It’s been exactly 6 months since I started as an SEO for a promotional products company. Since then, Google has changed its search engine results page (SERP) quite a bit. Personalization for everyone, social circle, inclusion of Google profiles, real-time search with tweets, facebook updates, blog posts, news sites; Similar Pages where Google gives 4 competitors for your branded query, suggested brands for the search query like “pens” or “digital camera,” and finally, past week’s update, where Google allows you to easily browse results by relevancy–News, Blogs, Shopping, Images or other on the left-hand side.
Clearly, Google now provides even better user experience. When it comes to online stores, what can be better than a featured link in “Shopping” results? You can’t afford NOT to give your product feed to Google Merchant account–it’s free, it’s relevant for users, it gets you sales. From now on, search ranking of your product page or a category page aren’t as good as a shopping result.
Google Shopping results for the "Nike Shoes" query
Logic behind Google’s Shopping Results (my understanding)
- Intent — is searcher’s main intent to buy something?
- Relevancy — is product title, description, landing page relevant to a search?
- Variety — can at least 3 product listings be returned? Any other stores offering same/similar product?
- Click-thru rate — every click on a Shopping result proves that search query and displayed product was relevant.
- User’s satisfaction with a click — after the click, did searcher come back to click on any other item? Did searcher refine a query or searched for something else related?
- Pricing — what’s pricing like?
Future of Shopping Results on Google
Product Reviews
Product reviews by actual customers are fed to Google Merchant if you’re using Bazaarvoice (since late April 2010). For others, there soon will be an option to upload your own customer product reviews.
What can Google do with product reviews?
- Analyze reviews, group them by pricing/service/product, or any other dimension (similar to the way restaurant reviews are currently shown).
Google Places/Maps shows customer reviews by dimensions: "sushi" & "food"
- Group reviews by product (not necessarily by the Advertiser), in order to give customers full overview.
- Use reviews when ranking your Shopping results. The better reviews you got, the higher are your rankings
Better Product Analysis, required manufacturer SKU data
If Google starts to require original SKU data of the products, it will be able to group products way more efficiently.
What can Google do with unified product data?
- Show Shopping results for the product, NOT the product+store which sells an item
- Provide users will the tools to make a purchase decision right on Google. Click from Google’s shopping results would mean a highly qualified visitor.
- Become your affiliate. Yes, Google’s Affiliate Network is up and running, Google already displays affiliate’s products (on right-hand side, where PPC results are). Shopping results can become Google’s significant source of revenue.
Get Ready Today!
Google has done obvious steps to feature shopping results as much as possible. In near future, make sure you are utilizing all the fields you can — not only the required ones — in Google Merchant feed. “Brand” field allows users to narrow down by the familiar brand; make sure to use “product type,” and review the product attribute list in case there are any industry-specific values.
Slavik blogs about online marketing, user experience, search engine optimization, and mobile. Co-founder of Volinsky Consulting — web design & user experience company in Albany, NY. He's on Google+ and on twitter:
Follow @svolinsky
