Where is this SERP listing of a product description coming from?
-
Google is showing a manufacturers product description below the ads and before the organic listings that I have not seen before, see the attached image. The bad part is instead of attributing it to the manufacturer it is attributing to one of our competitiors and placing thier link with the text.
1. Why is this happening? I can't find any schema or other mark-up on the page explaining where this content is coming from.
2. How do I combat this? I have not seen this type of SERP before.
Any help is appreciated.
-
Yes you are 100% right in my opinion. The whole reason I believe for the shift in brand preference is a play on generating more ad spend via Adwords. The search results are so unhelpful for so many searches nowadays.
For example, search for "Trademark Registration" on Google. That SERP used to be full of attorneys and websites offering that service. Now it's mostly government websites forcing the attorneys to buy ads for this highly searched term.
-
I confirm this is currently a test - but there isn't anything you can do about it. They are always looking to show the most relevant web pages and in their eyes the manufacturer is the one of the best sources of info.
More importantly (and this is me guessing), you are going to pay more on Adwords if your natural listing are pushed down - hence they are driving you to spend more on Adverts. The more they can get you to spend on Adverts the better - in my opinion manufacturers rarely spend money on advertising so by pushing these further up the rankings, the more retailers have to spend on Adwords.
If they start pushing manufacturers to the top of natural search - even the best SEO, good DA, quality links, relevant unique content (all the things good SEOs have been doing for years) will have been wasted if suddenly manufacturers start appearing in position 1.
A little tip maybe if this is what Google does decided to do - contact the manufacturer and see if you can get listed on their recommend reseller listing, then you may not having to worry about getting number 1 listing, if you can get traffic from the manufacturers page that Google ranks in position 1.
-
I'll give you my opinion but it isn't a definitive answer.
I believe what you're seeing is a Google SERP test and they are pulling that from the content on the manufacturer's page but I agree there is no rich markup on the page like Schema to point Google to use it.
A quick search of
lacrosse monkey
shows me no Google ads on the page which is a pretty sure signal Google recognizes this manufacturer as a brand entity. That in and of itself would suggest Google might also understand the products as entities and be pulling content from the product page and testing it in the Knowledgegraph to see how searchers interact with it.Unfortunately I don't think there's much you can do about it.
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
-
Are Meta-descriptions important for blogs?
I am tasked with optimizing an existing sites SEO. I have added meta's to all the menu pages, however they have blog section with over 700 posts. How important are meta descriptions when it comes to a websites blog? Do I need to take the time to go through 700+ blog posts and create unique meta descriptions for each one?
Algorithm Updates | | rburnett0 -
Dates appear before home page description in the SERPs- HUGE drop in rankings
We have been on the first page of Google for a number of years for search terms including 'SEO Agency', 'SEO Agency London' etc. A few months ago we made some changes to the design of the home page (added a blog feed), and made changes to the website sitemap. Two days ago (two months after last site changes were made) we dropped subsantially in the SERPs for all home page keywords. Where we are found, a date appears before the description in the SERPs, dating February 2012 (which is when we launched the original website). The site has been through a revamp since then, yet it still shows 2012. This has been followed by a few additional strange things, including the sitelinks that Google is choosing to show (which including author bio pages showing in homepage site links), and googling our brand name no longer brings up sitelinks in the SERPs. The problem only affects the home page. All other pages are performing as standard. When Penguin 4.0 came out we saw a noted improvement in our SERP performance, and our backlinks are good and quality, largely from PR efforts. Of course, I would be interested in additional pairs of eyes on the back links to see if anyone thinks that I have missed anything! We have 3 of our senior SEOs working on trying to figure out what is going on and how to resolve it, but I would be very interested if anyone has any thoughts?
Algorithm Updates | | GoUp3 -
The evolution of Google's 'Quality' filters - Do thin product pages still need noindex?
I'm hoping that Mozzers can weigh in with any recent experiences with eCommerce SEO..... I like to assume (perhaps incorrectly) that Google's 'Quality' filters (formerly known as Panda) have evolved with some intelligence since Panda first launched and started penalising eCommerce sites for having thin product pages. On this basis i'd expect that the filters are now less heavy handed and know that product pages with no or little product description on them are still a quality user experience for people who want to buy that product. Therefore my question is this...
Algorithm Updates | | QubaSEO
Do thin product pages still need noindex given that more often that not they are a quality search result for those using a product specific search query? Has anyone experienced penalty recently (last 12 months) on an ecommerce site because of a high number of thin product pages?0 -
Big change to title tags in SERPs for me, anyone else?
Beginning today, when I search in incognito mode, Google is giving me extremely limited titles, and not really going off of the title tag. The results are horrible for users, and make me nervous as an SEO. Image attached below: wGG7QRp
Algorithm Updates | | WilliamKammer0 -
Duplicate Product Pages On Niche Site
I have a main site, and a niche site that has products for a particular category. For example, Clothing.com is the main site, formalclothing.com is the niche site. The niche site has about 70K product pages that have the same content (except for navigation links which are similar, but not dupliated). I have been considering shutting down the niche site, and doing a 301 to the category of the main site. Here are some more details: The niche sites ranks fairly well on Yahoo and Bing. Much better than the main site for keywords relevant to that category. The niche site was hit with Penguin, but doesn't seem to have been effected much by Panda. When I analyze a product page on the main site using copyscape, 1-2 pages of the niche site do show, but NOT that exact product page on the niche site. Questions: Given the information above, how can I gauge the impact the duplicate content is having if any? Is it a bad idea to do a canonical tag on the product pages of the niche site, citing the main site as the original source? Any other considerations aside from duplicate content or Penguin issue when deciding to 301? Would you 301 if this was your site? Thanks in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | inhouseseo0 -
Can you be both penalised and uplifted in SERPS?
hello everyone, We've literally had dozens of high ranking pages which are location specific, wiped out of the Google.co.uk SERPs. Can't imagine that it is anything other than a manual penalty but no message has been sent by Google. For example "campervan hire surrey" would produce our surrey page at the top of the SERP, now this page has completely disappeared. On the other hand, we have been promoted on national keywords like "vw campervan hire" and "campervan hire" where we are second and third. Does anyone agree that this is a penalty?
Algorithm Updates | | swimwithfishes0 -
How much does Google take Social into account in serps
I have been reading and trying to learn more about how google takes social media into account when ranking sites, but I cant seam to find a definitive answer to this, does it make a big difference or does it not really matter?
Algorithm Updates | | MiracleCreative0 -
Shortened Title in Google Places/Local Results in SERPs
I've been doing some local SEO lately and noticed something today. When I do a search for "State/town name Cat Toys", I see the title tag of the website in the local results as opposed to the business name. I'm happy they are showing up above the normal results, but I wonder if having the brand name at the end of the site title impacts clicks. For example: Site name: New Hampshire Cat Toys and Accessories | Cats R Us But in the places results the title is cut short because they show the address, so all they see is: New Hampshire Cat Toys and.... Do you think branding is especially important in local results? Or less important? I could hear arguments for both sides. I realize the site URL is shown in green below the title, but it's not the same as having a brand in the title portion. It also looks like some of the competition has just their name show up as opposed to their website title. Is this something I can fix in Google Places, or is something Google does on its own? Cheers, Vinnie
Algorithm Updates | | vforvinnie1