Why do authority sites like to use sliders for their "best" products pages?

freckletone · Oct 13, 2016

I am talking about huge authority sites like Bestproducts and Totalbeauty.. Say for example for something like "best flat iron" they will have a slider showing each flat iron... with like 2 lines of text about it and a link to Amazon or Nordstroms etc... and then you have to click "next" to see the next product they recommend.

As a surfer it is super annoying as you have to keep clicking "next" to see the next recommended item. I mean, who is going to click 10 times? Is the whole purpose of it to aggravate the surfer so they will just click through to the affiliate site and buy the damn thing?

Also. I think it's funny as small time webmasters always think about how it's all about content and that good content equals 3000 words of text! Whereas authority sites that have 20,000 referring domains and over a million dollars worth of organic traffic according to Ahrefs are just writing 2-3 sentences about the product and then moving on to the next slide....

Goes to show that authority wins over all. If you have enough authority you can just rank with a few sentences; no need to write a long ass novel.

A ton of content is not always good because most people who have credit cards (primarily Americans) are lazy as FUCK and don't want to read anything! We don't even read when we have to such as for school, college, work. Most don't even want to read something if their life depended on it; they are not going to sift through a long ass article because webmasters assume longer content is better.

That's not the point though; my point was the sliders... Am I the only one who finds this super annoying and why do so many authority sites have their nuts all over these annoying slider things?

validseo · Oct 13, 2016

Those sliders have affiliate tracking links... you have to go to another website to actually buy the product. The sites you mention are blogs and they are tweaking the photograph gallery feature of their wordpress templates to show the products and link to the affiliate stores in a way that makes them look a little bit more like a retailer.

It is a clever trick because photos sell product. Using the slider lets you show bigger images without crowding the webpage. If you actually were looking for a flat iron then you will be more likely to page through the whole gallery in this format and the buy links are right next to each photo.

Setting it up this way is also really clever because they make a niche product gallery as a post and then they can turn around and use facebook's awesome targeting and promote the post as a sponsored story to very specific groups of people who would be most inclined to respond to the offer... for example women with an interest in fashion, beauty, or cosmetics.

If I were going to do affiliate sales this is probably very close to what I would try to do myself. The general rule of thumb is micro-niches with extremely precise targeting will tend to convert best. It all would make more sense if you could see the other half of what they are doing with the blog posts.

Keep in mind the sliders aren't for you... they are for a very small group of people who are focused on buying a flat iron at this exact moment ... they aren't interested in reading an article about flat irons... they are ready to buy now and this photo post is built to serve that immediate need.

The magic part you can't see is how they are targeting those shoppers.

Since they are targeting people who intuitively know how to browse a photo gallery they are probably targeting a slightly younger audience. I think the system is amazing. I'd really like to see their GA reports.

freckletone · Oct 13, 2016

validseo said:
Those sliders have affiliate tracking links... you have to go to another website to actually buy the product. The sites you mention are blogs and they are tweaking the photograph gallery feature of their wordpress templates to show the products and link to the affiliate stores in a way that makes them look a little bit more like a retailer.

It is a clever trick because photos sell product. Using the slider lets you show bigger images without crowding the webpage. If you actually were looking for a flat iron then you will be more likely to page through the whole gallery in this format and the buy links are right next to each photo.

Setting it up this way is also really clever because they make a niche product gallery as a post and then they can turn around and use facebook's awesome targeting and promote the post as a sponsored story to very specific groups of people who would be most inclined to respond to the offer... for example women with an interest in fashion, beauty, or cosmetics.

If I were going to do affiliate sales this is probably very close to what I would try to do myself. The general rule of thumb is micro-niches with extremely precise targeting will tend to convert best. It all would make more sense if you could see the other half of what they are doing with the blog posts.

Keep in mind the sliders aren't for you... they are for a very small group of people who are focused on buying a flat iron at this exact moment ... they aren't interested in reading an article about flat irons... they are ready to buy now and this photo post is built to serve that immediate need.

The magic part you can't see is how they are targeting those shoppers.

Since they are targeting people who intuitively know how to browse a photo gallery they are probably targeting a slightly younger audience. I think the system is amazing. I'd really like to see their GA reports.

Yes I am aware they are doing affiliate marketing and selling a product...

As a surfer if I were ready to buy a flat iron RIGHT NOW I would NEVER click through a slider to see the next page. I don't wanna click jack. Clicking is tiring and hurts my hand. I would MUCH rather see a single page with ALL of the options listed maybe with short bulletin points or a few sentence about the product. I don't need to zoom in on the product.

I actually feel that most people ready to buy this product now would prefer toview 10 possible flat irons options on the SAME page instead of clicking "next". I just asked my friend and he agreed with me these sliders are annoying as hell and even if he were to want to buy something now he would never buy from such a site.

As a surfer and someone who buys things online frequently, if I were looking to buy a product NOW with my credit card out and landed on those damn slider site I would click the F out and go find another site to surf and click through their affiliate site instead.

I actually think these sliders are the most user unfriendly feature any site can have.

judaculla · Oct 13, 2016

freckletone said:
A ton of content is not always good because most people who have credit cards (primarily Americans) are lazy as FUCK and don't want to read anything! We don't even read when we have to such as for school, college, work. Most don't even want to read something if their life depended on it; they are not going to sift through a long ass article because webmasters assume longer content is better.

The art is in the balance. For example; if you had a bunch of 2000+ word articles on your website, that had been heralded as an authority for years, giving you high domain Authority, then you could churn out some bullshit and rank the hell out of it. Lots of these giant sites have affiliate programs themselves, which inspire a shit load of links, thus giving them more authority.

It's just the way it is, and why websites like this exist—because entrance into well-established markets is nearly impossible unless you have a bankroll.

Also, a lot of these larger sites don't necessarily just use affiliate marketing, per-se, as much as they just drop ship from different suppliers. Conceptually, it's kind of the same thing, but there's actual work and logistics involved which requires a significant amount of capital in cases of the walmarts, targets, office max's, and home depots.

Regarding sliders, Amazon uses the shit out of them—which must mean they work.

I hate them, you hate them, your friend hates them. The vast majority of people are attracted to them for some reason or other though.

freckletone · Oct 13, 2016

judaculla said:
The art is in the balance. For example; if you had a bunch of 2000+ word articles on your website, that had been heralded as an authority for years, giving you high domain Authority, then you could churn out some bullshit and rank the hell out of it. Lots of these giant sites have affiliate programs themselves, which inspire a shit load of links, thus giving them more authority.

It's just the way it is, and why websites like this exist—because entrance into well-established markets is nearly impossible unless you have a bankroll.

Also, a lot of these larger sites don't necessarily just use affiliate marketing, per-se, as much as they just drop ship from different suppliers. Conceptually, it's kind of the same thing, but there's actual work and logistics involved which requires a significant amount of capital in cases of the walmarts, targets, office max's, and home depots.

Regarding sliders, Amazon uses the shit out of them—which must mean they work.

I hate them, you hate them, your friend hates them. The vast majority of people are attracted to them for some reason or other though.

2000 word articles don't give you authority. Referring domains and quality links do. Some of these sites like BestProducts have never written a 2000 word article. EVER. They rank from referring domains alone from their other magazine sites in the Hearst magazine family that have like 30,000 referring domains each.

When talking about large sites I am referring to online magazines like Allure.com (20k referrring domains) , Elle.com (50k referring domains). I am talking about online magazines who are affiliates and push Amazon and Nordstroms,

I am not talking about sites who drop ship.

I am talking about authority site who use affiliate marketing to make money including Cosmopolitan, Best Products, Allure.com etc.

Sliders on Amazon are different than sliders on a site like Bestproducts. On Amazon they aren't "sliders" but GALLERIES... Where you can click out of the gallery at any time. A slider on a site like Bestproducts forces you to click "Next" in order to view the next item. They are nothing alike. Amazon doesn't use sliders; they are photo galleries. There is a DIFFERENCE.

judaculla · Oct 13, 2016

Apologies, I didn't realize how specific the nature of your grievance towards sliders was.

binaryking · Oct 13, 2016

I think it's about page views... Isn't it?

validseo · Oct 13, 2016

freckletone said:
I actually feel that most people ready to buy this product now would prefer toview 10 possible flat irons options on the SAME page instead of clicking "next".

Some of them sure... most? maybe. maybe not.

freckletone said:
I just asked my friend and he agreed with me these sliders are annoying as hell and even if he were to want to buy something now he would never buy from such a site.

Not quite a scientific focus group. Actual results may vary.

freckletone said:
As a surfer and someone who buys things online frequently, if I were looking to buy a product NOW with my credit card out and landed on those damn slider site I would click the F out and go find another site to surf and click through their affiliate site instead.

I actually think these sliders are the most user unfriendly feature any site can have.

But what do fashion focused tweens with a debit card think? Isn't that the money you are trying to acquire? Don't get me wrong... I hear you. I have lots of personal preferences too, but to make money you have to put those opinions aside and test and measure what works and what doesn't and save the "beliefs" for after all the dollars counted.

If these sites are happy enough with the dollars they are making to keep doing it that way then I would guess they know something you don't. I would at least want to challenge my beliefs at that point and run some tests.

freckletone · Oct 13, 2016

validseo said:
Some of them sure... most? maybe. maybe not.

Not quite a scientific focus group. Actual results may vary.

But what do fashion focused tweens with a debit card think? Isn't that the money you are trying to acquire? Don't get me wrong... I hear you. I have lots of personal preferences too, but to make money you have to put those opinions aside and test and measure what works and what doesn't and save the "beliefs" for after all the dollars counted.

If these sites are happy enough with the dollars they are making to keep doing it that way then I would guess they know something you don't. I would at least want to challenge my beliefs at that point and run some tests.

Many of these sites are targeting luxury products towards grown women; their market is not tweens.

It doesn't matter what the market is male or female, young or old, no one likes to have to click something 10 times just to see the next item.

In my opinion, I don't think a younger audience likes clicking next over and over again. It is just not surfer friendly in general as it forces the surfer to do a lot of work (click) just to see the next image.

Here's an example

http://www.bestproducts.com/fitness/clothing/g2051/camouflage-clothes-and-camo-hunting-gear/?slide=4

This is not user friendly to anyone regardless of race, gender or age. It forces the surfer to click 10x to see everything and that actually hurts the hand.

Best Products is not just targeted towards women. They make plenty of pages that are gender neutral and also targeted towards MEN as the hunting gear I posted above.

This format is annoying for any human being to surf and click on because it requires so much effort just to see the next image.

validseo · Oct 13, 2016

freckletone said:
This format is annoying for any human being to surf and click on because it requires so much effort just to see the next image.

It definitely promotes the product on slide 1 the best and the product on slide ten the worst... but I've seen simple uncluttered pages perform. You are mad that it is not sensible... I'm just saying that being sensible isn't a requirement for something working in sales and marketing... sometimes its the counterintuitive stuff that ends up being the most critical.

I'd bet they tried a token display page and they sold units more evenly across all the options, but I bet when they show one at a time they sold more units over all and probably most of them were the slide 1 unit.

Sometimes that is just how it works... Being surprised or even being wrong about an outcome isn't a bad thing... It usually comes with a lot of future sales.

I'm also not saying you are wrong... just keeping an open mind about why they do what they are doing.

thebat1980 · Oct 17, 2016

Hi, come from an Ad Sales background - it's simply to increase the page views/ IMPS which make the advertiser spend more.

Why do authority sites like to use sliders for their "best" products pages?

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