BrightEdge Data Identifies Search And Optimization Patterns For Holiday Season

BrightEdge Data Identifies Search And Optimization Patterns For Holiday Season

by  @lauriesullivan, August 24, 2022

BrightEdge Data Identifies Search And Optimization Patterns For Holiday Season | DeviceDaily.com

Ecommerce continues to change, as well as content requirements across the web.

Despite the rise of zero-click results, regular web listings continue to receive the majority of the clicks in ecommerce.

“We’re seeing fewer local pack results in ecommerce this season,” says Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge. “While the feature —  People Also Ask — has grown slightly, we’re seeing less videos and carousels this year. And finally, blue links really matter, especially in ecommerce.”

As marketers prepare for the holidays, BrightEdge tracked 6,000 ecommerce keywords across ten different categories to identify patterns and macro-level shifts based on a more extensive and diverse data set during the past three years. 

Using its technology, the company analyzed keywords across many different dimensions in ecommerce.   

“If you think about how these features in a result represent Googles key micro-moments, we’re really seeing how the search result reflects the consumer mindsets, and the role search plays in their purchase journey,” he says.

When we look at search results and the uptick in the local packs in real estate — the “I want to know” moments revealed in how results are showing fewer images and more things like site links, and people also ask. He said that this tells a lot about how Google interprets what consumers want to do. 

Brands continue to move toward direct-to-consumer models — gaining on retailers in the past few years.

As brands grab real estate and rank for more keywords in organic search, BrightEdge believes retailers need to become more visible.

In addition to brands, publishers are making inroads in the retail space, including with review sites and publications related to product categories.  

Brands are clearly making more of an investment in the digital purchase journey.  

This is a positive thing for consumers because brands are helping foster a one-stop-shopping digital experience by being discoverable across e-commerce-related keywords. 

For retailers, this could pose interesting challenges in areas in which they have traditionally had more diverse competitors. It’s not just other retailers they compete with, but the brands of products they sell themselves.

For retailers, this should be an incentive to create new and unique engagement opportunities on their sites that their customers will not get on the brand sites.

Product comparisons, demos, reviews, and cross-sell tactics can not only help differentiate the experience for the consumer but potentially help them win more of the universal listings.

Yu says ecommerce marketers need to Identify content that will inform and educate target customers in key moments during Q4 2022.

Ensure that the page experience does not hinder performance. Optimize category pages to ensure each aligns with consumer demand. Ensure related categories and sub-categories are easily viewable. Ensure phone numbers and store locator buttons are easy to locate on the category pages. If faceted search elements, ensure they have Schema elements to help with context, and include FAQ content or easy links to them.

When asked about Google’s Helpful Content algorithm, Yu called it a “very significant milestone and ranking algorithm update” — a signal that compared to previous updates focusing on pages that will have site-wide impact.

“Websites with large amounts of low-quality content should check and remove pages that do not follow Googles guidelines,” he says. “The key goal is to keep a focus on content that matches your core audience needs. In a way its eliminating content for contents sake – especially true where darker SEO types have use content for click bait – promising to tell something that you end up not telling.”

Yu says one goal is to help stop people writing about something just to attract visitors. Stop poor quality summary posts with no added value from the source or author. Marketers should discontinue content with little information that does not answer the readers’ questions and give them the knowledge they want. This will help to support the removal of old content and SEO tactics such as keyword density and stuffing.

Think differently about websites to give site visitors what they want – quality content and a better experience overall.

As brands grab real estate and keyword rankings in organic search, BrightEdge believes retailers need to become more visible. Despite the rise of zero-click results, regular web listings continue to receive the majority of the clicks in ecommerce.
 

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