If you don't pay that much attention to format when you're doing a Google search, it may have slipped by you that the changes to the SERP (search engine results page) have been plentiful recently. Both in format and context, Google has made some pretty drastic changes in its format and some of them have not been greeted warmly.
Here's the rundown:
- No more free shopping listings. In the past couple of years, you've likely noticed Google integrating a lot of their "vertical" search engines into standard listings. Local listings, news listings, video listings, image listings and, of course, shopping listings. Previously, all you needed to do to get your product listing into Google Shopping was to set up a Google Merchant Center account and either manually submit your products or set up an automatic feed. Simple enough, right? Well, Google decided this past month that you couldn't play ball in Google Shopping for free anymore, so unless you're willing to pay for those clicks, Google Shopping is no longer an option.
- More and more prominent AdWords. If Google's shopping move doesn't insinuate that they're hell-bent on squeezing every penny out of search that they possibly can, the growing presence of AdWords in terms of screen real estate sure will. Check out the screen shot form a 15.4" laptop screen and notice how much of the screen is covered in revenue generating links compared to non-revenue generating organic links...you see where this is going?
- Penguin freezes out smaller brands. This is the one thing that the average user probably glosses over the most. But it used to be if you re-sold a manufacturer's product as an affiliate marketer or an owner of an online storefront, you could theoretically rank in the 2-5 spot and get a lot of traffic and sales for a term. Now, it seems Google has decided that if you're searching for a brand, then you want info from their site and no one else's. Check out this search for Dickies pants:
Yep, the first five organic listings for the search "Dickies pants" shows only results from the dickies.com domain. While I understand most of these listings make sense, it's hard for me to understand how Google has decided the Dickies home page and the retail locator are more relevant than the hundreds of retailers who have category and product pages related to Dickies pants. As you would imagine, a lot of online retailers and other website owners have become a bit dismayed with their lessened presence in SERPs, but this is the new reality of Google search. How it ultimately plays out for the mid-sized and smaller retailers remains to be seen.
Related articles
- SERP Crowding & Shrinkage: It's Not Your Imagination (seomoz.org)
- Google Shopping blocks all vitamins and natural products - glitch or deliberate censorship? (ascendingstarseed.wordpress.com)
- Google Shopping - The Balance Between Old & New (searchengineland.com)