Research on search results for 150,000 clothing-related keywords reveals that Google shows SERP features 95% of the time, reflecting the opportunities available to online merchants who want to sell more through Google.
The results suggest that today’s search ranking has evolved beyond traditional organic-focused SEO needs to evolve to keep up with today’s reality.
seoClarity listed the different SERP features found, ranked by popularity in the SERPs:
“Product Carousel 120,772 people also ask 57,925 FAQs 17,119 locals 8,563 images 2,451 free product listings 877”
150,000 clothing related keywords
The research, which was conducted by AI-powered SEO and content optimization platform seoClarity, focused on apparel-related search queries.
Even though they already understood that organic search results with the ten blue links are essentially a thing of the past, they were still surprised to see how organic search results essentially disappeared under the various search functions .
They found that 95% of keywords resulted in a SERP feature on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Of these SERP features, 85% were popular product search features.
The Popular Products feature appeared in the top three search results 48% of the time.
According to seoClarity, the dominance of popular products in SERPs was most evident in mobile search results.
They discovered:
“…on mobile, 75% of query SERPs included 4 or more occurrences within Popular Products bundles in the same SERP.”
About popular products
Google’s popular product search feature was introduced in 2020 to show popular products for clothing.
Being listed in this type of search results is free.
Since Popular Products was originally implemented for apparel-related searches, it’s no surprise that searching for apparel-related search queries yields a high percentage of Popular Products search features, because that’s what Google had announced that it would happen.
I contacted seoClarity and asked if these types of results are also comparable in other verticals and they confirmed that they see similar SERP features in other keyword categories as well.
Search evolves
Google search has always undergone changes.
However, the idea of ten blue links as representative of what search results should look like persists. This is evident in the exclamations of outrage when the search results are not ten blue links.
Images are displayed in recipe search results.
Search results for the cast of a TV show or movie are shown with pictures of the actors.
When searching for products on Amazon or any other online store, the search results are sorted by images.
So it makes sense that Google would also use the paradigm of images in search results for shopping-related search queries, especially those related to clothing.
According to Google 2020 announcement of the new Popular Products feature:
“When shopping online for something to wear, such as a jacket for winter or dress shoes to match a new outfit, it can be helpful to see the style options at many different stores.
But with so many options online, it’s not always easy to know what’s out there, find inspiration, compare your options, and decide what to buy and where.
Search has always allowed you to find links to different products and stores, but starting today and starting this week in English in the US, you’ll start seeing clothes, shoes, and accessories from around the web in one place at Search on your mobile. device, so you can easily browse many different stores and brands at once.”
The purpose of SERP features is to provide search results in an attractive way that helps users according to their search intent.
seoClarity’s research drives home the message that search has evolved, and so SEO must evolve with it.
SEO must evolve
For SEO to be effective, you need to think about all the search features available for a given search query and make sure your site is optimized to rank for that type of SERP.
seoClarity shared:
“If you’re not optimizing for Google Shopping, your organic search traffic and visibility will suffer.”
This new way of displaying search results may affect apparel-related search queries at a higher rate than search queries in other verticals.
These situations may indicate that a search function, such as the Popular Products search function, is dominating the top of the search results.
Most importantly, all companies selling products should consider reviewing participation in the Google Free Listings program.
Google’s Merchant Center has published documentation on how to obtain listed products in these search results at the top of the page, where it advises:
“Free listings allow customers to see results for your store’s products on Google, including the Shopping tab, YouTube, Google Search (.com), Google Images, and Google Lens.
Just as we don’t charge websites to be part of the Google Search index to organize and display relevant information, participating retailers can also organize and display their product information for free on Google.”
The takeaway from this research is that for some verticals, SEO is no longer just about ranking in the top ten old search results with ten blue links.
Search results for shopping-related queries are now richer in images to help shoppers find the products they’re looking for.
The biggest takeaway from seoClarity’s research is that SEO is needed now more than ever to help businesses showcase their pages and products more effectively.
Summons
Read the original research:
Google dominates clothing search results
An analysis of ~150,000 apparel-related keywords
Featured image by Shutterstock/Billion Photos
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