How to Rank in Organic Shopping Results: 7 Tips That Work

Most top-ranking organic Google Shopping results feature brands that prioritize high-quality images, thorough product feeds, and a fully search-engine optimized website. Here’s how your ecommerce brand can grab those top spots on the SERP.

When you search for a product on Google, you’ll likely be met with a visual-heavy search results page featuring both paid and organic search results.

While the Sponsored results come from paid search or PPC campaigns, the organic results surface at no cost to the brand being showcased.

That’s why organic rankings are so important: Not only are they cost-effective while providing valuable SERP visibility, but they can work in tandem with other digital marketing tactics like paid search to boost your credibility among interested shoppers.

But the question is, how do you improve your rankings in organic Shopping results?

We chatted with our own Sonya Gonzales, an SEO and SEM manager at HawkSEM, for her top tips on hitting those top ranks.

(Image: Monster Ztudio/Adobe)

What are organic Google Shopping results?

Organic Shopping results are non-paid search results on the Google results page that show up under the “All” and “Shopping” tabs on the SERP.

For these results, search engine bots crawl various ecommerce product feeds to surface the most accurate and relevant products related to a user’s search terms.

How to rank in Google Shopping results

1. Prioritize your product feed

“It’s important to consider the changing real estate of Google, especially for ecommerce shops,” says Gonzales. “For nearly every online ecommerce business, a product catalog – or feed – is an essential part of your online real estate.”

This product data file contains detailed information about all of your offerings. Among other attributes or product details, this includes things like:

• Product titles
• Descriptions
• Images
• Prices

“The product feed standardizes the format of product information to help with potential visibility and discoverability,” she adds.

“Typically, an ecommerce website can generate a product feed automatically with various platforms or third-party tools. You can also build the product feed manually.”

2. Remember to optimize

When it comes to ecommerce retail brands having their products rank in organic Google search results in particular, Gonzales says you’ll want to dive deep into strategic product feed optimization.

This can include things like descriptions that are relevant to match shoppers’ interests. “It will require thorough keyword research to ensure product titles and descriptions incorporate some relevancy and keyword-enriched focus,” she explains.

“It may also mean ensuring all products are categorized appropriately, and that you’re using high-quality images in high resolution.”

It’s also essential that all product feed elements are filled out and optimized with elements such as:

• Keyword-enriched information
• Details that include specific colors, weights, sizes, materials used, and other applicable specifics
• Synonyms to help expand visibility (for example: “running shoes” can also be “jogging shoes”)
• Short paragraphs that are digestible and easy to read
• Structured data to help search engines understand product specifications
• Optimized images with alt tags that are keyword-enriched

Here’s a look at Google’s search results page for the query “black varsity crew socks.” (Image: Google SERP screenshot)

3. Ensure your website has strong on-page SEO

As we’ve laid out before, on-page SEO refers to the front-end and back-end elements of your site you can optimize to improve your page ranking potential on search engines like Google.

For your ecommerce site to get maximum Google SERP visibility and organic traffic, it needs to be easily crawlable by the bots that help determine which webpages should surface for which search queries.

“The focus of on-page SEO should be in fine-tuning site structure and drilling into the attention-grabbing meta descriptions,” Gonzales advises. “Unlike healthcare, professional services, education, etc., ecommerce is all about attention-grabbing headlines.”

As important as keyword use is in places like meta titles, she says you also have to think about what the user needs and wants.

If space allows, using search terms like “American Made” and “Easy Setup” within the meta title or meta description can help the page stand out in SERPs, thereby increasing the potential for higher click-through rates (CTR).

4. Be strategic about product page organization

Speaking of on-page SEO, another factor to consider is how the info on your product pages is organized. This includes where to place headings and descriptions, along with other essentials like delivery information and shipping costs.

“Within product descriptions on-page, information should contain relevant keywords and even hyperlinks that help buyers find additional information” Gonzales suggests.

She also recommends using all the multimedia elements you have at your disposal, whether that be eye-catching product images, unique selling points, client testimonials, star ratings, positive reviews, or all of the above.

5. Explore written content on category pages

Exploring options for written content on ecommerce product category pages can be an added benefit for your SEO performance. We’ve seen many ecommerce brands leverage this tactic to add extra context to category pages with success.

Having written content on these pages has a handful of benefits, including:

• Highlighting the collection of products
• Giving customers an introduction to the category
• Creating the opportunity for more calls to action (CTAs)
• Providing search engines with more information regarding the content and purpose of the page

Pro tip: Typically, with “read more” buttons you can add up to 1,000 words of copy.

6. Understand the link between search rankings and sales

“It’s important that ecommerce merchants begin thinking of Google Shopping — whether paid ads or free listings — as an additional support line for sales and revenue growth,” Gonzales says.

Rather than treating them as separate entities, consider having these platforms – in addition to an optimized, well-performing website – as a way to potentially gain double real estate on the SERPs, which increases the probability of buyers finding your brand.

“Optimizing products in Google Merchant Center is similar to the practices we tackle for on-page SEO,” she adds, “but [it’s] another layer of support from a different viewpoint in Google.”

Google Merchant Center is a platform where you manage your ecommerce product feed and campaigns. If you’ve already got a Google Ads account, you can use those same credentials to easily set up a GMC account.

GMC allows you to add products individually or by syncing with another platform like Shopify or WooCommerce.

Along with keeping your product listings organized, GMC can help provide metrics for Google Analytics so you can monitor visibility and performance, and then optimize accordingly.

Pro tip: Got stiff competition? While you want to make sure your margins are in line with your manufacturing costs and goals, it’s wise to keep tabs on how your competitors are pricing similar products.

Here’s how the Google Shopping tab results look for the search term “black varsity crew socks,” featuring sponsored and organic listings. (Image: Google SERP screenshot)

7. Keep your audience top of mind

Lastly, Gonzales says you’ve got to put yourself in your target audience’s shoes if you want to reach them where they are.

“Think of what users are frequently searching and how to cater product descriptions, headings, titles, and other components to those searches,” she explains. “What would make these products stand out? What details are important to include?”

Optimizing for the user is essential to ensuring placement, she adds, whether in Google Shopping or through organic search rankings.

Ready to combine your ecommerce SEO strategies with some paid search tactics? Here’s how to set up Google Shopping ads campaigns.

How does Google Shopping affect SEO?

Put simply, Google Shopping provides an additional area on the search engine results page (SERP) where brands can gain more exposure.

Google has given ecommerce brands the ability to showcase products in an easy-to-navigate format for an extra boost of visibility in organic search results.

“Imagine a customer looking for a pair of running shoes and using Google to search different types of products available,” says Gonzales.

“Typically, product ads will populate at the top of search engines, directly linked to Google Shopping campaigns where different running shoes will be showcased.” Following the ads section are Google’s free shop listings, aka the organic product feed.

What this means for SEO is simple: increased product visibility means an increase in potential sales. “Google Shopping can significantly boost your customer reach,” she adds.

“Because these listings are appearing on many search engine results pages first, it’s critical to gain exposure using [Google] Merchant Center.” These organic listings can lead to more clicks and higher conversion rates.

What factors influence organic Google Shopping results rankings?

Now that you’ve absorbed all of our tried-and-true expert tips and know what actions to take, you may be wondering, what exactly are the factors that influence those Shopping-specific results rankings when you conduct a Google search?

While the Google algorithm changes daily, here’s what you should always keep in mind (because the search engine sure is):

• Your product’s relevance to the shopping search terms used
• Whether your product is currently available and in stock
• Your brand’s ratings and reviews
• Your optimized product feed
• How thorough and complete your product info is
• Performance metrics of your landing pages and overall site

The takeaway

No matter your industry, ranking high in organic results has plenty of benefits for your business and its bottom line. But with ecommerce being an especially competitive field, those free rankings hold massive value.

Ensuring your products’ quality and unique selling points are highlighted and updated while maintaining the latest SEO best practices when it comes to your website can help you snag, and then keep, those coveted top spots in search results.

And if you’re looking for more of a helping hand when it comes to your ecommerce SEO efforts, we’d love to chat.