Answer
May 13, 2024 - 08:16 AM
You'll noticed with many other ecommerce Q&A tools, the Q&A is published on the product page but as more and more questions are answered that starts to page where a customer needs to click "next" or "see more" in order to see the content available. There are a couple of issues with this from an SEO standpoint:
"The helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn't meet a visitor's expectations won't perform as well."
And now that the Helpful Content Update was transitioned into the Helpful Content System which is now part of Google's Automated Ranking Signals, it's more important than ever for site owners to be focused on these details because over time the satisfactory experience for the searcher to meet content/pages that best serve their search intent....those pages and companies are going to win.
Answerbase Solves These Problems
Answerbase makes sure that all of your valuable Q&A content is made available to Google, and if there is a search demand for that information Google will index it and it will be available to rank in results. Answerbase is connected directly to Google to help ensure that your Q&A content is indexed and published appropriately, giving you the maximum SEO value for the valuable answers that you're contributing.
Answerbase has a sitemap specific to your Q&A content which you add directly into your Google Search Console and Google will consider it for results. See this example of how Google displays these Q&A results when the search is shorter-tail and more focused on the product and displays the Q&A content along with the product image:
For longer tail searches where it's clear that the searcher is more focused on the information, Google caters the results for that informational request.....so you'll see these two results....both Q&A landing pages for ecommerce product information (one from Amazon's Q&A landing page and then one from Answerbase's customer):
Answerbase sees on average across our customers that the Q&A landing pages have 121% higher click-through-rates compared to the rest of the merchant's site in Google Search Console (that data is directly form Google Search Console reports). So, by effectively managing Q&A content publication and distribution, Answerbase ensures that your Q&A content has the best chance of getting indexed, ranking well, and leading visitors to your site.
When it comes to managing what is indexed, included in the sitemap, etc.....Answerbase has additional tools for our customers to use to ensure that this is done in an intelligent way. For example, Google is very focused on People First Helpful Content but if there simply isn't a demand for that specific information....some merchants choose to adjust their settings to "no index" that content without proven demand over time. In your admin site under "System Settings > SEO > Supplementary Content" you'll notice some adjustments where you can choose to give the UGC a shot for a period of time....but then Answerbase communicates directly with Google to see if the Q&A threads are being indexed or not...and after the designated time if Google has still not chosen to include the content in it's index.....Answerbase will "demote" the content to simply be "Supplementary Content". See settings here:
That Supplementary Content let's you identify content that doesn't have enough search demand or originality/value to justify a landing page of it's own so it's used to future visitors who have the same question through Auto-suggest as you see here where those Q&A threads will be auto-suggested for future visitors who have that same question:
Answerbase sees that on average, 7.5% of engagements of the Q&A functionality/content convert to a sale so that ensures that you're getting value on the conversion front.
And then on the Q&A landing pages for SEO....it will be used to bolster the value of that page to provide more value and social proof for those visitors related to the product/category/page that the customer is interested in.
If you have any other questions, we recommend that you Schedule a Demo and we'll have a product specialist answer any questions that you have and can speak to your specific needs.
- Sometimes the second page and beyond are not read, found, and indexed by Google which means that there is a lot of valuable "people first helpful content" that you're generating that Google may not be finding at all.
- Even if you do see that the content is being indexed, Google rewards content which gives the visitors a "satisfying experience" so if you do a search for information found on one of those subsequent pages you'll find that when you click into the result on Google....it leads the searcher to the top of your product page and they're "stuck" without the information they came there to find and see. So, that's a problem for the visitor experience and therefore is a problem for SEO....because Google will prioritize pages that satisfy the content demand but have a better experience than you're offering.
"The helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they've had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn't meet a visitor's expectations won't perform as well."
And now that the Helpful Content Update was transitioned into the Helpful Content System which is now part of Google's Automated Ranking Signals, it's more important than ever for site owners to be focused on these details because over time the satisfactory experience for the searcher to meet content/pages that best serve their search intent....those pages and companies are going to win.
Answerbase Solves These Problems
Answerbase makes sure that all of your valuable Q&A content is made available to Google, and if there is a search demand for that information Google will index it and it will be available to rank in results. Answerbase is connected directly to Google to help ensure that your Q&A content is indexed and published appropriately, giving you the maximum SEO value for the valuable answers that you're contributing.
Answerbase has a sitemap specific to your Q&A content which you add directly into your Google Search Console and Google will consider it for results. See this example of how Google displays these Q&A results when the search is shorter-tail and more focused on the product and displays the Q&A content along with the product image:
For longer tail searches where it's clear that the searcher is more focused on the information, Google caters the results for that informational request.....so you'll see these two results....both Q&A landing pages for ecommerce product information (one from Amazon's Q&A landing page and then one from Answerbase's customer):
Answerbase sees on average across our customers that the Q&A landing pages have 121% higher click-through-rates compared to the rest of the merchant's site in Google Search Console (that data is directly form Google Search Console reports). So, by effectively managing Q&A content publication and distribution, Answerbase ensures that your Q&A content has the best chance of getting indexed, ranking well, and leading visitors to your site.
When it comes to managing what is indexed, included in the sitemap, etc.....Answerbase has additional tools for our customers to use to ensure that this is done in an intelligent way. For example, Google is very focused on People First Helpful Content but if there simply isn't a demand for that specific information....some merchants choose to adjust their settings to "no index" that content without proven demand over time. In your admin site under "System Settings > SEO > Supplementary Content" you'll notice some adjustments where you can choose to give the UGC a shot for a period of time....but then Answerbase communicates directly with Google to see if the Q&A threads are being indexed or not...and after the designated time if Google has still not chosen to include the content in it's index.....Answerbase will "demote" the content to simply be "Supplementary Content". See settings here:
That Supplementary Content let's you identify content that doesn't have enough search demand or originality/value to justify a landing page of it's own so it's used to future visitors who have the same question through Auto-suggest as you see here where those Q&A threads will be auto-suggested for future visitors who have that same question:
Answerbase sees that on average, 7.5% of engagements of the Q&A functionality/content convert to a sale so that ensures that you're getting value on the conversion front.
And then on the Q&A landing pages for SEO....it will be used to bolster the value of that page to provide more value and social proof for those visitors related to the product/category/page that the customer is interested in.
If you have any other questions, we recommend that you Schedule a Demo and we'll have a product specialist answer any questions that you have and can speak to your specific needs.
