How does Google recognize an e-commerce site?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 674942
  • Start date Start date
D

Deleted member 674942

Guest
When viewing the search results for product keywords like "bowling shoes" for instance, it comes up with e-commerce sites.. But how does Google know that the sites are e-commerce sites as opposed to just regular informational sites with articles?
 
Advertise on BHW
Is about the content.

Try to Inspect the HTML of an e-commerce website and the HTML of a blog and you'll see the difference.

Also, the KW spread and content appearing on an e-commerce website differ from a blog/info website.
 
Not an expert in this area, but I guess that if you have a 'Buy' button on most of your pages it's pretty easy for Google to figure out that your website fits into the e-commerce category. Not to mention the other characteristics of all e-commerce websites, like the 'Cart' feature, the payment page, and the html characteristics of most of the well-known e-commerce platforms (woocommerce, shopify, open cart, magento etc) that most of this type of websites are using nowadays.
 
They could be searching for terms such as "add to cart", "buy now", "view cart", "checkout"...

They can usually tell via page structure also, if you have a grid of products with images and prices under them it's pretty obvious it's an eCommerce site.

These sites could also have set up analytics as eCommerce sites or even have paid products in Google shopping feed which would also be tell tale signs.

It's pretty easy really.
 
Google is an affiliate itself and it has tons of shopping products on its own shopping service. They simply compare names of products present in your page to those they list and assume you're selling it. Then they consider you a competitor and you get demoted on the SERPs to force you to buy adwords.
 
bartosimpsonio said:
Google is an affiliate itself and it has tons of shopping products on its own shopping service. They simply compare names of products present in your page to those they list and assume you're selling it. Then they consider you a competitor and you get demoted on the SERPs to force you to buy adwords.
Click to expand...

As someone who worked in ecommerce doing £400k in 2 years, what a load of crap.

If ecommerce sites are "demoted" in serps it's because:
  • duplicate content - they run the standard product descriptions from the suppliers, the same as 99% of people selling the same product.
  • thin content - a lot of suppliers don't actually supply descriptions/images. If all you have is a title and a price you're probably not going to rank for anything and if you have 50k products it's unrealistic to manually add this.
  • poor site structure - SOOOOOOO many ecommerce software packages are total crap. You can have 15+ urls for the same products (depending on category they are in, variations, dates, even updating prices can give a new URL in some cases).
There is no evidence Google force people to buy adwords to do well at ecommerce, please don't spread false information.
 
"duplicate content - they run the standard product descriptions from the suppliers, the same as 99% of people selling the same product."

Yep, this is a common problem with these out of the box e-commerce stores, if you're going to do drop shipping. Here's a tip, write your own descriptions!

As for the OP's question - "Bowling shoes" is more of a buying keyword, If the keyword was "What are bowling shoes" I doubt there would be a single shop page come up.
 
Ste Fishkin said:
As someone who worked in ecommerce doing £400k in 2 years, what a load of crap.

If ecommerce sites are "demoted" in serps it's because:
  • duplicate content - they run the standard product descriptions from the suppliers, the same as 99% of people selling the same product.
  • thin content - a lot of suppliers don't actually supply descriptions/images. If all you have is a title and a price you're probably not going to rank for anything and if you have 50k products it's unrealistic to manually add this.
  • poor site structure - SOOOOOOO many ecommerce software packages are total crap. You can have 15+ urls for the same products (depending on category they are in, variations, dates, even updating prices can give a new URL in some cases).
There is no evidence Google force people to buy adwords to do well at ecommerce, please don't spread false information.
Click to expand...

Yeah nice try totally distorting what I said.

You're the guy who Google tells you the route, time to take your meds, your bus, your breakfast and everything in Vegas? Correct? You fully depend on Google.

So there's no point arguing with you. But you're wrong, Google did go after affiliates for a long time, but it was probably before you even logged into a computer for the first time.
 
karma05 said:
When viewing the search results for product keywords like "bowling shoes" for instance, it comes up with e-commerce sites.. But how does Google know that the sites are e-commerce sites as opposed to just regular informational sites with articles?
Click to expand...

the algorithm first checks for onsite signals and tries to guess. later on the incoming search terms and anchor text is used to establish the site's nature. so if lots of "buy abc" type search terms are bringing users to that site, the algorithm identifies the site as a "commerce destination".
 
I think this might be where the bounce rate/dwell time is super critical!
If there's a blog site targeting bowling shoes with a 9000 word article but no bowling shoes for sale it could have a way higher bounce rate. (it's not what most people who type the keyword are looking for)
Google will see that the ecom sites have a way longer dwell time and eventually give them favor over the amazing content on the blog. The algorithm helps give people what they want.

That's just a guess based on theory though, please correct me if I'm wrong
 
bartosimpsonio said:
Yeah nice try totally distorting what I said.

You're the guy who Google tells you the route, time to take your meds, your bus, your breakfast and everything in Vegas? Correct? You fully depend on Google.

So there's no point arguing with you. But you're wrong, Google did go after affiliates for a long time, but it was probably before you even logged into a computer for the first time.
Click to expand...

Ignoring everything I said and resorting to that kind of answer is BS.
 
Ste Fishkin said:
Ignoring everything I said and resorting to that kind of answer is BS.
Click to expand...

You said I was spreading false information.

Maybe you initially had a point. You might be right about the low quality of most affiliate sites. That was not what I was talking about, I ran tons of great sites which were banned simply because they had affiliate links on the sides. And that was before you got into IM.

But then you called me a liar, and you lost me right there.
 
bartosimpsonio said:
I ran tons of great sites which were banned simply because they had affiliate links on the sides. And that was before you got into IM.
Click to expand...

When did I get into IM?

Also, are you sure the only reason these sites were hit was affiliate links? Not because you spammed them for example...

This time foil hat Google theory you have is giving them fair too much credit.
 
Ste Fishkin said:
When did I get into IM?

Also, are you sure the only reason these sites were hit was affiliate links? Not because you spammed them for example...

This time foil hat Google theory you have is giving them fair too much credit.
Click to expand...

The sites were clean.

You call it tinfoil hat because that's all you can argue, the facts are there for everyone to see.

Or maybe not everyone, but only those whose lives don't depend on speaking "ok google" into a open microphone every 5 minutes.
 
Google updates it's security policies and blacklists quite regularly.
I'd suggest you make a good use of cloaking service on hand.
Alternatively, park your own domain to redirect to the offer, if your network provides such functionality.
 
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top