Merchant cracking the whip because i rank for brand name

[matty281k]

I have received an email from a merchant who is going to suspend my commissions unless i stop my site ranking for the brand term.

Everybody does this, a huge majority of the voucher code websites rank for brand terms.

It's very unfair, the only reason I think they have emailed is because of the recent increase in sales which they dont want to pay out for.

 

[bb99]

Are you ranking for a product that the merchant sells, or for the merchant's shop name?

 

[matty281k]

re

The merchants shop name

 

[matty281k]

thats the point it isnt in the terms and conditions

 

[JMOT]

Without prejudice.

I hate this bullyboy short sighted tactic some companies choose to follow!

Unless you are infringing on their IP or causing confusion, or casting negativity onto their IP then you can respectfully tell them to F off..

But of course you want to keep getting paid

Also provided what you are doing was not/is not in the merchant T's and C's on the Affiliate network then the network concerned should also be telling the merchant involved to respectfully pay up and get a grip.

If they play the short game and stop your revenue be careful about how you compare their service/product to one of their competitors but it can be done legally and there is not much they can do but write you snotty letters and try scare you.

see: http://uk.practicallaw.com/8-504-7692?q=*&qp=&qo=&qe=

However pay attention to the fact that it's a criminal offence if you breach the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations Act 2008 but you need to consider if you would be, and then how likely it is that action would be taken against you which if it is you should deffo seek legal council.

Also see attached

 

[bb99]

To what extent have you "tried" to rank for their shop's name? Have you gone to town like some of the voucher code sites do or is it just the way the cookie has crumbled?

If it was possible for you to just adjust your Google rank willy nilly then surely you'd be making a fortune doing SEO!?

 

[matty281k]

re

Well my site ranks great for there brand terms, some times in-front of there own website.

A sudden increase in sales, has seemed to piss them off, although many other merchants are doing the same.

My site has made a lot of money in sales for them, and I feel mistreated, i could of directed the traffic to another company

 

[doodlebug]

If their brand name is in your keywords then that is usually against the merhants t&cs and also bad pratice, you want sales yes but there's no point in p*ss*ng the merchant off because you will lose money

 

[matty281k]

True but everybody's doing it, just because my site happens to rank better I'm the one being penalized

 

[Edwin]

Is this SEO or PPC? If it's SEO and you're ranking better because of on/off-page SEO factors (and the merchant's name is not in the domain name) then that's just you outsmarting them.

If you're brand-bidding via PPC or your domain includes the merchant name you probably don't have a leg to stand on.

 

[matty281k]

re

It's natural SEO, nothing to do with PPC

 

[jwm]

it's your traffic so you can do what you want with it, send it to a competitors site if the merchant doesn't want to pay for it.

 

[Edwin]

Then as long as you're not "passing off" your site as theirs, that's just healthy competition. There are 10 spaces on page 1 of the search results for any keyphrase, and even under the new "improved" Google algorithm, the merchant can't possibly occupy more than 1-3 out of the 10 page 1 results.

 

[cc976a]

Looks like the merchant is missing a trick. The antiquated methods some (many) marketing managers use is quite shocking and too common.

Have you phoned them - I always find face to face, or phone if needed works better than a slanging email match.

Explain you haven't broken any rules, still want to drive sales and customers (perhaps repeat customers) to them but need to do without threat - or like the last post says you could cleverly pass traffic away to their competitors

Try and work with them - but get off the emails. Use this to back up conversations and put any agreements in writing

 

[fish]

Looks like the merchant is missing a trick. The antiquated methods some (many) marketing managers use is quite shocking and too common.

Have you phoned them - I always find face to face, or phone if needed works better than a slanging email match.

Explain you haven't broken any rules, still want to drive sales and customers (perhaps repeat customers) to them but need to do without threat - or like the last post says you could cleverly pass traffic away to their competitors

Try and work with them - but get off the emails. Use this to back up conversations and put any agreements in writing

sound advice if ever I heard any

 

[Paullas]

I have received an email from a merchant who is going to suspend my commissions unless i stop my site ranking for the brand term.

Everybody does this, a huge majority of the voucher code websites rank for brand terms.

It's very unfair, the only reason I think they have emailed is because of the recent increase in sales which they dont want to pay out for.

Give them 48 hours to reply back to confirm they want all there details, products removing from the specific page. If they say yes just change all the page title, meta details and content to one off there competitors and tell them you can not change the way google has indexed that page now but you have removed all there details from the page .

there loss....

 

[JMOT]

If anyone actually bothers to read my reply up the thread it is essentially the feedback I received from my lawyer regarding similar stuff.

Dont assume that you can SEO to get traffic on someones IP and just redirect the traffic to a competitor. That gives them legitimate reason to pursue you if you behave like that.

You have to be smart.

Take the time to read the info in the downloadable checklist I provided in the Link and make the traffic work for you properly.

 

[Blossom]

Give them 48 hours to reply back to confirm they want all there details, products removing from the specific page. If they say yes just change all the page title, meta details and content to one off there competitors and tell them you can not change the way google has indexed that page now but you have removed all there details from the page .

there loss....

It's not really their loss considering that's, in a roundabout way, what the merchant wants (eventually). The OP will stop ranking for the merchant's brand name in time if they remove all those details anyway. How long it takes is up to google.

 

[Frog]

Then as long as you're not "passing off" your site as theirs, that's just healthy competition. There are 10 spaces on page 1 of the search results for any keyphrase, and even under the new "improved" Google algorithm, the merchant can't possibly occupy more than 1-3 out of the 10 page 1 results.

Sure they can. 9 out of 10 for PC World aint bad http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&biw=1164&bih=721&q=pc+world&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=

edit - heres one doing a clean sweep of all 10 if you count Wiki as a neutral / controlled listing - http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&biw=1164&bih=721&q=marks+and+spencer&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=mark

 

[thecat]

If their brand name is in your keywords then that is usually against the merhants t&cs and also bad pratice

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this and legally they cannot stop you for ranking. Think about it logically - if my page randomly appears (oh google you cheeky scamp) on page one for a term then it can be said to be out of your control. That is up to google, not you.

The problem is they CAN terminate the agreement any time anyway, so it is best not to piss them off.