In May 2020 Google launched their free shopping listings, this gave SEOs and e-commerce businesses a new channel to leverage and optimise for, the only thing you needed to show your listings was a Google Merchant Centre account and a website and you could start to drive traffic.
Whilst this is an underutilised area of search, at Varn we have started to notice that these shopping listings are pulling through to the standard search fields. As the screenshot shows they are more prominent, and could change the way we optimise for product listings in the future.
Have a look below at this very visual SERP for the term ‘blue t shirt’.
As you can see, the organic search results are shown further down, but New Look has secured the top spot in this particular result, (it is worth noting that these searches can fluctuate based on location, cookies and a range of other personalisation).
What’s interesting is where before, the standard listings would show below the top spot, the page has started to be broken up with organic, (and very prominent), shopping listings being shown. These results pull content from a shopping feed, as opposed to a landing page and could have a big impact on the way we optimise for a range of product based searches.
Why the change?
Google always wants to work towards the best user experience, and as more of us shop on mobile, it makes sense to have a stronger visual experience. The changes appear to be coinciding with the development of SGE which will also have a big impact on the way search results are displayed.
It is worth noting that these changes appear to be being tested and do not appear for every search, so the wide-scale rollout is yet to be seen.
Where have the changes been noticed?
Whilst testing the SGE content through Google Labs, we have noticed that the more prominent shopping listings are starting to appear and in some searches they are pushing down the standard organic search results.
How can you future proof your SEO?
The Google search engine results pages are always evolving, and following the best practices for SEO will help you to secure the top spots despite the changes in the layout, but to pull through these shopping listings, you will need to have a well optimised Google Merchant Centre account and strong product listings on your website.
Following the above guidance and combining this with a good holistic search strategy following a bespoke SEO audit across both paid and organic will help you take advantage and get the highest possible coverage for your products.
If you want to find out more about these free shopping listings and how you can secure them, then get in touch with a member of the Varn team today.
