How has Ecommerce Q&A Content Performed in Google's Core Updates?
We've spoken to many ecommerce merchants who have seen a notable hit on their traffic through the Google Helpful Content Updates and Google's Core Ranking System Updates, as Google integrated the helpful content system into Google's core ranking system. As a result, multiple systems in Google's core ranking systems would now assess the helpfulness of content....and "People-first content" is more important than ever.
As Answerbase's goal is to empower ecommerce sites to identify, create, and publish "people-first helpful content" on their site, you may be specifically interested in how Answerbase customers have done through these updates. In general, Answerbase customers have thrived through the Google Helpful Content Update, the Helpful Content System, and the Core Ranking Signal Updates. We'll show you some charts below which communicate several aspects of the performance lift that we've seen, including the following:
We'll dig into each of these results and what has happened through these updates.
Performance of Helpful Q&A Landing Pages
Answerbase connects directly with Google so we can understand which Q&A pairs have enough search demand to justify their own landing page, where you can have the "Main Content" of the page satisfy that specific question about your product or product categories. As Google has continued to work toward rewarding "people-first content" those landing pages have thrived. We track the Q&A landing pages through tools that measure the traffic, rankings, and total organic keywords....and you'll see in the below chart what happened through Google's March Updates as it incorporated the Helpful Content System into it's core ranking system.
Google's communication that it was going to prioritize this people-first content (as opposed to content that is created primarily for search engine rankings) appears to be true, as Answerbase customers are rewarded for starting with "people-first content" by satisfying their actual customer's needs....and then applying SEO best practices from there to service people searching for that information on Google and other search engines. This is 100% consistent with what Google says SEO should be, see how they communicate that in their article titled "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content" and say the following:
"SEO can be a helpful activity when it is applied to people-first content, rather than search engine-first content."
Google is practicing what they preach, which is clear when you see how the people-first Q&A content has performed through these updates.
Performance of Customer Ecommerce Product and Category Pages
Similar to the Q&A landing pages, Answerbase saw a lift in the traffic to the product and category pages that Answerbase's Q&A content was integrated within. This is also consistent with what Google has communicated about their core ranking systems, as they are primarily designed to work on the page level....so Google is working to identify if each individual page has helpful content contained within it. In Google's "Helpful Content System" FAQ, they communicate this clearly as they say this:
"Our core ranking systems are primarily designed to work on the page level, using a variety of signals and systems to understand the helpfulness of individual pages. "
So, while Google does have some sitewide signals...the question you should be asking yourself is at the page level. When a customer visits a page on your site, is the page providing "poeple first helpful content" and do they have an easy way of accessing that content. Google communicated that when it comes to Helpful Content, they're looking to reward not only the content but if the visitor is having a "Satisfying Experience". So, as an ecommerce merchant you need to ensure that your product and category pages are providing that satisfying experience when it comes to finding the products and product information in the process of considering an online purchase.
Answerbase customers have seen lift as a result, where in March we saw a notable increase in the number of visitors to the pages that our Q&A capabilities were integrated in (both functionality and content). We saw customers who are pouring actual knowledge and expertise into their answers, they grew notably. See a chart from Google Search Console of an SMB Ecommerce merchant's overall traffic over the last 16 months (taken on June 5th). Keep in mind that this merchant is seasonal with peaks in the summer and dips in the winter, but you'll see the overall traffic when you compare year-over-year (YOY) the impressions and clicks have almost doubled.
We specifically left the Q&A landing pages out of those above reports so you can see the impact of all of the other pages that Q&A was integrated into...but not reflecting the activity of the Q&A landing pages. When looking at the Q&A landing pages (not including the rest of the merchant's site)....those results are even more impressive. See specifically how the Q&A landing pages spawned by Answerbase have performed for that same period for that same SMB ecommerce merchant.
Again, both the impressions and clicks have almost doubled compared to last year and note that the click-through rate to the Q&A landing pages is 3x that of their normal site. Answerbase customers on average have thrives through all of the Google Helpful Content Updates, the introduction of the Helpful Content System and as they continued with their Core Rankings Systems Updates.
Answerbase has AI-enhanced tools to ensure that you're able to efficiently create "people-first helpful content" that both Customers and search engines are looking for, we encourage you to view an overview of what Answerbase's AI is doing on both product-level Q&A and category-level Q&A to get a taste of how Answerbase facilitates the creation of valuable content that leads to both increased conversions as well as organic position and traffic growth as noted above. See a deeper dive on Answerbase's tools for both of these types of optimizations here:
Helpful Q&A Content Lifting Product Page Positions on "Merchant Listing Experiences" Results
You may have noticed that since January....there are organic results called "Merchant Listing Experiences" which have started taking over the #1 spots for organic product category searches. Since Q&A works as supplementary content on product pages....it can lift the positions for those pages as you add relevant and helpful Q&A content with appropriate keywords to provide lift on those pages. See this result below which BEFORE the Q&A helpful content was ranking in product results position at 17.5 and you see the positions AFTER the Q&A helpful content was added to the page where it has two product pages ranking in the top 8 organic "Merchant Listing Experiences" results.
Google is adjusting their core ranking signals to create an incentive for businesses to create "People-First Helpful Content" and Q&A helps satisfy these results, and with "merchant listing experiences" taking over product searches on Google...Product Page SEO is critical for merchants moving forward. We encourage you to book a demo today to talk about what Answerbase can do for your business.
As Answerbase's goal is to empower ecommerce sites to identify, create, and publish "people-first helpful content" on their site, you may be specifically interested in how Answerbase customers have done through these updates. In general, Answerbase customers have thrived through the Google Helpful Content Update, the Helpful Content System, and the Core Ranking Signal Updates. We'll show you some charts below which communicate several aspects of the performance lift that we've seen, including the following:
- Q&A Landing Pages: Answerbase can recognize what customer questions related to products have enough volume on organic searches to justify their own landing pages, and then publish and distribute those pages in a way so those pages rank in search results and drive more traffic to your site as customers ask similar questions on Google. We'll show you how those Q&A landing pages have thrived through all of these Google updates.
- Ecommerce Store Traffic: Lifting the organic positions of your product pages in Google search results is very valuable as well as customers are looking for products and being driven directly to the product pages which satisfy their search results. Answerbase has also seen notable lift to product pages.
We'll dig into each of these results and what has happened through these updates.
Performance of Helpful Q&A Landing Pages
Answerbase connects directly with Google so we can understand which Q&A pairs have enough search demand to justify their own landing page, where you can have the "Main Content" of the page satisfy that specific question about your product or product categories. As Google has continued to work toward rewarding "people-first content" those landing pages have thrived. We track the Q&A landing pages through tools that measure the traffic, rankings, and total organic keywords....and you'll see in the below chart what happened through Google's March Updates as it incorporated the Helpful Content System into it's core ranking system.
Google's communication that it was going to prioritize this people-first content (as opposed to content that is created primarily for search engine rankings) appears to be true, as Answerbase customers are rewarded for starting with "people-first content" by satisfying their actual customer's needs....and then applying SEO best practices from there to service people searching for that information on Google and other search engines. This is 100% consistent with what Google says SEO should be, see how they communicate that in their article titled "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content" and say the following:
"SEO can be a helpful activity when it is applied to people-first content, rather than search engine-first content."
Google is practicing what they preach, which is clear when you see how the people-first Q&A content has performed through these updates.
Performance of Customer Ecommerce Product and Category Pages
Similar to the Q&A landing pages, Answerbase saw a lift in the traffic to the product and category pages that Answerbase's Q&A content was integrated within. This is also consistent with what Google has communicated about their core ranking systems, as they are primarily designed to work on the page level....so Google is working to identify if each individual page has helpful content contained within it. In Google's "Helpful Content System" FAQ, they communicate this clearly as they say this:
"Our core ranking systems are primarily designed to work on the page level, using a variety of signals and systems to understand the helpfulness of individual pages. "
So, while Google does have some sitewide signals...the question you should be asking yourself is at the page level. When a customer visits a page on your site, is the page providing "poeple first helpful content" and do they have an easy way of accessing that content. Google communicated that when it comes to Helpful Content, they're looking to reward not only the content but if the visitor is having a "Satisfying Experience". So, as an ecommerce merchant you need to ensure that your product and category pages are providing that satisfying experience when it comes to finding the products and product information in the process of considering an online purchase.
Answerbase customers have seen lift as a result, where in March we saw a notable increase in the number of visitors to the pages that our Q&A capabilities were integrated in (both functionality and content). We saw customers who are pouring actual knowledge and expertise into their answers, they grew notably. See a chart from Google Search Console of an SMB Ecommerce merchant's overall traffic over the last 16 months (taken on June 5th). Keep in mind that this merchant is seasonal with peaks in the summer and dips in the winter, but you'll see the overall traffic when you compare year-over-year (YOY) the impressions and clicks have almost doubled.
We specifically left the Q&A landing pages out of those above reports so you can see the impact of all of the other pages that Q&A was integrated into...but not reflecting the activity of the Q&A landing pages. When looking at the Q&A landing pages (not including the rest of the merchant's site)....those results are even more impressive. See specifically how the Q&A landing pages spawned by Answerbase have performed for that same period for that same SMB ecommerce merchant.
Again, both the impressions and clicks have almost doubled compared to last year and note that the click-through rate to the Q&A landing pages is 3x that of their normal site. Answerbase customers on average have thrives through all of the Google Helpful Content Updates, the introduction of the Helpful Content System and as they continued with their Core Rankings Systems Updates.
Answerbase has AI-enhanced tools to ensure that you're able to efficiently create "people-first helpful content" that both Customers and search engines are looking for, we encourage you to view an overview of what Answerbase's AI is doing on both product-level Q&A and category-level Q&A to get a taste of how Answerbase facilitates the creation of valuable content that leads to both increased conversions as well as organic position and traffic growth as noted above. See a deeper dive on Answerbase's tools for both of these types of optimizations here:
Helpful Q&A Content Lifting Product Page Positions on "Merchant Listing Experiences" Results
You may have noticed that since January....there are organic results called "Merchant Listing Experiences" which have started taking over the #1 spots for organic product category searches. Since Q&A works as supplementary content on product pages....it can lift the positions for those pages as you add relevant and helpful Q&A content with appropriate keywords to provide lift on those pages. See this result below which BEFORE the Q&A helpful content was ranking in product results position at 17.5 and you see the positions AFTER the Q&A helpful content was added to the page where it has two product pages ranking in the top 8 organic "Merchant Listing Experiences" results.
Google is adjusting their core ranking signals to create an incentive for businesses to create "People-First Helpful Content" and Q&A helps satisfy these results, and with "merchant listing experiences" taking over product searches on Google...Product Page SEO is critical for merchants moving forward. We encourage you to book a demo today to talk about what Answerbase can do for your business.
