ezilink: hidden ezimerchant tracking. Not impressed.

[crown]

I'm not sure when this was introduced, but the following snippets are injected into each of my generated prodect/category pages.

In the head section:
<script>document.write("<st" + "yle>#ezilink{display:none;};</st" + "yle>");</script>

Just before the close body tag:
<a id="ezilink" href="http://www.ezimerchant.com/"><img src="http://secure.ezimerchant.com/GTS0450/prostats/Hit2.asp" border="0" alt="Online Store Software"/></a>

This has the effect of inserting a hidden tracking image, and homepage link to each of my pages that I didn't ask for. If you would like people to have a link to your homepage on their site to up your page rank, make it an option in the generation (even if it's defaulted on) and don't hide it. Hiding as you do contravenes Google's webmaster content guidelines (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66353) and could result in rank penalties.

Further, don't insert stats gathering on my site that I didn't authorise. Just don't.

As you may gather, I'm highly unimpressed with what appears to be underhanded information gathering. eziMerchant is an impressive product, and does not need this.

Please tell me when you're going to make this behaviour optional. If it already is, please accept my sincere apology in advance.

Kind regards,
James Telfer

[dferguson]

Hi James

This link has been inserted into ezimerchant Professional for two main purposes…

1. Gathering site statistics


Many of our customers have asked us to provide statistics which provide a better indication of the flow of visitors through their sites and subsequently the checkout. Existing approaches such as site statistics and conversion tracking are seriously inadequate because there is no way to tie visitor behavior to purchase behavior.

This link will allow our GTS server to track which product and category pages customers are visiting and also which pages are causing customers to exit the site. Currently we are discarding this information however in a future version of ezimerchant Professional we plan to make this information available to you. You will be able to use it to your advantage by editing the content of exit pages to help entice your customers to stay on your site.

Specific data gathered will only ever be made available to the owner of the site from which it was gathered. Under no circumstances will we ever share anything other than broadly aggregated data with anyone other than the merchant to whom it belongs in strict accordance with our privacy policy.

2. Helping our own pagerank

As you say, the link also helps our own page rank - Most if not all of our competitors do the same - and most force the name to be visible. To remain competitive in search engine results we must embed links into the generated pages. This link does not effect the look of the site at all and has been designed to create as little impact as possible.

The optional visible link which is still available was disabled by too many customers, which put us at an unfair disadvantage to our competitors who don’t allow their link to be turned off and make it quite visible. Remaining competitive is not just in our best interests. It helps us continue to improve the ezimerchant product and keep the prices at the lowest in the industry for functionality and service levels provided.

[joshjen]

I would say that's a pretty fair response David. Thanks for clearing it up, I appreciate you explaining why in so much detail and honesty.
Cheers,

[crown]

I agree with joshjen: I have found the eziMerchant staff to be consistently helpful and honest, and this is yet another example.

That said, while I am thankful for David's reply, there remains a couple of areas of concern that weren't addressed.

Firstly, whether or not you are keeping the statistical information at this point is moot: there is no mention of such gathering in the EULA, and I haven't opted into any of it at all. Your point about dealing with data in accordance with your privacy policy is well taken but it doesn't deal with the fact that this is unasked for.

If at some point in the future you were to request permission to insert this tracking code (as part of a feature, or even for the purpose of tracking usage patterns of the product better) I would seriously consider allowing it. Please ask though.

Secondly, with reference to page rank, I do appreciate your need to market your product as well as you are able is important to you as a business, but the implementation that you are using is quite possibly counter-productive. Hidden links like this are a clear contravention of the Google webmaster quality guidelines, and as such can garner a page rank penalty for both my site and yours. It is at best a dubious practice. If you would like acknowledgment, I'd be happy to include a 'Powered by eziMerchant' link or badge, but it is displeasing that I have to jump through hoops to get rid of the current, hidden one.

In short, I would encourage further engagement with your customer base in general regarding the SEO and analytics features, and in the meantime I would appreciate an update that did not include the items that I have identified.

Kind regards,
James Telfer

[aschiller]

Hi James,

When we do start collecting statistics based on the link, it will only be for merchants who have opted in. Under no circumstances will we log statistics for merchants who don't ask us to do so on their behalf.

We have the badge as you suggest - please feel free to turn it on. Most of our clients complained about a visible link. We did what people wanted and made the link optional. However, the majority of our clients turned it off. This seriously affected our search engine rankings - which has affected our business as our major channel to market is our website. We would much rather spend money on development and support than on replacing lost rankings with expensive marketing campaigns. As a result, the link has to stay, not just for our benefit but indirectly yours.

The issue at hand appears to be the execution of the link in that it could be construed to be against Google's advice. We are happy to change the implementation of the link for example by making it visible under certain circumstances based on user interaction. Google's advice is around the link being present purely for search engine purposes - exposing the link to users under certain circumstances no longer meets that criteria. Your feedback on this is most welcome.