There’s no doubt about it: an increasing number of ecommerce businesses are turning to Google Shopping as a way to attract new customers and boost sales.
Because Google Shopping ads have a wide range of benefits and it’s relatively easy for online retailers to start using the platform to promote their products, there’s no shortage of competition.
If you’re an ecommerce entrepreneur with listings on Google Shopping, it’s more important than ever to do whatever you can to get your business to stand out from the crowd.
One of the best ways to do this is to work on improving your rankings on the platform. You probably won’t see magical results happen overnight, but after a bit of time, your efforts are sure to pay off!
Why a high ranking is beneficial
Getting your product listings to rank higher on Google Shopping can take some experimentation. After all, the ideal approach can vary from business to business, depending on what products are sold.
However, obtaining a high ranking on the platform is a worthwhile goal, as it’s accompanied by several benefits for your online store.
If you’ve got a relatively new business, it can sometimes be tough to convince shoppers that yours is credible and trustworthy. A high ranking on Google Shopping helps to build trust in your store, and consumers will naturally gravitate toward your website.
In addition, whether you’re getting ready to launch a new ecommerce business or working on growing your existing one, attracting new customers is crucial. A high ranking on Google Shopping can increase potential customers’ confidence and make them more likely to buy from you.
Finally, although a high ranking is advantageous for stores’ whose ads may appear on desktop browsers, it’s even more so for mobile shopping.
This is because when consumers are using mobile devices to search for products on the platform, only the top three Shopping ads will display in the results before users must scroll down to see the remainder.
How to rank higher on Google Shopping
There’s no guaranteed method for getting every single one of your Google Shopping ads to reach the top spot on the platform. Nevertheless, there are several relatively simple actions you can take to improve your rankings.
Without further ado, here are 9 excellent ways to get your Shopping listings to rank higher and reach more potential customers!
1. Provide as much data as possible in your product feed
Although Google Shopping is a separate platform from your website, remember that your product feed represents both your store and your brand. While some people might discover your business through social media or other types of marketing, others might do so via Google Shopping.
For this reason, you’ll want to set up your product feed in a way that provides customers with an excellent user experience. You should include accurate, detailed information in your product feed to ensure that your Shopping listings are shown for the most relevant search queries.
When you build your product feed in Google Merchant Center, you’ll find that Google’s list of product data specifications is pretty extensive. However, some of the attribute requirements will depend on what products you sell and how your business operates.
Finally, be sure that the information that you supply in your product feed matches what you have on your website.
For instance, if Google Shopping shows that your product costs $25, but your website says it’s $40, that’s going to cause visitors some major frustration. They may even decide to exit your site and head to a competitor’s instead!
2. Follow best practices for your product photos
With the way that Google Shopping works, Different from text ads, which don’t require photos at all, to be successful with Google Shopping, you’ll need to have top-notch product images for your listings.
You’re required to provide a main image for each of the products in your feed, but not just any photo of your product will do!
There are certain image guidelines that Google has in place to prevent merchants’ listings from possibly misleading shoppers. Furthermore, the quality of your product images can either encourage more clicks or cause users to quickly bypass your listings for your competitors’.
To begin, each main image for a product in your feed should be of the product itself rather than a graphic, an illustration, or another type of placeholder image.
A high-resolution image that features your product against an all-white background is ideal. Avoid the use of watermarks or logos to ensure a clean look and to keep your product as the focus.
Abiding by Google’s guidelines and showing off your products in the best way possible in your photos will help to attract more views and have your listings moving up the ranks in no time!
3. Optimize your product titles
Product titles are absolutely crucial with Google Shopping listings, second only to product images when it comes to importance. As they’re one of the first parts of your ads that people will see, they need to be compelling enough to get shoppers to want to click on them to learn more.
To learn how to optimize the product title for each listing, you’ll likely need to perform some keyword research.
Keywords aren’t as much of a concern for Shopping ads as they are for text-only ads, as you’ll be bidding on clicks rather than keywords. However, they’re still important for creating effective product titles and descriptions.
Determine what keywords consumers are likely to use when searching for your products. These often include product details such as product name, brand, and other specific details for the item (e.g., color, size, material, etc.).
Although Google allows up to 150 characters for a listing’s product title, users might only see the first 70, depending on the size of their screen. You should therefore put the most essential keywords at the beginning of your titles.
4. Incorporate negative keywords into campaigns
If you’re involved in any part of the search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for your website, you’re probably already well aware of the importance of keywords.
Knowing what keywords are most likely to appeal to your target audience and then adding those terms to your blog articles and other website copy can get more visitors to check out your store.
As stated earlier, although keywords aren’t part of bids like they are with text ads, they’re still crucial for optimizing your product titles and descriptions.
However, using “negative keywords” is a great way to aid in streamlining site traffic to ensure that your ads are appearing for only the most relevant searches.
When you add negative keywords to your Shopping campaigns, you’re requesting that Google refrain from showing your products when consumers use those specific words or phrases.
For instance, say that your store sells scarves and your ad for your purple silk scarf keeps appearing when people search for “silk skirts.” You can add this term to your list of negative keywords so that Google stops displaying your product for this search query.
By adding negative keywords, there’s a better chance that your ads will show up for people who are truly interested in your items and are therefore closer to being ready to buy. As the number of ad clicks that lead to finalized purchases increases, so will your ranking on the platform!
5. Add Google Special Offers to your listings
Google Shopping’s promotions feature allows you to create sales or other offers for ads and free listings appearing in the US. There are currently three different types of promotions that Google allows businesses to create. These include discounts, free gifts, and shipping offers.
Once you add a promotion, your listings will be clearly annotated with the specific offer. Promotions offer your business numerous benefits, such as a higher click-through rate and more conversions.
Furthermore, these special offers are able to show for mobile devices as well as desktops, allowing you to possibly attract even more site traffic.
Although the promotions themselves don’t have an impact on rankings, listings featuring promotions tend to receive more clicks, which CAN help to improve your ranking.
6. Obtain Google seller and product ratings
People viewing products on the Shopping platform may see two separate kinds of ratings in product listings.
While product ratings are reviews from customers regarding the quality of the item that they purchased, those for sellers involve customers’ experience with the seller. This might include areas such as shipping, packaging, customer service, and others.
Both types of ratings (when positive) can assist with building trust in your store and can give new visitors the confidence to purchase from your website. Note that unless you make your products yourself, however, you’ll probably have more control over your seller ratings.
Google does have strict rules in place if you’d like product ratings and seller ratings to appear for your business. Nevertheless, the two kinds of reviews are definitely worth collecting in your quest for a higher ranking!
7. Ensure that your site is optimized for mobile devices
If your website isn’t already optimized for use by mobile shoppers, you may be missing out on a significant number of sales. Consider how often you use your cell phone or another mobile device to do your own online shopping!
When you come across a site that’s slow to load or doesn’t function properly, you probably abandon your efforts and look for another site that offers the same product and works better.
If customers are clicking on your Shopping listings but not completing a purchase when they visit your store, this may cause your listings to rank lower. This is because Google starts to see your site as less relevant for those particular search queries.
To prevent this, you might want to temporarily disable your ads from appearing for mobile devices if you know that your website isn’t quite ready for mobile shopping.
Fortunately, though, when you build your store with WiziShop, your website will automatically be optimized for mobile usage. You won’t have to do anything extra to set this up on your end!
8. Work on improving your Google Quality Score
The Quality Score for your business is a Google-calculated appraisal of the quality of your ads compared to those of other retailers on the platform. This score can range from 1 to 10 and is calculated by considering numerous factors.
These include how likely shoppers are to click on your ad, how relevant your ad is to users’ search intent, and how useful the product’s landing page is on your website.
Although you won’t have access to the precise measurement metrics that Google uses, optimizing the components mentioned above can aid in bettering your overall score.
A high Quality Score indicates that Google finds your listings to be both helpful and relevant to people shopping for products on the platform. This in turn can earn your listings a better ranking and make them more likely to appear in the search results.
9. Avail of campaign segmentation
If you’re creating Shopping campaigns but applying a single bidding strategy to all of your products, you’re overlooking a great opportunity to optimize your budget and improve your ranking.
When you segment your campaigns, you can organize your products into smaller groups, such as by brand, price, profit margin, product category, and more. You’ll also have the option to create custom labels, allowing you to tailor your efforts even further to suit your unique needs and boost your Google Shopping campaign optimization.
How can this benefit your business?
Say that you sell purses from several different brands, and one of those brands is more popular with shoppers than others. By segmenting your campaign by brand, you can adjust your bids to increase the chances that your most popular products will appear during consumers’ searches.
If you know that people are more likely to click on your listings featuring a certain brand and make a purchase, increasing your bids for these items can allow you to get more site traffic and rank higher on the Shopping platform.
Final thoughts
Regardless of the products that your online store sells, improving your rankings on Google Shopping is a very feasible goal to attain. As you’ve learned from this article, though, it’ll take some action on your part!
There’s no room for complacency, especially when it comes to optimizing your product feed in Merchant Center. Keyword research and determining what will appeal to your target market are essential.
Use our helpful tips to make the most of your experience with Google Shopping and watch your listings skyrocket to the top!
