One of the primary reasons for price discrepancies is the complexity of Google’s algorithms. These algorithms work tirelessly to match search queries with relevant products, but sometimes, they can make mistakes. Additionally, outdated structured data and duplicate content issues can also contribute to the problem.

In a recent Google SEO office hours Q&A, Senior Search Analyst John Mueller addressed a common concern among retailers: inaccurate product pricing in search results.

Mueller provided valuable insights and recommendations to help businesses ensure their prices are displayed correctly.

Leveraging Google Merchant Center for Accurate Pricing

One of the most effective ways to address inaccurate pricing is by utilizing Google Merchant Center. This powerful tool allows retailers to submit their product data directly to Google, including pricing information. Mueller emphasized the importance of using Merchant Center feeds, stating, “I’d recommend using the Merchant Center feeds if you can.”

“There are ways to submit pricing information in [the] Merchant Center that don’t require a lot of work, so check that out. If you can’t find ways to resolve this, then please drop us a note in the help forums with the details needed to reproduce the issue,” Mueller continues.

By using Merchant Center, businesses can gain more control over how their product information, including prices, appears in search results. This can help prevent errors and ensure that shoppers see the correct price when they click on a listing.

Addressing Currency Discrepancies

Another issue that can arise is discrepancies in currency display in rich results, which can lead to confused customers and lost sales.

Mueller explained that this often occurs when Google’s systems view pages as duplicates, particularly when content is nearly identical across different regional site versions.

“Often, this is a side effect of Google systems seeing the page as being mostly duplicate. For example, if you have almost exactly the same content on pages for Germany and Switzerland, our systems might see the pages as duplicates, even if there’s a different price shown,” says John Mueller.

To avoid this problem, retailers should ensure that their content for different regions or currencies is sufficiently distinct. Additionally, using Merchant Center feeds for pricing information can help prevent currency-related issues.

Additional tips for accurate pricing

• Regularly Update Product Information: Ensure that product data, including pricing, is kept up-to-date to avoid discrepancies.
• Monitor Search Results: Regularly check how prices are displayed in search results and rich snippets to identify any issues.
• Utilize Google’s Tools: In addition to Merchant Center, consider using Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance and identify potential issues.
• Avoid Duplicate Content: To ensure Google doesn’t mistake them for duplicates, pages for different regions or currencies should have unique content.
• Seek Assistance: If you encounter persistent problems, don’t hesitate to reach out to Google’s help forums for further assistance.

Conclusion

By following these guidelines and leveraging tools like Google Merchant Center, retailers can significantly improve the accuracy of their product pricing in search results. This will not only enhance the shopping experience for customers but also boost sales and build trust in your brand.

The post Google’s John Mueller Offers Tips For Removing Pricing Discrepancies In Search appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

In a recent SEO Office Hours session, a person who has been unsuccessfully working on product pages, asked Google’s John Mueller what he could do better.

The SEO mentioned that they have been doing SEO for an e-commerce website that has 30-40 products in total. They have been spending time on “regular back-linking process, on-page SEO, and structured data.”

According to them, their efforts on the company blog have yielded results, but it is the product pages that haven’t produced good results.

“It is just that the product page, they don’t rank well.  They don’t rank at all.”

The difficulty with ranking product pages

As we mentioned earlier, ranking product pages can sometimes be more difficult than ranking blog posts. That’s because promoting product pages and getting backlinks from reputable, industry-relevant websites can be significantly more difficult.

John Mueller also acknowledged the difficulty in ranking the product pages.

“I think that’s always challenging.  And I don’t think that there is a simple trick to make that happen.”

Having said that, John Mueller did share a few valuable tips and ideas to help rank product pages.

Google Shopping Feed

John Mueller suggested exploring the Google Shopping feed and explained the connection between Google Shopping Feed and Shopping Search results.

“The one thing I would watch out for is if these are products of this ecommerce site, make sure that you have all of the merchant center set up correctly because I don’t know if this is in every country yet, but we do have kind of the Google Shopping Feed where you can …submit your products for free and then we can show those in the Shopping Search results.

And sometimes we mix that in with the normal search results.

So that’s kind of a way to additionally get your products a little bit more visibility.”

Internal Links

Creating contextual internal links from relevant blog posts to product pages is another tactic that can help improve the search visibility of product pages.

“With regards to the … products themselves, if you’re saying that some of your content like the blog posts are ranking well, but the products aren’t, then sometimes you can help that by making sure that there is clear internal linking between those things.

So the pages where you are seeing that they’re working out well, make sure that there’s really a clear linking from those pages to your actual products.”

However, Mueller also asked to resist the temptation of linking to every product page, because that may dilute the importance of those links and the product pages you are trying to improve rankings for.

“If you have really long kind of blog posts that are ranking, the challenge there might be that it’s very tempting to link to a lot of different products from there.

And by linking to a lot of different products, you’re kind of saying, well, everything is a little relevant, but nothing is really relevant. Whereas if you link to a few products from those pages, then you can really say [that] these are really important products.”

Links from the home page

In addition, if you have a few very high-profile product pages, you can also link those pages from the home page. There are added benefits of linking to pages directly from the homepage.

“If you say that you have a few products at the moment, then it’s sometimes tempting to link to all of these products from your shop home page.

And if you can find a way to, kind of, funnel that a little better, then that can make it a little bit easier for individual pages to rank better.”

Conclusion

If you are struggling with ranking product pages, here are some tips that are worth exploring.

It is important to note that, despite using all these ideas and tips, you may still struggle with product pages and their search visibility.

That’s because, sometimes, it is just the competition, and the industry is a bit harder to crack in the SERPs.

“It’s sometimes just that the competition is quite strong, and it takes a while to grow,” said John Mueller.

You can find that conversation and more in this video.

The post Google shares tips on how to improve search visibility for product pages appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

In this blog post, we are going to share five tips for minimising the cart abandonment rate on your website, increase revenue, and improve your return on ad spend (ROAS) and return on investment (ROI).

1. Establish trust

One of the biggest problems online e-commerce stores face is the lack of trust by potential consumers. In this day and age, privacy and protection of data are major concerns. Data gets stolen all the time.

On top of that, not all e-commerce stores deliver as they promise. While some are actively involved in shady practices, others just fail to provide the required customer service.

Fortunately, there are ways to eliminate those concerns and establish trust — which goes a long way in decreasing the cart abandonment rate.

For instance, you can include the various “trust icons” on your checkout page. It is, however, important that the trust icons or logos are recognisable. 

Here is an example.

Secondly, do not forget to add real customer testimonials and positive feedback on the checkout page.

Watching or reading a real customer testimonial can go a long way in establishing trust and credibility of your business. According to Shopify, 61 percent of buyers may abandon the cart if they do not trust a store.

With these two techniques, you can easily minimise that issue.

2. Offer multiple payment options

Sometimes, everything is great. The buyer has found the right product, she trusts you, and there are no price-related surprises.

In short, there might not be any obstacles — except for the payment option.

By offering multiple payment options, you can minimise that possible friction and allow buyers to pick their most favorite option. Not having enough payment options can increase the cart abandonment rate by up to 7 percent.

There is no shortage of payment options in today’s world. From credit cards to mobile payment systems to PayPal, the average online buyer has plenty of options. It is important to acknowledge that diversity and use it to your advantage.

3. Be upfront about price

Often, e-commerce stores are not entirely upfront about the final price. You’d notice that many stores keep the shipping cost hidden until you reach the final checkout stage.

While this tactic may often work, it is also a leading cause of higher cart abandonment rates.

Almost one-third of all ecommerce online shopping carts get abandoned because of shipping costs that the buyers didn’t see coming.

Instead of dragging a user to the very end, only to disappoint them, it is generally a better idea to be upfront about your pricing options.

Be transparent and wear that badge proudly. This will not only decrease the cart abandonment rate, but it will also help improve the credibility of your business — especially when your competitors are involved in keeping certain types of charges hidden.

4. Make the checkout process effortless

It is very important to regularly revisit the checkout process and make necessary improvements. Your goal should be to make it as seamless, logical, and quick as possible.

Minimise the barriers, the pages, and the number of clicks a buyer has to go through. Fewer barriers mean less friction — which will likely improve the conversion rate.

Also, make saving carts effortless.

The online buying experience can be fairly different than buying at a local brick-and-mortar store. With online, you do not have to commit to buying something. It is possible to change your decision at the last moment.

The ability to return to your cart and all its items — while browsing and/or adding a few other products — effortlessly, without losing any progress, is extremely important.

5. Let consumers buy without an account

Approximately 14 percent of online buyers indicate that they abandon the cart if the website does not offer a “guest checkout” option.

Forcing users to create an account before they are allowed to checkout is the equivalent of creating an unnecessary hurdle — one that goes against the philosophy of removing barriers.

Make sure your website offers the option of a “guest checkout”.  There are other ways to gather buyer information and generate leads for upselling or cross-selling.

Conclusion

High cart abandonment rate is a big issue that most e-commerce stores face. However, that’s one thing that often gets neglected.

With the above-mentioned five tips, you can dramatically improve the cart abandonment rate, the overall conversion rate, and the ROI.

The post 5 Tips for Minimising the Cart Abandonment Rate appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

A large majority of ecommerce businesses usually rely on paid search ads, and very few ecommerce businesses make a concentrated effort for search engine optimisation and higher rankings in the SERPs. They buy impressions and clicks for the keywords they believe would benefit them the most. 

However, since the COVID-19 outbreak, the PPC industry has taken a massive hit.

The total number of Google Search Ad clicks in the US (and in the entire world, for that matter) has gone down rapidly.

Moreover, businesses — especially ecommerce businesses — have had to deal with cuts in advertising budgets and managing more resources more efficiently. That’s why SEO has become more important than ever for ecommerce businesses.

Here are 5 actionable tips for increasing organic traffic for ecommerce websites.

1. Create unique product descriptions

For ecommerce websites, there is often a scarcity of content. Less content may mean fewer opportunities for keyword inclusion and getting ranked higher in the SERPs.

You can change that by creating unique product descriptions for each product you have. The important point to remember is that all these descriptions should be unique — regardless of how similar some products and landing pages may be.

In-depth product descriptions also give you a better opportunity to engage users, increase the average time visitors spend on your page, and improve the conversion rate on your site.

2. Make your website mobile-friendly

In many industries, mobile devices bring more traffic than desktop computers. Therefore, having a mobile-friendly website is a no-brainer.

On the other hand, however, if you do not have a mobile-friendly website, you will have a tough time ranking on Google’s first page. Google is now using a mobile-first index, which means a mobile-friendly website is not an option anymore. It’s absolutely crucial to your organic success in the SERPs.

You can easily check if your web page is mobile-friendly or not.

3. Be strategic with keyword selection

If organic traffic is your primary goal, then keyword selection automatically becomes an extremely crucial aspect of your online success.

I’m sure you understand that you’ll need a lot of content to rank higher in the SERPs for important keywords. However, it is important to conduct thorough keyword research and let the shortlisted keywords drive the content planning process.

It is also very important to know and understand your audience. How they search online, what their problems are, and how your website and product help them are all crucial aspects of the overall SEO strategy.

Lastly, do not forget the importance of long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords have many benefits for ecommerce websites:

1. They are relatively easier to rank for.
2. They have a high conversion rate.

You can use tools like the Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to find relevant long-tail keywords to include on your site.

4. Don’t neglect keyword optimisation

Although keyword optimisation is not as important as it once used to be, it is still something you should not completely ignore.

After years of evolution, machine learning, and algorithm updates, Google has become smart enough to rank a web page for a relevant search query even if the page does not specifically use the main keyword.

However, when you have the main keyword strategically placed in the blog post, it may make it easier for Google to find and rank your web page. Therefore, make sure to include your primary keyword in:

• The URL of the web page
• The title tag of the page
• The meta description of the web page
• The subheadings (H2 and H3 tags)
• At least once in the body text

5. Focus on improving the loading speed of your website

The website loading speed is a key part of your SEO success.

There is a direct correlation between higher search engine rankings and faster loading speed. A recent study reveals that web pages ranked on #6 are, on average, 20 percent slower than websites that are ranked on #1.

You can easily check how quickly your web page loads. 

For e-commerce websites, the loading speed of the web page is extremely important. It is because a slow-loading web page not only affects the search engine rankings of a web page, but it also has a significant negative impact on the site’s conversion rate.

To learn more about website speed optimisation, check out this 7-chapter, 4000-word free guide.

The post 5 actionable tips for increasing ecommerce organic traffic appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

With the rising popularity of e-commerce, Google has decided to make an unprecedented move and offer free product listings on Google Shopping. This news comes amidst the growing threats to businesses and people across the world because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

In the announcement blog post, Google acknowledged the growing dependency of people on digital commerce and the challenges businesses are facing worldwide.

“With physical stores shuttered, digital commerce has become a lifeline for retailers. And as consumers increasingly shop online, they’re searching not just for essentials but also things like toys, apparel, and home goods. While this presents an opportunity for struggling businesses to reconnect with consumers, many cannot afford to do so at scale.”

Google further added:

“In light of these challenges, we’re advancing our plans to make it free for merchants to sell on Google. Beginning next week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google.”

This is excellent news for everyone involved in the online shopping process.

For retailers, it means free exposure to hundreds and thousands of people who search for their product on Google. For online shoppers, this means easier discoverability of more products and a lot more variety that just wasn’t available before. For digital advertisers, this step means paid campaigns would be augmented with free listings.

What should users do?

According to Google, existing users of the Merchant Centre do not have to do anything to be benefited from free listings. For new retailers, Google says that “we’ll continue working to streamline the onboarding process over the coming weeks and months.”

For more information, you can check out Google’s help centre, which has more details on how to participate in free product listings.

When will the changes roll out?

These changes will start taking effect in the United States before April 30th. Google is working on expanding it globally before the end of the year.

In addition, Google also announced a new partnership with PayPal, which would allow merchants to link their PayPal accounts to Google Shopping. PayPal now joins Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce as Google’s partners. You can read more about that in Google’s announcement blog post.

The post Google to make listing products on its shopping service free appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

However, the competition is getting tough, and you need every tool in the box to succeed. Facing barriers in the form of small technical SEO issues shouldn’t be a challenge you face.

To help you succeed, here are 6 tips on how to do technical SEO on e-commerce websites.

1. Unique title tag and meta descriptions

Creating unique title tags and meta descriptions can be a challenge for e-commerce website owners. Many product pages can be too similar to each other. However, even those demand unique title tags and meta descriptions.

Here are a few tips to remember:

• Make sure to include your primary keyword (product name, for example) in both the meta title and meta description.
• Consider using long-tail keywords for better chances in the search engine results pages.
• Create interesting, engaging, and clickable meta descriptions.

2. Optimise the URL structure

Another thing that many e-commerce websites — especially with lots of web pages — struggle with is the URL and site structure.

Here is an example of a poor URL structure.

www.yoursite.com/asdfjuzmdkxl

On the other hand, here is a much better example:

www.yoursite.com/brand_name/category_name/product_name

Ideally, the URL should not have more than 170 characters. Try to keep it short, but at the same time do not compromise on your site’s URL structure and navigation.

3. Don’t remove – Redirect

It is common for e-commerce websites to remove pages that are no longer relevant. If a product is no longer available, do not remove that page. Instead, redirect it to another relevant page.

When you remove the page, it creates a 404 error. That’s not good for your website’s SEO. Instead, use a 301 redirect (if the product is gone for good), or a 302 redirect (if it is temporary).

Redirecting users to the correct URL — instead of causing a 404 page — is an integral aspect of technical SEO. It helps increase the engagement rate as well as improve search engine rankings.

4. Canonical tags

As we discussed earlier, an ecommerce website has many pages that are very similar to each other — in terms of title tags, meta descriptions, products, information, images, and content. For example, a jacket that can be used by both men and women.

If you have a situation where you must create separate pages for similar content or products, consider using a canonical tag.

A canonical tag prevents duplication of results in the SERPs and helps you avoid penalties for plagiarism. Use canonical tags to identify to search engine crawlers which page should be preferred and indexed.

5. Find and fix crawling issues

It is a good practice for e-commerce websites to find and fix crawling issues regularly. You can use a free tool, such as ScreamingFrog, to fix a variety of issues, such as:

• Redirection error (3xx)
• Client errors (4xx)
• Server errors (5xx)

ScreamingFrog also helps you identify missing title tags, meta descriptions, image alt text, etc.

6. Alt images

Do all the images on your e-commerce website have alt text?

An e-commerce website is expected to have hundreds of images, and each one of them should have a keyword-rich and descriptive alt text. It is important for two reasons:

• It is a recommended practice for better search engine rankings.
• Second, users can see the alt text if, for some reason, the image doesn’t load on the web page.

7. Website loading speed

A research revealed that a web page that loads in 2.4 seconds had an average conversion rate of 1.9 percent. At 5.7 seconds, the average conversion rate drops to just 0.6 percent.

The loading speed of your e-commerce website is crucial for sustained sales, revenue, and credibility.

However, how fast your site loads is also an important search engine ranking factor. Fixing it is a part of the technical SEO.

You can use free tools, such as Pingdom, GTmetrix, and Google PageSpeed Insights to identify loading issues in your website and fix them.

For more detailed information on how to optimise your website’s performance and improve its loading speed, read our free guide on speed optimisation.

The post Technical SEO for Ecommerce Tips appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

Here is what Google said:

“This year we’re unveiling a redesigned Google Shopping experience with new, immersive ways for shoppers to discover and compare millions of products from thousands of stores. When they’re ready to buy, they can choose to purchase online, in a nearby store and now directly on Google.”

How to shop directly from Google search results?

An ‘Add to cart’ button could be present in the search results when the user is viewing a product page. That would allow the person to buy that item directly.

The same ‘Add to cart’ button would be available on a YouTube video about a product.

The option to continue adding items

When an item is added to the cart, users are not obligated to complete the transaction right away. Instead, they can keep adding more items to the cart by clicking the same ‘Add to cart’ button.

Google’s role in resolving possible issues

Google assured that buyers could use this service to purchase confidently with excellent customer support and simple returns that are backed by a Google guarantee.

In case a customer faces issues while getting a refund, Google told that it would step in.

What’s next?

This recent update and the decision to phase out Google Express for shopping and replace it with the new Google Shopping is an attempt to compete with Amazon and Instagram.

By using its massive user database, Google can ensure that the right ads can get in front of the right audience.

The post Google users can now shop directly from Search, Images, and YouTube appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

But how do you optimise for a higher conversion rate as well as better search engine rankings?

Here are a few tips.

 1. Optimise product descriptions

The first step to making a high-converting and search-engine friendly product page is to utilise and optimise every bit of text on the web page.

First, you will have to find a way to grab your reader’s attention and hold it until the very end of the page. That is not an easy task, especially with product pages. Online readers are at least somewhat inclined to reading information web pages and blog posts. However, product pages always seem too promotional, and it is harder to hook readers.

Besides, customers do want to get all the answers, but they rarely want to read everything you write. This is why you have to create engaging and very interesting content when you describe your product.

Instead of focusing solely on your product and what features does it have, start with a unique value proposition that the readers might find useful and interesting.

As the old saying goes in the sales, “you don’t sell a 1.5-inch drill; you sell a 1.5-inch hole that the customer can use to hang a photo-frame of his loved ones.”

By making the content interesting, you would be able to hold visitors for a longer period of time. This will not only open more opportunities for you to convince the visitor to make the purchase, but higher engagement and on-page time may also help you with achieving better search engine rankings.

 2. Use keywords strategically

Another aspect of optimising product pages and content is to use keywords strategically.

First, you will have to use the main keyword(s) that you are trying to rank for. Strategically place that main keyword or keyword phrase in the body text, title tag, meta description, and subheadings. However, make sure that it appears naturally.

Apart from the main keyword, you will also have to use LSI keywords. LSI keywords are semantically related keywords that provide more context to the search engines about the web page. Since there is not a lot of room for text on product pages, LSI keywords play a more important role.

 3. Don’t forget to use images and videos

Images and videos are integral parts of any high-converting product page. Nobody likes a huge wall of text; you need to change things up by adding more visual content.

Images are often the preferred way to showcase your product. Depending on the niche you have — for example, fashion and apparel — images can be a powerful tool in converting random website visitors into paying customers.

However, if you have a more complex product that requires in-depth explanation, videos are probably a much better option for that.

By adding more visual content, you not only increase the chances of higher engagement and better search rankings, but you also increase the possibility of getting a better conversion rate.

 4. Create an excellent user experience

This goes without saying, but you have to have an excellent user experience on your product page.

Pick the right color palette, have a clear and visible call-to-action, simplify on-page navigation, and make it as easy as possible for your website visitor to complete the transaction.

A poor user experience makes visitors quit your website as soon as they get to it, which sends a negative signal to search engines. This negatively affects your webpage’s rankings in the SERPs.

 5. Improve the loading speed of your product page

Improving the loading speed is essential because of multiple reasons:

1. First, it allows you to engage your readers with fast-loading content and grab their attention right from the get-go.
2. According to a study, a web page that loads in approximately 2.4s enjoy a conversion rate of 1.9%. However, if that loading time goes up to 5.7s, the conversion rate drops down to just 0.6%.
3. The loading speed of a website is now an important search engine ranking factor. It’s near impossible for a slow-loading website to stay on Google’s first position.

For more information on how to improve a website’s loading speed, read our free guide to website speed optimisation.

The post How to Optimise and Create a High-Converting Product Page appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

A recent study by Microsoft reveals that most people are using voice search. The report analyzed the usage of digital assistants and smart speakers.

Here are some other interesting stats from the report…

• 35 percent of people use voice search through a smart speaker.
• 72 percent of people use voice search through a personal digital assistant
• By 2020, 75 percent of households will have at least one smart speaker
• Most of the people (68 percent) use voice search for finding quick facts.
• Almost the same amount of people (65 percent) use voice search for looking up directions.
• Nearly 52 percent of people search for a product or service. While 44 percent conduct additional research for products and services. This further shows the importance of voice-search optimisation for online business and e-commerce stores.
• 31 percent of people use voice search to compare different products and services.
• 67 percent of all voice searches are related to shopping.

Apart from all these eye-opening statistics, the study also revealed that 57 percent of people expect their favourite brands to have their own digital assistants in the next five years.

While that may not be possible for every big brand, there is no excuse not to take voice search seriously and optimise your website and all its content for voice search. More and more people are searching for product and information via voice search. If you are not prepared for that, you are losing out on big opportunities.

If you want to learn more about the adoption and usage of voice technology, the functionality of digital assistants, consumer trust in voice technology, and the evolution of shopping and the growing trend of vCommerce (voice commerce), check out Microsoft’s full report.

The post Microsoft 2019 Voice Report reveals interesting future of voice search appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

This latest update by Google makes the knowledge panel a true one-stop resource for product-related information.
It is important to note that in the previous screenshot, there is only one shopping ad in the ‘Shop on Google’ section. That is the sponsored ad.
However, there will be cases when there are multiple products shown in that section. In that scenario, the knowledge panel will display multiple products and feature them as a carousel for shopping ads.
For instance, look at the following screenshot.
It displays the carousel featuring different products. Moreover, it also has a new section of ‘Details’ in the blue header.

User reviews are an important part of this product-oriented knowledge panel. Whenever a user searches for a product, she definitely glances over the user reviews to judge how good the product really is.
Google pulls in user reviews from multiple sources. Some of those sources include:

• Manufacturers
• Merchants
• Product ratings programs

On the other hand, the editorial reviews about specific products are generated and displayed algorithmically.
This is a timely update considering the holiday season is almost upon us. Hopefully, it would allow e-business owners and online marketers to get better results with their Google ads.

The post Google Updates Mobile Product Knowledge With Even More Information appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.