit my sites go over to Amazon, and that's entirely due to the pricing tables. So they definitely work.

However ... do you think that these are bad for SEO purposes? Are they an obvious red flag to Google that they're dealing with a "thin" affiliate/doorway site that only exists to convert users to Amazon?

What does everyone think?
#bad #good #pricing #seo #tables
  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    I'm SEO expert but I have a hunch too many aff links on a web page hurts rankings. I prefer linking from tables to the reviews on my site minimizing aff links in tables.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    What were they testing? How to make sure your affiliate site looks like an affiliate site?
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    • Profile picture of the author MichaelAnthony
      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      What were they testing? How to make sure your affiliate site looks like an affiliate site?
      Lol, that or How to make $3k per month on a sh_tty Amazon review site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
    Yes it's bad. I just went to that site, and it pissed me off majorly. If I'm a consumer looking for razer reviews, I don't want to be sent to Amazon. Jesus. I want the option to actually READ reviews, and then send me to Amazon or whatever for the best price.

    Yes, you attract 30% clicks to Amazon. But are those people converting? Probably not. Their hitting the back button, and going through Google, still trying to find a god'damn review. When they find one, they might just click somebody elses Amazon link and you've lost the sale.

    On my Amazon sites, I do use a similar style. But, I clearly distinguish between the two options - AMAZON or READ MY REVIEW. I'm not "conning" the user into going to Amazon. I'm letting them make the choice - and that's the point here.

    I had my whole Amazon network deindexed a year ago. It was because my Amazon sites were doorway pages - just like that site you linked is. It serves no purpose but to send people to Amazon. Google hate that - it's a bad customer experience.

    You either build doorway pages or you build a business. You decide.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelAnthony
    "On my Amazon sites, I do use a similar style. But, I clearly distinguish between the two options - AMAZON or READ MY REVIEW. I'm not "conning" the user into going to Amazon. I'm letting them make the choice - and that's the point here."

    Same here -- still get the 30% click rate over to Amazon, and they convert quite nicely.

    But I agree with your overall point, which is why I started the thread.

    However, take a site like TopTenReviews.com -- they rank for tons of product-review-related keywords, and they could/should certainly be classified as "thin".

    Blenders Review 2014 | Best Electric Blenders

    Navigation GPS Review 2014 | Best Car GPS Navigation Systems | Car Navigation Systems - TopTenREVIEWS

    So I don't really know. Seems Google hates doorway/review sites, unless you are an established "authority".
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    • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
      Originally Posted by MichaelAnthony View Post

      So I don't really know. Seems Google hates doorway/review sites, unless you are an established "authority".
      It seems you've already made your mind up on what you want to do. The fact that you have to come here and ask whether a page would be considered a doorway page means that you're willing to push the boundaries and take that risk.

      You either build a website for the users, or for profit. Doorway pages maximise profit, while TopTenReviews retains users and keeps them coming back.

      TopTenReviews will never be considered a thin site. They have established a brand through honest and genuine reviews. They have a team of reviewers who sit there and use the vacuum and review it. They are a business, like any other - and so making money is fine.

      It's when you're making money and providing no value whatsoever that Google takes action.

      In it's simplistic form, always ask yourself this:

      "Am I providing the user with an experience that they can't get elsewhere?".

      If the affiliate site sitting below you in the SERP's offers the exact same as you, then you'll probably get slapped at some point. Google doesn't want 100 websites showing the exact same thing, all of them sending people to Amazon.
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
        Originally Posted by Icematikx View Post

        Google doesn't want 100 websites showing the exact same thing, all of them sending people to Amazon.
        Unfortunately, that's what most of the affiliate marketing guides online teach, whether you read them in PDFs or in blog posts. Niche sites created for the purpose of making affiliate commissions are way easier to build than sites like TopTenReviews.

        Therefore, it's little wonder that most affiliates are following that model - and it works. That site linked to in the OP used to make over $3k per month.
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      • Profile picture of the author MichaelAnthony
        Originally Posted by Icematikx View Post

        TopTenReviews will never be considered a thin site. They have established a brand through honest and genuine reviews. They have a team of reviewers who sit there and use the vacuum and review it. They are a business, like any other - and so making money is fine.
        I actually don't agree with this at all. Top10Reviews put out some VERY thin content.

        Here is their landing page for "popcorn maker reviews" -- Popcorn Maker Review 2014 | Best Popcorn Machine | Air Popcorn Poppers - TopTenREVIEWS

        And here is one of their "reviews" -- Catamount Microwave Review 2014 | Popcorn Popper Reviews - TopTenREVIEWS

        Thin, thin, thin.

        You put that content on any "niche" site, and it gets slapped with a penalty. It's a double-standard that I don't think anyone could refute. And there are PLENTY of additional examples.
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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by MichaelAnthony View Post

          I actually don't agree with this at all. Top10Reviews put out some VERY thin content.

          Here is their landing page for "popcorn maker reviews" -- Popcorn Maker Review 2014 | Best Popcorn Machine | Air Popcorn Poppers - TopTenREVIEWS
          You might be wrong because the page/link you posted is a hub page for the rest of the 13 relevant pages on the sub-domain.
          • site:popcorn-maker-review.toptenreviews.com

          There's nothing wrong with ranking a hub page (ex: category page).

          Not that I'm a fan of any review site considering most are BS reviews. Still, topten has some decent optimization going on.
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          • Profile picture of the author MichaelAnthony
            Originally Posted by yukon View Post

            You might be wrong because the page/link you posted is a hub page for the rest of the 13 relevant pages on the sub-domain.
            • site:popcorn-maker-review.toptenreviews.com

            There's nothing wrong with ranking a hub page (ex: category page).

            Not that I'm a fan of any review site considering most are BS reviews. Still, topten has some decent optimization going on.
            Right, it's a page which links out to their "reviews", which are paper thin.

            Did you not click the 2nd link I posted there? It's a joke.
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            • Profile picture of the author yukon
              Banned
              Originally Posted by MichaelAnthony View Post

              Right, it's a page which links out to their "reviews", which are paper thin.

              Did you not click the 2nd link I posted there? It's a joke.
              Lol, your right, their reviews are a joke but that's pretty much how the average affiliate review site works.

              Did you notice the network of domains in the footer? They're passing authority to/from multiple relevant domains. I mean good grief, they also own sites like space.com (authority).

              I know of only one niche review site that's legit from someone that's actually interested in the niche, not just the products they promote. I'm sure there's others, just have to dig to find them.
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        • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
          Originally Posted by MichaelAnthony View Post

          I actually don't agree with this at all. Top10Reviews put out some VERY thin content.
          It's still in Google's best interests to keep them indexed, as they are a trusted brand and people search specifically for their reviews. If Google deindexed them, users would have a bad experience by not being able to find them. It's the same thing when Google penalizes any big brand due to bad publicity. Google assigns members of the spam team to work directly with that brand and get it resolved ASAP. Deindexing never happens to big brands - it's always an algorithmic penalty, and usually their "brand name" searches aren't penalized.

          I'm just saying my experience. Last year I had all of my Amazon network taken down and deindexed. It went from earning $7k/month to $0/month in the matter of 30-seconds.

          My sites don't make me as much now, but I'm fairly confident that they will last a lot longer - thus giving a better ROI. 60% of my PBN was recently deindexed, but my money sites were absolutely fine. Some marketers lost their affiliate sites during the PBN deindexing - which only makes me further believe that my sites now are of higher quality.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    I use comparison tables as well and they look good and convert well, but the major disadvantage of using tables is the number of affiliate links you'll have to place on your pages. A way to get around this disadvantage is linking to the actual product reviews in the table rather than linking to the Amazon product pages of the products being compared.

    Tables are not bad for SEO depending on the way you use them.
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  • Profile picture of the author drinstech
    I'm currently using TablePress WordPress Plugin to add pricing table/comparison table in one of my Amazon Affiliate Marketing Blog. There is nothing to worry about SEO with this table because I use from last 6 month and My Keywords still rank better.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    The problem in that OP example doesn't have anything to do with an HTML table, the problem is the content is useless for anyone besides the affiliate.

    There's no comparison going on there. Seriously, who cares about a razors length/weight? That's really the only data they're providing. Nothing but fluff...

    I have access to a very successful affiliate site that has HTML tables on most pages (high end products), repeat traffic & traffic building links.

    Again, HTML tables isn't the issue in this thread. All you have to do is look at the Google cache (text version) to see the plain text in the HTML table, or in the OP example the boat load of Amazon affiliate links per page (39 Amazon links on that single OP page).

    Lol, at who invented safety razors in 1880 on a sales page. Nobody cares about that stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    Like every other word is a link - BAD yes.

    Google likes to see that less than 10% of the words on a web page are links and also, your need to restrict links to less than twenty total per page. Frankly, a list of links = spam. Please use tiered architecture and cut down on links as they will penalize you.

    Keep an eye on your BOUNCE RATE as this metric is important to Google in detecting spam. Basically, you do not want a lot of users to click on the back arrow. For example, and then go to another web site - not yours. Yeah, this is a dead give away.

    Retention is easy. Create a lot of good high quality content (text) and limit the total links, plus add a lot of pictures (flicker) and videos (you tube).
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