Syndication
Syndication enables you to display user-generated content (UGC)—ratings, reviews, questions, answers, and comments—across the Bazaarvoice Network of retail and brand websites.
Syndicating UGC enables you to reach more consumers than displaying UGC on the source website only. It also increases the overall number of reviews and number of products that have at least one review.
Syndication is shared among sites in the following ways:
| Method of syndication | Description | Required approval | Enablement | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intra-client syndication: Site to site | Share UGC you collect across your multiple licensed websites. | Both site owners must approve the syndication connection. | Enabled by Bazaarvoice |
| 2 | Reverse syndication: Retailer to brand | Share UGC collected on your retail website with brand websites. | Retailer must get approval from the brand. | Enabled by Bazaarvoice |
| 3 | Standard syndication: Brand to retailer | Share UGC collected on your brand website with retail websites. | Bazaarvoice contacts the potential recipient (retailer) for approval | Enabled by both site owners after approval |
Every method of syndication requires a live Bazaarvoice implementation on each source and recipient site, and approval must be sought in each case. Bazaarvoice recommends that you review the syndication guidelines 
before beginning.
In addition to these methods of syndication, you can also syndicate UGC to our partner search engines.
Product catalog requirements
To syndicate content successfully, Bazaarvoice must be able to match products in different client catalogs. The completeness and accuracy of product feeds determine how well products can be matched. To syndicate UGC:
-
The source of the UGC and the recipient must have live implementations of Brand Edge
- The source and recipient must have accurate and complete product feeds
- XML feeds must contain the
<a href="#brand"><Brand></a>element - Text feeds must contain the
Brandcolumn
Refer to Product catalog for complete information about each element that is required in the feed to enable successful syndication.
Display brand logos with reviews
If UGC for your product is syndicated to retailer websites, you can display your logo with the syndicated content. If your company manages more than one brand, you may be able to specify a different logo for each brand:
- If your implementation has a separate Workbench login for each of your brands, all retailers can display all of your logos.
- If you manage multiple brands from a single Bazaarvoice Workbench account, you may not be able to display multiple logos on retailer sites. Many Bazaarvoice retailers have unique business needs that require implementing Bazaarvoice Brand Edge outside the newest standard platform solution. This non-standard implementation inhibits their ability to display a brand logo with corresponding syndicated content. Instead, they display the default parent company logo. Bazaarvoice is working with these retailers to find a solution that would enable them to display brand logos. Contact Bazaarvoice Client Care for a list of retailers that support displaying multiple brand logos with corresponding UGC.
To configure your implementation to display logos with syndicated UGC, open a case in the Support Community and provide logo images. Image files must meet the following specifications:
- File types—PNG, GIF, JPG, and JPE
- Size—300 pixels wide, 100 pixels high
Syndicate to partner search engines
Bazaarvoice supports syndication of product ratings and reviews to our partners’ search engines. By including ratings and reviews in search engine results, your products stand out in search results. Ultimately, this increases click-through rates.
To enable syndication to search engines:
- Contact Support Community to opt in to Full-Network syndication for an additional fee.
- Complete and submit the Partner Syndication Request form (no additional fee).
- Read the Bing Feature Overview (PDF) for more information about Bing syndication.
Your reviews will be available in product listing advertisements (PLAs) after your reviews feed is processed and reviews are matched to our partners’ product catalogs. It is important that the product catalog data you share with Bazaarvoice is consistent with the catalog data that you share with our partners, who are responsible for product matching based on your catalog data. The amount of time it takes our partners to process the reviews and feed depends on the size of your feed.
Common questions
Your product catalog must be complete and accurate to enable Bazaarvoice to match products on retail and brand websites. In particular, brand names, UPCs, EANs, and MPNs are key to automatic syndication.
Also, be aware that there is a syndication delay (seven days, by default) for any content that is marked to be syndicated to another site. This gives our partners time to index the content on the original site, and then when it finds the same review on another site, it knows that the content has been shared. Contact Bazaarvoice Client Care to configure this syndication delay.
If you do not see ratings and reviews in partner search results, verify that syndication to search engines is enabled for you. If search-engine syndication is enabled, be aware that it takes time for our partners to process your reviews feed and match reviews to products. You may need to allow for more processing time.
Bazaarvoice syndicates content across hundreds of brands and retailers and is not concerned about duplicate content causing issues. When content is duplicated or syndicated between a brand and a retailer (in either direction), it is beneficial because it provides a good user experience, causes no issues with partner search engines, and accounts for the delay in syndicated content.
Use the Insights coverage dashboard:
- Inbound syndication growth shows the volume of syndicated content your products have received, sources of the syndicated content, and impact of syndication on product coverage.
- Inbound syndication coverage growth shows which products, brands, and categories have ever received syndicated content, received syndication in the last 30 days, and received syndication from new products, brands, and categories in the Bazaarvoice Network.
- Outbound syndication growth shows the volume of content you've syndicated, where the syndicated content is going, and the impact of syndication on review volume and average rating.
Yes. If you no longer want to syndicate content to partner search engines, send an email message to legal@bazaarvoice.com . Include "Partner Syndication Opt-out Request" in the subject line. Notify your Client Success Director as well.
