Syndication is the sharing of authentic user-generated content (UGC) from one client to another where there are matching products across the product catalogs. It can happen in two ways:
- Content collected on a brand's website is shared to retailer websites (more common)
- Content collected on a retailer's website is shared to brand websites (less common)
The goal of Syndication is to increase UGC coverage, which in turn increases conversion on products. With Syndication, you won't have to wait for UGC to be submitted on every one of the products in your product catalog. Rather, you can increase UGC coverage by Syndicating with either brands or retailers and displaying that respective UGC on your website. Brands and retailers have the ultimate say in who they share content with and receive content from. Syndication can occur across Ratings and Reviews platforms as well.
This article is about the general Syndication process. For more Syndication documentation, see the following articles:
Syndication Process
If we use the 'dummy' website Spacely.com and their Space Sprocket product as an example, the flow of the Syndication process would be as follows:
Step 1: A customer leaves a review on the Space Sprocket on Spacely's website. The review is moderated and Published by PowerReviews, and the review appears Spacely.com.
Step 2: You (a retailer) send PowerReviews your product catalog, which happens to contain Spacely's Space Sprocket product.
- In parallel, Spacely also sends PowerReviews their product catalog, which of course contains their Space Sprocket.
- As these two product catalogs both contain the same Space Sprocket product and the UPC data is consistent, PowerReviews creates a product match between you (retailer) and Spacely (brand).
Step 3: Since a product match has been made, the Space Sprocket review left on Spacely's website now shares to your retailer website and appears on your Space Sprocket PDP.
Step 4: Any new Space Sprocket reviews that are written on Spacely.com now automatically share to your retailer website too, since the product match has been successfully created.
When a Syndicated review appears on your website, it's denoted with an attribution as to where the review was originally collected. This is a requirement for Syndicated content to appear on a retailer's website. The annotation could state "Reviewed at Spacely.com" in text (recommended), or else include a small Spacely logo. Your Implementation Team or PowerReviews Technical Support can help make sure you have the appropriate attributions appearing in your Review Display.