Thanks to universal search, more product search terms on Google, especially when they include words such as 'buy' or 'cheap' are now returning shopping results, often above the organic results.
In this example for a search for 'buy Sony Vaio' on Google UK shown below, shopping results take the top spot, ahead of those from Sony. With such a prominent position in the SERPS at stake, getting your products listed there is clearly a good idea, so how does Google determine which products appear there?
Tom Critchlow of Distilled provides some excellent tips in a guest post on SEOmoz today, here are some of his suggestions:
The way into Google's product search results is through Google Base, and Tom has been looking at some of the ranking factors:
Title
Having keywords in your title tag is an important ranking factor.
Data-stuffing
In the product submission form you have the option of entering information about your product in around ten fields, and you can also enter customised fields. Most are optional (including colour, weight and size) but, according to Tom, adding more data helps you rank higher, as well as for a variety of product searches, which certainly makes sense.
Keeping product data up to date
A ranking factor recommended by Google; updating product information with latest prices, availability etc is crucial.
Getting reviews
Having some positive reviews for your site is one of the strongest ranking factors, and Tom lists some of the sites that Google takes its reviews from in the US and UK.
Unsurprisingly, and as Andrew Girdwood predicted in a post on this blog a year ago, Google is using the carrot of product search rankings as a way to push Google Checkout. According to Tom:
In my experience and research Google Checkout reviews seem to count for more than reviews left on 3rd party sites. This does seem to make sense since these reviews are presumably more trusted by Google (since it controls the spam filtering and authentication) than 3rd party reviews. That said, it does mean you have to have Google Checkout enabled to profit from them!
For more detail and tips, see Tom's post, as well as Google's own advice on improving your products' ranking; for instance, it advises adding images to product feeds to increase the likelihood of shoppers clicking on your items.
Learn more...
Econsultancy has published an SEO Best Practice Guide, a comprehensive report about search engine optimization written by Dr Dave Chaffey which has been described as the 'SEO Bible'. We have also published a business case for SEO and a Request for Proposal template file for those looking to hire an SEO agency.
Graham Charlton is Senior Reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin.
Posted 20 April 2009 12:39pm by Graham Charlton with 5 comments
Tags: SEOmoz, product search, universal search, Google, ranking factors
Topics: Ecommerce, Search Marketing - Organic/Natural (SEO)
Sectors: Retail
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Graham Charlton
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eCommerce & Marketing Consultant at James Gurd
1:20PM on 20th April 2009
Hello,
Interesting comment about Google Checkout; Google recently announced it was upping its merchant charges and stopping the PPC benefit - this suggests it doesn't intend to pursue its head-to-head with PayPal because it is making the proposation less favourable.
Google products is a worthwhile service to tap into as part of your web marketing; e-inbusiness offers a windows service that automates data feeds to shopping services like Google Products - happy to explain more if anyone is interested.
thanks
james
7:31AM on 21st April 2009
Particpation in Google Base is becoming increasingly important for online retailers as increasingly results take precedence over natural listings.
Google has also experimented with the Product PlusBox, an expansion of Adwords results to feature products from listed in Base for a given advertiser.
Expert knowledge of Google Base is fairly thin on the ground at the moment but this promises to change as our trusted SEO's take more interest in the Google OneBox results. There have already been some effects from participation in Google News and previously from prior incarnations of Google Coop.
This is sure to become an increasinly crowded space as advertisers recognise the benefits of appearing in these results. Therefore optimisation is key.
11:59AM on 23rd April 2009
Good Post, I have also added image to my product rss feed and achieved better results.
10:40PM on 31st August 2009
Good post. These kind of things are still very coplex to the small business owner. I'd like to find a 1-stop shop feed service that also helped me rank high. Any suggestions?
5:27PM on 14th January 2010
Factors from most to least important (in my opinion):
Title (short or long?), Description (short or long?), Image (keyphrase in image name?), Reviews, Price
I'm not sure on the following possible factors:
EAN, MPN, Static keyword rich URL, PR, Trust Rank, No. of products, Age of Feed, How often feed is updated, CTR, conversion rate of product, custom attributes, auto or manual upload, tax/shipping info, company info
Can anyone add to this list? Or give feedback on their experiences please?
Thanks,
Martin