During the month of April/May 2008, Google has been showing more and more shopping feeds (Google Base) on top of the Natural search results. Companies not participating in shopping feed distribution most certainly would have seen a substantial drop in their website sales as a direct result of this.
Its all part of Universal Search, the concept of adding non traditional search results in the SERPs (Search Engines Results Pages). As a bonus, Google gets to eventually monetise more and more of its SERP space … Google base results are a natural (pardon the pun) solution for accomplishing this crucial goal!
Its simple really, since shopping feeds appear above the natural search results, and since shopping feeds almost always contain various competitive prices from various suppliers, users will most likely click on them over natural search results which are not updated on a regular basis.
The problem is further compounded by the appearance of the PPC (Sponsored) results at the top of the page.
What’s the solution? Simple…Participate in shopping feeds!
Not only will you give your brand more exposure, but more importantly, you’ll ensure that you limit the damage from the inevitable drop in sales resulting from this new trend.
For more info on how to create a shopping feed for your product, post your questions here…
