Organic results with EPN sites

[efeezy]

What is it with EPN sites that makes it so much more difficult to get decent search rankings? BANS, phpbaypro, EPN tools, I've used them all, and even after adding good content to the auction pages, it's still always a challenge to get them ranking well for their keywords.

I did a test and created a site based on a product I wanted to promote on EPN, however I didn't add the auctions until after it had decent SERP's. I did all the same SEO i did for other EPN sites I had created in the past.

After it was raking well, I added the auctions, and it's been at the top of G now for 6 months or more. Maybe that's the trick..I don't know. I've always heard that G views EPN sites as "loose affiliate sites". Maybe that's why it's more difficult.

What are your thoughts about EPN sites and getting organic search traffic. Do you use any different methods from other sites or blogs you SEO?

 

[rcubed]

The rumor has been going around for a while that G doesn't like eBay affiliate sites - this is certainly true in Adwords where I do most of my promotion for ePN. For organic search, the site building tools such as BANS have a huge footbprint and are easy for the GoogleBot to identify. There are a lot of threads on the eBay Partner forum about BANS users getting their sites de-indexed. Whether Google has it out for them or not is unclear. It is clear that raw BANS sites are extremely thin regardless of how pretty the templates are.

My strategy for doing ePN is to rapidly test eBay product niches in Adwords using a custom script and then compile a list of winners. I do this until I get slapped and then begin the next phase which consists of building thicker sites using WordPress and the BayRSS plugin. I find these blogs eventually rank for the keywords I target using standard SEO techniques. It also helps to use a keyword-targeted domain name for the product niche if you can reg one.

 

[turbolapp]

^Nice answer.

 

[Karnul]

I have a site that was ranking top 10 for some valuable jewelry terms. Once I added in PHPBay it continued to rank in the same positions for about 10 weeks.

Then it took a dive. The day after I removed PHPBay the rankings came back higher than ever.

Sucks...cuz it was doing pretty good with PHPBay.

 

[efeezy]

There has to be a way to disguise the code so that G doesn't automatically red flag it as a Ebay partner site. I know the BANS platform screams Please Penalize My Site, but you would think the Wordpress plugin's for Ebay sites shouldn't be as obvious..especially if you actually add some content to the site.

 

[turbolapp]

I have a site that was ranking top 10 for some valuable jewelry terms. Once I added in PHPBay it continued to rank in the same positions for about 10 weeks.

Then it took a dive. The day after I removed PHPBay the rankings came back higher than ever.

Sucks...cuz it was doing pretty good with PHPBay.

how far of a dive? You know as AM's we look at any kinda of drop as a slap but think about it from Google's perspective not everyone that enters a keyword is actually looking to buy something. Infact most people probably aren't. So if your site is selling something G is going to factor that in. That being said, alot of people are looking just to buy and so G will factor that in too. So that's why I asked how far of a drop? Was it a "zomg you're peddling acai/colon cleans crap " type drop? or just a "we need to move this down accordingly because it's not appropriate for everyone searching for this keyword " drop?

 

[Andrew Scherer]

I've never had this kind of problem. All of my EPN sites have no trouble ranking in Google when compared to my other sites.

How much content are you actually adding to the auction pages?

 

[radio]

i can neither confirm nor deny that a2p sites have been getting some Gg and Y! love, but reports are coming in. i have made the plugin customizable enough that you should be able to easily mask your tracks.

 

[efeezy]

I've never had this kind of problem. All of my EPN sites have no trouble ranking in Google when compared to my other sites.

How much content are you actually adding to the auction pages?

I've been a couple paragraphs of content related to the product on the page...be it a review or specifications etc, using normal SEO, H tags, bold, good keyword placement etc.

 

[Karnul]

From #1 for the primary keyword for months to jumping within a range -- 19 to 200, never going above 19.

It's a research mode buying keyword.

Similar story with most of the other keywords. Now that PHPBay is gone, it's picked up the biggest keyword in the niche and hits top 10 often. Still a lot of bouncing around though...

Traffic is up 50% from it's previous highs.

how far of a dive? You know as AM's we look at any kinda of drop as a slap but think about it from Google's perspective not everyone that enters a keyword is actually looking to buy something. Infact most people probably aren't. So if your site is selling something G is going to factor that in. That being said, alot of people are looking just to buy and so G will factor that in too. So that's why I asked how far of a drop? Was it a "zomg you're peddling acai/colon cleans crap " type drop? or just a "we need to move this down accordingly because it's not appropriate for everyone searching for this keyword " drop?