Could Retail Price Be A Google Ranking Factor???
-
I have not done any detailed studies on this but it seems that Google might be using low retail prices for specific items as a ranking factor in their organic SERPs.
Does anyone else suspect this?
Just askin' to hear your thoughts.
Thanks!
-
The price increase had very little impact upon sales or conversion rate. I did not see a change in bounce rate.
-
hmm that is interesting - did raising your prices impact on any of your site metrics like bounce rate or time on site out of interest?
-
Yes, actually we increased prices significantly and saw a decline in rankings. I can't say that was was the cause - it could have been coincidence.
-
That makes sense Egol - one thing you might be able to give us a clue about without giving away any client info is - did the site you are working on increase/decrease ranking with a change in price and no other significant changes to there site such as gaining of authority links?
-
True.
I probably change prices on 5-20 products a day - relatively small compared to our volume of products.
For sale prices we leave the main product price static and put a lower value in the sale price section so the software can calculate the "you save" amount.
The sale price is not cached because the main price is pulled in the snippet.
There are so many variables that if it were a factor in the algo I would think it would be very, very small.
-
Yes, they do change on some sites. But I bet that most sites put up a price and don't change it very often.
-
Here's another thought...
Stock and prices can fluctuate dramatically throughout a day. Considering how often Google cache's a page the snippets would be even less reliable.
-
I can't point to examples because they involve private information. And, I have not done general research. Sorry.
-
Hi Egol
This is very interesting and I would be interested to hear the communities thoughts on it. What made you suspect this in the first place?
Do you have any examples or situations that you have noticed which put this thought into your mind?
-
Thank you, William. I agree. And ebay would be problematic because the prices there are bids at auction.
-
Thanks AWC, I have wondered about stock status too. I suspect that pages with an out-of-stock item decline in rankings - but again I am not sure.
-
I'd be curious as well if anyone has seen any correlation between prices and rankings. I'd believe there would be no reason Google to rank an authoritative site lower just because a semi-authoritative site has a better price. Example would probably be Amazon and eBay, vice versa. The site's general authority would probably matter most and pricing would be a miniscule factor.
-
I've not suspected low prices.
I have suspected stock status though.
Edit Add - I would think either of those factors though would be relatively unreliable. The cheapest prices may not always be in-stock. Conversely, it may say in-stock and come to find out once you place the order you find it's out of stock because the merchant doesn't have live stock status.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Google Algo Update
Hi I'm trying to look into how the update in Oct - Nov affected our site. It's positive with us ranking for more keywords, but I wondered if anyone knew what had changed. For example, one of our pages ranked for 291 keywords in October, now it ranks for 406 keywords. We've done nothing to this page in that time. I just want to try and understand what's happening with the algorithm a little more (although I'm sure everyone does :). Does anyone have any insights? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
How does this site rank no 1 for big terms with no optimisation?
Hi, A client recently asked me abut a site that appears to have popped up out of nowhere and is ranking for big terms within their industry: http://bit.ly/11jcpky I have looked at the site for a particular term: Cheap Beds I was using unpersonalised search on google.co.uk with location set to London. The site currently ranks no 1 for that term and other similar terms. The question is how? SEO Moz reports no backlinks (they must have blocked?) Ahrefs and Majestic report report some backlinks but not many and no anchor text with the term in. The Page title and meta do not contain the term nor does the page seem to contain the term anywhere. The domain does have some age though has no keyword match in the URL. I'm a little stumped to how they are achieving these results. Any Ideas Anyone?
Algorithm Updates | | JeusuDigital0 -
How to follow up Google search in a Joomla website
Hello ! I'm facing a stupid issue but cannot solve it. Google Analytics can track the seach into a website. When I try to activate it I need to add some more parameters that I do not know. http://awesomescreenshot.com/03f1bnau8d Has anyone ever tried to configure Google analytics search for a Joomla website ? Tks a lot !
Algorithm Updates | | AymanH0 -
Input on Experiment with Google
As I'm doing more research into Google's devaluing links, I can do nothing more but to wonder if we will be penalized for previous links (bad links). Here is the situation: Our company was ranking very well for this particular keyword (within the top 3 positions on Google). However, in the last 6 months, we have seen rankings drop significantly (now to the point Google doesn't even recognize the existence of the page). With Google not recognizing us, we decided to do an experiment. The experiment: Make another page with a different URL and delete the existing page that is not ranking in Google. Our Experience: We have noticed that our pages will get indexed and ranked within weeks or making a new page. Our Goal: To get ranked on Google Will our new page get penalized from the old page if it's an entirely new URL? Will the fact that Google in devaluing our links effect our new page that we are trying to get ranked? Any insight would be of great value. Thanks in advance
Algorithm Updates | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Why is site dropping in rank after we update it?
One of our sites - supereyes.com - appears to drop in rank after we update it. The client notified us of this today and I've verified that it did indeed drop in Google -- four spots since last week. He says this happens every time we make changes to the site, but then a week later it will go back up and is usually higher than where it was before. I have not verified this, but I'm very worried it may not rise again In the past week, we've posted a new blog entry to their site and we've changed some of the content -- specifically, added their locations to the header, added a contact page and put two testimonials in their sidebar. We've also had someone submitting their site to directories and local business sites like Angie's List and so forth. There are about 16 new backlinks established in the past 2-3 weeks. Also, I should note, traffic is higher than it's ever been, but the client doesn't look at traffic. They only look at their Google results. Can anyone offer any insight into what's going on here and if I need to be worried the site won't rise again in the rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | aloley0 -
Does google have the worst site usability?
Google tells us to make our sites better for our readers, which we are doing, but do you think google has horrible site usabilty? For example, in webmaster tools, I'm always being confused by their changes and the way they just drop things. In the HTML suggestions area, they don't tell you when the data was last updated, so the only way to tell is to download the files and check. In the URL removals, they used to show you the URLs they had removed. Now that is gone and the only way you can check is to try adding one. We don't have any URL parameters, so any parameters are as a result of some other site tacking on stuff at the end of our URL and there is no way to tell them that we don't have any parameters, so ignore them all. Also, they add new parameters they find on the end of the list, so the only way to check is to click through to the end of the list.
Algorithm Updates | | loopyal0 -
How often do people use Google Product Search
I was was reading Tom Critchlow's excellent blog on how to rank well for Google Product Search. I'm trying to find out if there are stats on how often people use this feature in Google (since it is not listed on Google's main navigation). I'm working with a customer who has b-2-b products and am trying to determine the value of adjusting his ecommerce pages to appear on Google Product Search.
Algorithm Updates | | EricVallee340