Syndication Overview

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Syndication is the sharing of authentic user-generated content (UGC) from one client website to a verified partner presenting the same product. The goal of Syndication is to increase coverage of UGC, most often Ratings & Reviews, on products being carried across the retail network to improve consumer confidence and sales (conversion). This allows for instant display of existing authentic content on the product page that has just launched. This content is badged and attributed to indicate it was collected from another site or source, which helps to ensure authenticity and compliance with FTC guidelines.

Syndication is facilitated through two components:
1) A sharing relationship between the source client site where the UGC was created and the destination partner site.
2) A product-match between the source and destination catalogs.

Sharing relationships are established through the client's preferred Network Status. Full Network clients are automatically enabled to share content with other Full Network participants, while Partial Network clients must be enabled manually and with explicit Authorization.
The product matching between two clients typically happens automatically when the same UPC is present in both catalogs. Clients are encouraged to provide valid and robust UPC data within an industry-standard data structure to help ensure content shares optimally.

Content that Syndicates includes:

• Reviews. All publishable content, including 1-3 star ratings. Title, Text, Date, User Nickname, & Location
• Images and Video submitted with the Review
• Merchant Response associated with a Review

Content that Does Not Syndicate includes:

• Ratings-Only
• Q&A
• Unpublished content (Fraud, Irrelevant, Profane, etc.)
  
  

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 on Spacely.com.
Step 2: A PowerReviews retailer catalog also contains Spacely's Space Sprocket product, as well as the same UPC that Spacely is providing, creating an automatic product-match
Step 3: Since a product match has been made, the Space Sprocket review left on Spacely's website now shares to the retailer website and appears on the Space Sprocket product page.
Step 4: Any new Space Sprocket reviews that are published on Spacely.com will continue to automatically share to the retailer's website.

Other Syndication Notes:

• UGC will be shared based on the PowerReviews Moderation Publication Decision (Level 1 Moderation). A client can choose to Publish or Unpublish their Native content (Level 2 Moderation), but this will only impact whether the content displays on their own site, and does not impact syndication. n order to change the sharing status of a given UGC, its Level 1 PowerReviews Publication Decision must be revisited.
• UGC does not 'chain-syndicate' from one site to another (ie, a syndicated review cannot be shared from a destination site to another destination). A sharing relationship must always exist directly between the native source and the destination site.
• Sharing of UGC from a Retail site back to a Brand site is referred to as Reverse Syndication and must always be approved by the retailer.
• Timing for new reviews to be displayed on a destination site can vary greatly and is determined by each site's own technical refresh cadence.

This article is about the general Syndication process. For more Syndication documentation, see the following articles:
Syndication Only (Using a Standard UGC and Product Feed)
Syndication Only (Using your Standard Client Feed)

Syndication Process