Text Links: When to use HTML Over the URL

Hey Publishers,

If you have ever created a Custom Text Link to a department, search results, a specific product, or to any page on Bizrate.com, you may have noticed that both a URL and an HTML code are returned.  Ever wonder what the difference is?

First let's start with a general review of creating a Custom Text Link.

• From the Shopzilla Publisher Portal go to 'Get Content' and then 'Text Links.'

• Under 'Custom Text Links' choose the type of text link you'd like to create.  For this example, we'll choose 'Link to Any Page.' 

• Now we need the URL of the Bizrate page we want to link to.  Go to Bizrate.com in a separate tab or window and search for the product or products you want to be included in the page.  For this example, I'm going to search for 'vans shoes' to bring up a page of vans shoes offers.  

• On my website, I want the text link to read 'Compare Prices on Vans Shoes' so I'll include that in the Link Text field.  I'll also select the Placement ID 4. Cool Shoe. (Check out our post on Placement IDs)

• After you click 'Get HTML', you'll have two results.  An HTML code and a URL.

The HTML and URL both redirect to the desired Bizrate page and include the tracking information necessary for us to track the traffic generated from your website and credit earnings to your account. They also differ:

HTML: The HTML code is fairly simple to implement onto your website.  When editing in HTML (not rich text) just copy and paste the full code where you would like to implement it.  For this example, using the above HTML code the text link will appear as Compare Prices on Vans Shoes to your users.  The HTML also tracks impressions, which are included in your reporting.  You also may have noticed that we include comments in our HTML code.  For those of you who are HTML beginners, comments are nested within <!-- and --> and they won't display on your live website.  They are only visible in the HTML source and make it easier for you to understand the code in question.

URL:  The URL is great to use if you don't want to edit the HTML, however it's important to make note that the URL alone will not be able to track impressions, whereas the HTML code will.

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