When was the last time you did a product search on Google? What did that SERP (Search Engine Results Page) look like? Amazon and eBay have been controlling the eCommerce game for long enough. And now the most powerful search engine online, Google, is making strides to enter the Product Search and eCommerce market at NO cost. There’s no better time than now to begin revamping your online store to ensure that your products are listed on the organic product search results page.
Until recently, Google has been focused on organic search results with the primary goal of bringing the best results to its users. Now, Google is taking it a step further by enhancing its product search through Google Product Search, giving users product details, even prior to the user getting to an eCommerce site. Google Product Search is a free price comparison service that allows users to search for various products from a multitude of online vendors.
On August 23, Google announced the acquisition of comparison shopping site Like.com. Like.com is a visual search, shopping engine using visual recognition technology. This is a clear sign that Google is taking strides to improve their product catalog listings, and produce the best possible results for its users. With the help of photo-recognition software and algorithms created by Like.com, shoppers are able to search for similar products based on the color, style and even pattern of a product.
Prior to that, Google struck a deal with Power Reviews Inc. in July of this year. Power Reviews is the #1 destination for trustworthy and useful product reviews. With its new partnership, Google will be able to begin to display product ratings and reviews via Google search results, which would in turn boost sales due to the valuable content provided.
These changes suggest that Google is striving to be not only the number one search engine but also the top product search site as well. Should this be the case, Google may become the one-stop-shop for all internet users who are looking to do anything that involves search on the internet. Don’t forget Google Checkout, the online payment processing service, is still in play and the number of participating vendors utilizing this service might increase in the near future.
So what does this mean for eCommerce sites? There are three things I believe will be critical for eCommerce sites to focus on, if they want to take advantage of Google’s new top-dog position:
Unique product images
Now that Google has access to the image-recognition technology being utilized by Like.com, it is important for eCommerce sites to have unique product images for each product. Multiple images for each product could help improve your Google catalog ranking, if the image recognition tool utilized by Like.com is implemented on the search engine level.
Product tagging
Like.com developed the capability of interpreting search queries like “black shiny purse” or “pink stripped tie” visually. With Google now in play, one can expect that it’s only a matter of time before the capability is introduced on a search engine level. A very detailed product description (or even general content) is something hardly found on product listing pages, but could that be the necessary piece of information required to get to the top on Google’s catalog SERP? Being able to tag products according to the way your customers would search for those particular items couldn’t be more critical. Remember Google is all about crawlability!
Product Optimization
Every product has its uniqueness in comparison to others, now is the time to begin identifying those attributes and strategically placing them in the right categories within your online store – this increases the chances of your product being found in Google’s Product Search. For example, what are the chances of a customer searching for “DKNY Robinson Button Down Shirt” versus “DKNY Blue Striped Button Down Shirt”? The second search term is more likely to be inputted by a user; and thus, more likely to appear in Google’s SERP. Why? Take into consideration that customers searching have a better knowledge of the physical style of the shirt, than the corporate-marketing name.
Google is making it easier for eCommerce sites to capitalize on this latest and greatest capability yet the opportunity lies with the eCommerce community to seek ways to get their products to the top of the list. So, what are you doing to optimize your eCommerce site?
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