Note that 45 billion entities include product variations, reviews, brands, categories, and more.
However, the Shopping Graph looks like a dwarf compared to Google’s knowledge graph with over 1.5 trillion entities.
If personalization is a question of graph size and AI capabilities, it’s only a matter of time until non-shopping results are more personalized.
Personalization also makes sense in the context that AI can answer long questions much better than Google’s old semantic search ever could, so Google might as well personalize results based on behavior.
Google also uses YouTube as a source to personalize shopping. I wonder: why not for regular Search as well? ~25% of queries show videos, and most of those are from YouTube.
Google could easily prefer videos from YouTube channels you subscribe to in the regular search results, as an example.
The challenge of personalization for marketers is optimizing for a uniform search experience.
When our experiences differ significantly, our data does as well, which means we’re losing a whole layer of insights to work with.
The result is that we need to rely more on aggregate data, post-purchase surveys and market research, like in the good ‘ol days.
Google’s Aggregation
Free product listing click-through rates, according to Johannes Beus (link) Image Credit: Kevin Indig
The big question, of course, is how this new experience impacts organic clicks. Can websites still get clicks? We don’t know for sure until more data rolls in.
One reference point comes from Johannes Beus (Founder/CEO of Sistrix), who found that Free Listings cut clicks on organic results in half, e.g., position 1 drops from ~21% on average to 9.5%.
But based on the layout and my experience with layout changes in the past, I will say that I don’t see a threat here. I see a change.
Google’s new layout for shopping SERPs, the one it has been using for a year now, is essentially a category page that lists products from online stores. As a result, the focus of ecommerce SEO shifts from category to product page optimization.
Where I do see a negative impact is for sites that provide price comparison, tracking, or discounts. Chrome has been tracking price changes for over a year.
We know shoppers always want low prices, and the new Google Shopping not only includes deal-finding tools like price comparison, price insights and price tracking throughout, but also a new dedicated and personalized deals page where you can browse deals for you — just click the “Deals” link at the top of your page to explore.
We know Google uses Chrome data for ranking due to leaked documents and court trials.
I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that Google also uses Chrome data to inform the shopping graph and product recommendation in the personalized shopping experience.
If so, separating Chrome from Google in the context of the antitrust trial would also impact its personalization capabilities.
Above: “shopping tab” with Google’s new shopping experience; below: “all” tab (Image Credit: Kevin Indig)
Image Credit: Kevin Indig
One improvement from the new experience is that editorial content doesn’t have to fight with product or category pages over positions anymore.
The layout constantly changes, but it seems some queries highlight links to editorial articles about products (like “cheap laptop for work”), others (like “mens winter jackets”) don’t.
At least, there seems to be a lifeline for publishers in ecommerce.
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Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal