Amazon is getting into the Local Search Game....

[Eric Rohrback]

Just got this email from Amazon:




So Amazon will give my business a product page where I can review other products and services related to my business... Interesting. It's like an in-Amazon affiliate program for businesses. Use local service businesses as the experts to make product recommendations and then the business gets paid when someone clicks their referral link.

Do you think businesses will use this? Better question... how soon till this gets abused?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yep Eric, sounds like that to me too.

Businesses can create a page of products they don't sell or carry, that their customers may need. Then the biz gets commish if they're local customers buy Amazon products from their page.

So it's just like the existing affiliate program. They are just putting a spin on it to help SMBs see how they could refer customers and make extra revenue via Amazon sales.

If only SABs and affiliates alike realized how much commission they are losing on ALL affiliate programs due to the multi-device way people live these days, they would not bother.

I used to be an affiliate manager and also did affiliate recruiting for companies including Google, Microsoft and National Geographic. I feel like I got out of the business just in time. I'd hate to be in that field today having to break it to affiliates that a large % of their sales commissions aren't trackable.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Definitely got that after reading through all the material, but this does seem like you can create a business page on Amazon. So it's another barnacle site to optimize, right? I think it's a cool spin on their affiliate program, and something service area businesses should take a hard look at.

Not sure what extent it could be optimized to. I'll need to create one and play around with it a little. Could be an opportunity to expand the business presence using a very strong domain... assuming these pages can get indexed. Again, I need to play with it since I just got the email today.

 

[theitsage]

This is an extension to Amazon Local Services. It has been terrible for service providers because the inquiries through this program are generic and low value. Also, you get to deal with people who planned on DIY but were curious if the pros would do it for some extra change.

Let's dissect the benefits Amazon is selling you.

In order to make any money from affiliate links, you'll need very high traffic. I doubt a local service business can generate a reasonable amount of clicks to make it worth it. It is beneficial for Amazon though because this program gets desperate businesses to create content in a sector Amazon has yet to dominate.

Regarding SEO, it's arguable whether there's any benefits. In 2017, Google was aggressive with websites that serve content for the sole purpose of capturing affiliate clicks. Amazon Local Associates pages fit this category. You can optimize this page to provide more content than Amazon's products. The question I would ask is "If you're spending that much effort, would you rather do it on your own domain of control?

 

[chadkimball]

If you're spending that much effort...

not really that much effort to rank an amazon page, but also, its all about controlling as much real estate on page 1 as possible.

 

[paulcarl]

You can't use your normal affiliate account with this service.

When I tried to login/signup it told me I'd have to close my online affiliate account. That's pretty lame of them.

 

[Chris Jara]

Paulcarl,

Do you think you could have setup another account to sign-up for the local associates program?

 

[paulcarl]

I dunno. I don't wanna risk accidentally violating some rule and losing my affiliate income over it.