Google ranking factors for e-commerce sites

The company Searсhmertrics shared the research results of factors of ranking ecommerce sites in Google. The goal of the analyze was to find out what affects the high position of the online stores in search engine page results.

Below the main findings of the report:

• Only 3% of the top 10 ecommerce pages contain AdSense ads or ad links;
• From online stores that are in the top 20 of sites in the Google results, there was much less social signals than the average for all categories – approximately one third.
• The file size of the ecommerce pages in the top 10 of more than 30% more than the average for all other categories.
• The number of interactive elements on ecommerce sites, which occupy high positions in Google, almost 40% higher than the average for other categories.
• In the top 10 of Google for commercial pages was 70% labeled more lists than the average for other categories.
• Ecommerce sites on the first page of SERP contained 70% more internal links than the average for all other categories.
• In the top 10 for almost all of the ecommerce pages (99.9% of) top-level domain was .com.
• Video plays a less important role in ecommerce than in other categories. Only 35% of commercial pages in the top 10 contained embedded videos.
• The number of words on ecommerce pages in the top 10 was 25% more than the average for all categories.

The table below in percentage shows the difference between the average values for each ranking factor for ecommerce pages and for all categories.

"Most marketers appreciate that you need to create relevant, high quality content to perform well in search, but our latest study highlights that online retail and ecommerce marketers must also pay close attention to a variety of retail-specific factors. … This includes considerations such as ensuring content is structured with bullet points so that product details can be more easily scanned by visitors; making the online checkout section easily visible without scrolling; and — in most cases — avoiding ads on the page" — said the representative of Searchmetrics Daniel Ferch.