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ALAN KENT: Last episode, I shared eight tips
for SEO techniques that can help you improve your rankings
in search results.
In this episode, I talk about your appearance
in search results with extra attention to products.
My name is Alan Kent, and I'm a developer advocate at Google,
focusing on ecommerce.
Let's get into it.
Your ranked position within search results
is obviously important.
The higher on the list, the more likely
you are to be seen and visited.
Well, another way to stand out is your visual appearance
in search results.
Originally, search results were text and blue links.
These days, search results are shown in different ways
to help users more easily understand the results.
Images can help users better understand your product,
star ratings can help increase user trust,
and pricing and availability data
can help users choose between sellers.
So let's look at six tips on how to improve your appearance
in search results.
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The first tip is to check the title
links Google is showing for your products in search results.
A good title link can greatly help
users understand your offering, bringing quality traffic
to your site.
Title links are normally extracted
from the title element in the HTML markup of pages.
If Google thinks a title looks incomplete or does not
match the page contents, it may look
at other sources, such as the main visual heading of the page
or even the source text of links to the page.
If you automatically generate page product titles
from product attributes, take care
to avoid duplicated information or poorly formatted titles
due to missing data.
Low-quality title links can harm a user's impression
of your site.
Another challenge with title links
is there can be a lag of multiple days
before an update on your website is visible in search results.
This means putting dynamic information in a title,
such as current stock levels or price, is not recommended.
A simple way to check how your titles appear in search results
is to perform a site search, specifying
the URL in the Google Search box,
enter site, colon, and then the URL of your page.
It is a good idea to check multiple pages to ensure
title links are as expected.
If no match is found, use the URL Inspection tool to check
that a page has been indexed.
Collecting site analytics data can
help determine the effectiveness of different titles.
If you try to change the title over time
to see which works better, make sure you
allow sufficient time for Google to index each variation.
Experimenting with different titles
can help determine the importance
to your customers of different product attributes,
such as brand name.
To improve your title links, check out
Control Your Title Links in Search Results
on Google Search Central.
Follow the provided advice as best you are able.
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The second tip is to include high-quality images that
showcase your products.
Google may display these images directly in search results.
We've observed that users generally
respond well to high-quality images
and recommend that key images be at least 1,200 pixels wide.
Again, the best way to see if product images are being shown
in Google Search results for a page
is to perform a Google site query,
specifying the URL of the page.
You may also like to perform an image
search, specifying your domain name in a site query.
The first step to improve images in search results
is to replace any lower-quality images
with higher-quality ones.
Then review robot settings, such as Max Image Preview, which
provides guidance to Google on how you'd like images to be
treated in search results.
For more details, check out Robots Meta Tag,
Data-Nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag Specifications in Google Search
Central documentation.
Also, if your images are not appearing in search results,
consider adding product structured data
to your product pages, which leads me into the next tip.
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Tip number three is to share rich product data with Google.
If Google does not correctly understand
the intent of your pages, you may miss out
on special presentation treatments in search results.
One way to help Google understand pages
is using structured data, additional markup
to add to your web pages.
For example, there are structured data types
for recipes, how-to guides, articles, and products.
For a longer list, see Explore the Search Gallery
in Google Search Central, which documents structured data types
and common presentation formats supported by Google Search.
For products in search results, it
is recommended to at least include
the product title, description, images, product ratings, price,
and availability.
If you've added structured data to your pages
but not seeing any special presentation,
check the page using the URL Inspection tool
to make sure it is being indexed.
Then try the Rich Results Test tool
to see if it identifies any errors in your markup.
Errors reported by the Rich Results Testing tool
provide guidance on what to fix in your structured data.
If you're using a platform that does not give you
control over structured data, you
may need to contact your platform vendor for assistance.
Another problem that can occur is
Google may include information from your page
that you do not want shared in search results.
Check out the Nosnippet controls in the Robots documentation
I mentioned earlier for different ways
to request Google to exclude contents
from search result listings.
Oh, and as a final note, you can also
supply product data via Google Merchant Center feeds.
I'm going to dig into Google Merchant
Center and its relevance to search in a future episode.
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Tip number four is to highlight that if you share pricing
product data, Google may highlight price
drops in Product Rich Results.
Price drops are calculated by Google
based on the running historical average of your product's
pricing.
Price drops, along with some other experiences,
are not available in all countries.
To see if price drops are being displayed,
check your products in search results.
Be aware, however, that it can be hit
and miss, as Google doesn't guarantee to display all price
drops, and you have to get the timing right
due to Google indexing delays.
To be eligible for price drop display, make sure
you have an offer in your product structured data.
The price in the offer must be a specific value and not a range.
In addition, it can be worth checking the Rich Results tool
for structured data errors.
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Tip number five is to clearly identify
which products you sell by providing
accurate product identifiers, such as GTIN identifiers.
This is best done using a combination of Google Merchant
Center feed and product structured data on pages.
This can increase your exposure and experiences that list
products with multiple sellers per product,
such as the top products carousel.
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The final tip is if your business has
a physical presence, create a Google Business Profile.
This can be done via the Google Business Profile Manager.
Business Profiles are displayed when
appropriate alongside search results.
At this time, pure online businesses
are not eligible for a Business Profile.
Only businesses with a physical presence,
such as a physical store or a service area they cover,
can have a profile created.
Google is always exploring new ways
to help users understand search results.
Over the years, search results have
become increasingly visual, and this trend
is likely to continue.
The best long-term advice is to provide Google rich structured
data describing your products.
It is also recommended to create a Google Merchant Center
feed with product data updates.
Google can then use this data to present your pages
in search results in a more engaging way
to shoppers performing searches.
If you have found this video useful, please subscribe to get
notified of new content.
Google Search Central publishes new videos weekly
to help website owners get the most out of Google Search.
Thanks for watching.
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