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 Cache
So, when I gain a link I always check to see if the page that is linking is in the Google cache. I've noticed recently that more and more pages are actually not showing up in Google's cache, yet still appear in search results. I did read an article from someone whoo works at Google a few weeks back that there is sometimes an error with the cache and occasionally the cache will not display. This week, my own website isn't showing up in the cache yet I'm still ranking in SERP's. I'm not worried about it, mostly whitehat, but has there been any indication that Google are phasing out the ability to check cache's of websites?
Algorithm Updates | | ThorUK0 -
Changing Googles Sitelinks
Hi all, I know Google will only show sitelinks if the site is deemed authoritive and if it will help the user searching a keyword, but is there anyway to order or control which links appear in the sitelinks? I know you can demote a sitelink in Webmasters, but is this not shooting yourself in the foot? If I demote a link will Google replace it with the next link it thinks is worthwhile and be doing this eventually show the links you want to appear in your sitelinks? Thanx Gary
Algorithm Updates | | gazza7770 -
Can Google display a diffrent page title?
Hi if I search google UK for the phrase car leasing, google returns my listing as Car Lease Deals However the same search on Yahoo or Bing bring back Contract Hire | Vehicle & Car Leasing Deals | Car Lease Deals this is the real page title. Why would this happen? Thanks Andy
Algorithm Updates | | First-VehicleLeasing0 -
Rankings changing every couple of MINUTES in Google?
We've been experiencing some unusual behaviour in the Google.co.uk SERPs recently... Basically, the ranking of some of our websites for certain keywords appears to be changing by the minute. For example, doing a search for "our keyword" might show us at #20. Then a few minutes later, doing the same search shows us at #14, and then the same search a few minutes later shows us at #26, and then sometimes we're not ranked at all, etc etc. I know the algorithm changes a lot, but does it really change every couple of minutes? Has anyone else experienced this kind of behaviour in the SERPs? What could be causing it to happen?
Algorithm Updates | | d4online0 -
Google.ca English and French returning different rankings
French Keyword : "Chauffage électrique" Currently Ranking 4th on Google.ca (French) It is not even top 50 on Google.ca (English) Why so much gap between them? Both are on Google.ca, just different language. Also, when searching the keyword on Google.ca (English), all the results shown are in french anyway ! Why is mine way off ? How can I help the ranking on the EN version? Why does Google.ca FR and EN have different rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | Kezber0 -
Google UK search volumes
If a user searches using Google.com but is based in the UK, is it classed as a Google UK search or a Google US search in terms of monthly search volumes? Most of my clients are targeting UK consumers and often rank well on Google UK but outside the top fifty for Google US. I have mentioned that that is fine unless a client happens to use google.com. Am I talking rubbish?
Algorithm Updates | | Switch_Digital0 -
SEO ranking factors
Hello I am reading SEO ranking factor (very good informations) and I want to ask: what does it mean: of linking C bloks to page I think that: how many(#) links from the same server (C block) links to your homepage or some pages of your web... of linking IP adresses to page how many web links are going to my web and every links are from another server. if I understand it good, it is no different between, if you have links from webpages in one server (one C block) or from webpages on another servers as your web is, because both correlation is 0.25... THX Could anybody expalin me, what does it mean: # of External Links w/ Partial Match Anchor Text http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-5 The number of external links and all these external links contain partial match anchor text from my query: (I am finding in Google "tennis" and see in SERP domain www.usta.com. # of External Links w/ Partial Match Anchor Text: tells me the number how many external links contain partial match anchor text "play tennis, tennis school, tennis info..."? )
Algorithm Updates | | PeterSEO0 -
Difference in which pages Google is ranking?
Over the past two weeks I've noticed that Google has decided to change which pages on our site rank for specific keywords. The thing is, this is for keywords that the homepage was already ranking for. Due to our workload, we've made no changes to the site, and I'm not tracking any additional backlinks. Certainly there are no new deep links to these pages. In SEOmoz dashboard (and via tools/manual checking with a proxy) of the 24 terms we have first page ranking for, 9 of them are marked "new to top 50". These are terms we were already ranking for. Google just appears to have switched out the homepage for other pages. I've noticed this across a couple of client sites, too, though none to the extent that I'm seeing on our own. Certainly this isn't a bad thing, as the deeper pages ranking means that they're landing on the content they want first, and I can work to up the conversion rates. It's just caught me by surprise. Anyone else noticing similar changes?
Algorithm Updates | | BedeFahey1