In the past year, Google has brought about swift changes in the retail SERP landscape, including:

1. A significant increase in product results, comprising 45% of the SERP composition in Q1 2023.
2. Google Search Console (GSC) introducing fresh Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate various types of product result appearances.
3. Google’s fine-tuning of how it presents results to e-commerce consumers.

These developments continue to emerge. The question now arises: how much significance do these SERP shifts carry? We’re here to delve into the essential takeaways from significant alterations in the retail SERP arena, encompassing:

1. The rationale behind Google’s adaptation in serving product results to consumers in 2023.
2. Novel SEO strategies to consider when dealing with product-first results.
3. Comprehensive search practices for optimizing across various channels, mainly focusing on product-first searches.

The prominence of organic product results in the retail SERP landscape underwent a substantial transformation in Q1 2023. This rapid shift was driven by new algorithm updates, leading to a notable increase in product listings within the SERPs.

Data from Merkle revealed that product listing types accounted for nearly 45% of the SERP composition in the retail sector, marking a significant 20-percentage point year-over-year increase. Consequently, the changing composition caused organic web listings to appear above the fold only 18% of the time, reflecting a 6% decline compared to the previous year. Moreover, the overall presence of organic web listings on the SERPs experienced a 7.6% year-over-year decrease in Q1 2023.

In April 2023, Google introduced a reviews update, marking the sixth product reviews update since April 2021.

Beyond the shifts in SERP composition, SEO practitioners now grapple with Google’s reduced reliance on standard third-party website reviews. Instead, Google prioritized in-depth reviews that provide visual evidence of a product or service experience. The precise impact of these changes on organic product result types within the SERPs remained somewhat uncertain.

What should we deduce amidst these updates in product reviews and SERP composition? To get a comprehensive picture, let’s explore other concurrent developments.

What prompts Google’s transformation of the retail SERP layout by incorporating product results?

In Q1 2023, as both organic product results and shopping listings witnessed year-over-year growth, there was a concurrent rise in rich snippet types, including “People also ask” (+7% YoY) and “People also search” (+10% YoY). These trends occurred alongside a notable decline in text ads (-42% YoY).

When we consider these trends collectively, it becomes evident that more than just reshuffling the positions within the SERP, the retail search landscape is undergoing a substantial evolution for the better. The question that naturally arises is: why is Google modifying its approach to presenting organic product results?

Easing the Search Burden on Consumers

It’s essential to reiterate Google’s fundamental goal when implementing algorithm changes: enhancing user search experience.

Adapting to Google’s repositioning of product results can be a complex task, involving the need to assimilate, comprehend, measure, and optimize in alignment with these alterations. However, it’s crucial to consider the positive aspects of what Google aims to achieve for the everyday consumer.

Indeed, this could be Google’s endeavor to alleviate the “search stress” experienced by consumers, particularly those falling into the following categories of intent:

Google persists in refining its algorithm as it gains more profound insights into consumer shopping patterns and preferences. Simultaneously, this evolution is driven by a determination to assert a more competitive position against rival search engines and online marketplaces.

Functioning as a Marketplace with Merchant Listings and Product Snippets

Beyond its efforts to reduce the burden on searchers, Google is trying to rival prominent online marketplaces. It aims to accomplish this by prioritizing product displays over traditional organic web listings.

This strategic shift enhances the user experience, offering a more seamless browsing experience, often likened to virtual window shopping, eliminating the need to navigate to a website directly.

This strategic pivot aligns with the landscape observed in Q1 2023. According to eMarketer, as many as 56% of U.S. consumers initiate their product searches on platforms like Amazon, bypassing traditional search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

Consequently, it’s unsurprising that product-centric results are steadily increasing their share in the retail SERP landscape, driven by Google’s determination to vie more robustly with e-commerce giants such as Amazon and emerging marketplaces like TikTok.

eMarketer’s report reveals the emergence of new contenders in the SERPs arena, including Amazon, TikTok, and YouTube, as formidable players in online shopping lanes.

With a year-over-year decline in SERPs as the initial starting point for online searches, Google’s refinements to the retail SERP appearance directly respond to this evolving landscape.

Adopting a more strategic approach to understanding consumer behavior, SEO practitioners recognize that:

1. Brand-loyal consumers maintain a brand-centric shopping approach but may only sometimes complete transactions on the brand’s website.
2. Non-brand loyal consumers often engage in extensive window-shopping, price comparisons, and thorough review scrutiny and demand high trust in their purchases before converting.

So, what does this entail for SEO professionals? It underscores the importance of fine-tuning the fundamental pillars upon which SEO has relied since its inception: a robust content strategy and meticulous technical SEO enhancements.

Google Search Console Updates – April 2023: Focus on Organic Shopping

With the growing prevalence of product results in the SERP composition, Google introduced monitoring updates to GSC performance reporting in March 2023.

This significant update involved splitting the previously single category of “product results” in GSC into two distinct segments: “product snippets” and “merchant listings.”

Now, let’s delve into the differences between these two categories:

Product Snippets: These encompass organic web listings of Product Detail Page (PDP) URLs, accompanied by a snippet or extension that includes various unique elements like product URL, title, description, reviews, ratings, shipping and return policies, pricing, and location-based availability.

Merchant Listings: This category comprises unpaid and organic Google Shopping product listings displays. These listings are frequently showcased in a carousel format as a prominent SERP result, typically appearing above regular organic web listings. In the past, these results were distinguished by the “Popular Products” label. Additionally, you can find merchant listings in the dedicated Shopping tab of Google Search.

Google Shopping Results Tab: Previously primarily dedicated to Product Listing Ads (PLAs), the shopping results tab has expanded to include paid and organic product listings. These results are reported through Google Ads for PLAs and via GSC for unpaid product listing types, such as product snippets and merchant listings.

SEO Strategies for Product Results in Retail SERPs

Despite Google’s evolving approach to contextualizing product results in retail SERPs, SEO practitioners need not reinvent their skill sets to adapt to this shift. Instead, they should apply core SEO tactics within this new environment. Key strategies include:

1. Refine Product Schema: Adjust product schema to align with rich SERP composition updates, including shipping and return policies.
2. Out-of-Stock (OOS) Handling: Develop a strategy to address out-of-stock situations to minimize the risk of high bounce rates or lost traffic.
3. Robust Product Descriptions: Ensure strong and unique content on Product Description Pages (PDP) to enhance user engagement.
4. Reseller Strategies: Understand reseller strategies’ impact and potential overlap where applicable.
5. Site Speed Optimization: Eliminate hindrances to PDP site speed for an enhanced user experience.

In the context of product results in the SERP, users can engage in two primary ways:

1. Product Listing Ads: Paid advertising for product visibility.
2. Organic Engagement: Includes product snippets or merchant listings within organic search results.

This underscores the importance of adopting a “total search” perspective, which involves optimizing paid, organic, and shopping activities to work harmoniously. Considerations for total search effectiveness include:

1. Canonical Tags: Ensure that canonical tags are correctly configured for parameterized PDP URLs to attribute organic versus paid engagement to the authoritative URL accurately.
2. Organic Parameters: Manage and create organic parameters for PDP URLs effectively.
3. Keyword Enhancements: Explore opportunities to support keyword enhancements within additional field details to influence organic product listing types in Google.
4. Structured Data Integration: Verify that structured data is effectively integrated into Google Merchant Center to enhance product visibility.

In Brief: Retail SERP Optimization in 2024

Here are the key insights and action points to keep in mind while shaping your e-commerce SEO strategies for the remainder of the year and heading into 2024:

1. Prioritize PDP Content Strategy: Ditch the old approach of copying third-party content onto product pages. Instead, focus on crafting unique content for Product Description Pages (PDP) that Google can effectively analyze, index, and distinguish between product variations among different retailers.
2. Dynamic PDP Schema: Given Google’s increasing attention to PDP schema refinement, optimizing all PDP schema fields for maximum efficiency is wise. This includes regional pricing, shipping information, return policies, and product availability.

If you’re still grappling with the intricacies and confusion, explore our monthly SEO packages and entrust the task to our skilled experts.