Number of Items As a Google Ranking Factor??
-
If I search for "hiking boots" and scan down the SERPs I see the following...
-
Google reports "483 items" for the Zappos.com page.
-
Google reports "Results 1 - 36 of 85" for the Shoebuy.com page (and that does not appear in their code).
So, Google is obviously paying attention to the depth of your information or the number of items that you are showing. If they think that is important enough to count and report in the SERPs, might they also be using that information as a ranking factor??
PRACTICAL APPLICATION FOR SEO: If google is using this information, perhaps people should list all of their color, size, etc variants on a single page. For example if you sell widgets in five colors, instead of making one page for each color, list all five on the same page.
-
-
You can place a general description at the top of the page under a large detail photo. Then down below - beside each color photo example you can talk about the pretty turquoise blue color of this item and how it is great paired with tan slacks (don't give a specific item there because it be discontinued, but you can link to search results or a color category page).
-
If OZ sends you a pm with these unique descriptions, would you please blog about it in 90 days?
-
I like that idea in theory and in practice for some sites. But in practice for most of the sites I deal with I have enough trouble trying to get buy-off for custom copy on each product page, let alone five or ten totally unique, separate descriptions that don't all sound boilerplate.
I'd love to see a few examples though if you don't mind sharing. You can PM me if you like.
Cheers,
Everett
-
Thank you, Everett. Interesting ideas.
When I have a product that is available in several colors of styles I include all of them on one page but have separate, descriptions, product photos and buy buttons. I am doing this with the hope that it will make it easy for customers to see all options at once but also to make a much richer-appearing page for Google.
-
EGOL,
Great question / observation. I'm curious about this too, but do not know how a test could be designed that would rule out other factors. Glancing at the SERPs, I don't see any indication in terms of placement that this is a major factor since results #2, #3 #5-#7 don't have that data, but that isn't exactly scientific. On the other hand, those that do have it seem to be ranked in order of the total amount of items (i.e. 578 Amazon, 484 Zappos, 85 Shoebuy).
Regardless, nine times out of ten I recommend having a single product page with variables as something the user can choose from a drop down, as opposed to different pages. With this approach, in light of your question, it might be worth considering the option of having all of the variables listed as individual product pages on a category page, and using a rel canonical tag on the product pages to canonicalize them all to a single product page. This way you inflate your count on category pages, while avoiding the issues inherent with having separate pages for each variant.
-
I quite wouldn't say # of items be the right approach, but rather 'average customer rating' as a combination of # of items would be useful. Mere item-count is easily inflatable by publishers/eCommerce to get its ranking up.
My 2 cents.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
A Google Update Happened?
I'm curious to know what us MOZ folks have to say about an update on Google. Article here: http://searchengineland.com/big-google-search-update-happening-chatter-thinks-258142 Any ideas?
Algorithm Updates | | Chenzo0 -
Google Rankings Dropped in Past Few Weeks
Hi All, I work for an online appliance retailer and over the past weeks, we've seen a drop in our google SERPs. This time last year we were ranking in the top 3 for our top converting key terms, but now we are ranking towards the bottom of the first page or even on the top of the second page with the big box stores now dominating for our key terms. Needless to say traffic for these pages has dropped off considerably. We still have quite a bit of traffic coming in for other key terms, but they don't convert as well. Is anyone else seeing the same thing? If so what are you doing to combat this? Do you have any suggestions? Thank you!
Algorithm Updates | | airnwater0 -
How to increase Alexa Rank?
Hi All, I have a website mexat.com and continuously my Alexa rank decreasing before a month my website Alexa rank was approx 3500 but now it is 4,487 so I am worried about that and want to get Alexa below 2000. So please suggest me what I can do to get good Alexa rank. I am waiting for your valuable feedback. Thanks Mike
Algorithm Updates | | afycon0 -
Google visits falling at the expense of Bing
Has anyone else noticed their percentage of search visits from Google slipping in the last few weeks at the expense of Bing? We've seen a 4% swing in the last month. Obviously Google is still the dominant presence (acconuting for 88.4% of all organic visits to our site kenwoodtravel.co.uk) but still it would be interesting to know if this is just a blip or more of a trend?
Algorithm Updates | | BrettCollins0 -
Should Your Keep Out Of Stock Item Active On Your Site ?
If you have sold out products that will never come back in stock. Should you remove the items and urls from your sitemap and site. Or should you keep them active with a sold out image. The purpose would be for search engines will think your site is larger due the products and amount of urls you have ?
Algorithm Updates | | TeamLogo0 -
Why is this site ranking 1st?
I'm a relative SEO newbie, so please go easy on me. I've been an SEOMOZ pro user for a few months and have used it to dramatically improve my organic rankings. However, for the life of me, I cannot determine why the site that currently ranks number one, does so. For the factors I can determine, they shouldn't be ranking where they are, but reality is different. Could someone please offer me some ideas? My target keyword is "photography classes edmonton" My site is www.bsop.ca and I'm targetting the Google Canada engine. Any and all assistance is appreciated.
Algorithm Updates | | pburwell0 -
New Blog Post Ranking Fluctuation
I wrote a recent blog post on Friday. It was indexed and ranked on the first page on Monday. On Wednesday, it was nowhere to be found. I noticed that, after a few more recent posts, it was on page two of my blog. So I expanded my results so that it was back on my first page. Today, it is back on the first page - same spot as before. Was that my problem, or could it be something else I am unaware of?
Algorithm Updates | | BMac540 -
What determines rankings in a site: search?
When I perform a "site:" search on my domains (without specifying a keyword) the top ranked results seem to be a mixture of sensible top-level index pages plus some very random articles. Is there any significance to what Google ranks highly in a site: search? There is some really unrepresentative content returned on page 1, including articles that get virtually no traffic. Is this seriously what Google considers our best or most typical content?
Algorithm Updates | | Dennis-529610