Answer
Nov 20, 2024 - 12:24 PM
The ranking game has been shaken up quite a bit recently as Google has made it clear that companies should be creating and publishing "people first content". Things started heating up with the 2022 Helpful Content Update, which turned into the Helpful Content System, which then in March 2024 was incorporated as part of their core ranking systems. Through all of this, Google started surfacing the "Popular Products" tables (see article that covers what are Google's Popular Product tables and who's eligible for them).
Assuming you've done what you need to do to be eligible for them and ensure that all your products that are available in your merchant listings reports....then it becomes a matter of how do you rank within the Popular Products rich results. When it comes to what is most important with how pages will be ranked.....we've had some interesting conversations and we feel that given Google has shifted heavy towards "helpful content"....the old rules may not apply as they once did. One of the things that commonly comes up is "Domain Authority" so we just wanted to communicate with what we've seen when it comes to domain authority and these "Popular Products" listings and how important (or not important) that is.
When we first started exposing the Popular Products tables to agencies and asking how they would optimize it, we had several communicate to us that SMB ecommerce customers could never rank for those listings because they would see companies like Amazon, Ebay, Target, Dicks Sporting Goods, etc. ranking for those listings.....so we found it a bit surprising that they completely writing off the ability for small business ecommerce to rank there. The reason they said was "you'll never have more Domain Authority" than those big brands....so they basically looked at is as a lost cause. This is not what we've seen and it looks like an outdated SEO strategy before Google started heavily weighing how helpful pages are with original, people-first helpful content. Case in point....see the domain authority that Ahrefs shows for this site:
Now look at how that site is performing for product search related to it's products....see example here:
How is that possible if domain authority is one of the big ranking factors that Google uses? Just know that the only thing applied to that site was helpful Q&A content (through Answerbase's product Q&A). There are a couple key lessons here:
If you need any help with your Ecommerce SEO....we do have a short list of agencies that we have partnered with and trust to guide you in the right direction. We're consistently working with them to cut any irrelevant practices out of ecommerce audits and services....and will continuously work with them to ensure that they can efficiently and effectively audit and optimize for ecommerce SEO and those Popular Products tables.
If you want to have a call with one of our agency partners, please Schedule a Call and we'll make sure you're connected with somebody who can actually help you live in this new world of ecommerce seo.
Assuming you've done what you need to do to be eligible for them and ensure that all your products that are available in your merchant listings reports....then it becomes a matter of how do you rank within the Popular Products rich results. When it comes to what is most important with how pages will be ranked.....we've had some interesting conversations and we feel that given Google has shifted heavy towards "helpful content"....the old rules may not apply as they once did. One of the things that commonly comes up is "Domain Authority" so we just wanted to communicate with what we've seen when it comes to domain authority and these "Popular Products" listings and how important (or not important) that is.
When we first started exposing the Popular Products tables to agencies and asking how they would optimize it, we had several communicate to us that SMB ecommerce customers could never rank for those listings because they would see companies like Amazon, Ebay, Target, Dicks Sporting Goods, etc. ranking for those listings.....so we found it a bit surprising that they completely writing off the ability for small business ecommerce to rank there. The reason they said was "you'll never have more Domain Authority" than those big brands....so they basically looked at is as a lost cause. This is not what we've seen and it looks like an outdated SEO strategy before Google started heavily weighing how helpful pages are with original, people-first helpful content. Case in point....see the domain authority that Ahrefs shows for this site:
Now look at how that site is performing for product search related to it's products....see example here:
How is that possible if domain authority is one of the big ranking factors that Google uses? Just know that the only thing applied to that site was helpful Q&A content (through Answerbase's product Q&A). There are a couple key lessons here:
- Google is Serious About Helpful Content: Google is communicating what type of content that websites shoudl be creating and that it should be helpful, reliable, "people first" content....and they're serious about it. It's true now and it's forever true for the future as Google has clearly communicated (and is necessary for any search service to get/stay relevant)...these are the pages, content, and sites that Google is looking to reward.
- SEOs Needs to Reevaluate SEO Means in 2024 and Beyond: Many of the things that SEO's have held true in the past, some of that may need to be demoted or completely thrown out in the new world of SEO. We have seen a lot of customers who are being sold a lot of services that are simply SEO Myths....and we've seen customers paying a lot of money for those services. Make sure that you are working with an agency who is honest with what you need and don't need....and knows what's relevant in 2024 and beyond.
If you need any help with your Ecommerce SEO....we do have a short list of agencies that we have partnered with and trust to guide you in the right direction. We're consistently working with them to cut any irrelevant practices out of ecommerce audits and services....and will continuously work with them to ensure that they can efficiently and effectively audit and optimize for ecommerce SEO and those Popular Products tables.
If you want to have a call with one of our agency partners, please Schedule a Call and we'll make sure you're connected with somebody who can actually help you live in this new world of ecommerce seo.
