by Mike Banks Valentine copyright
© 2003
Shopping search is something all large portal sites
attempt to incorporate into their search functionality
in one way or another, but knowing where you are getting
your results is the difficult part for most of us. The
biggest issue is -- that nobody really understands that
a search engine is made up of multiple resources and
that is especially true of shopping search.
Forrester Research
http://www.forrester.com/
in concert with
http://Shop.org
recently released an online retail shopping study in
which they conclude:
"Shoppers will increasingly use search engines
like Google, Overture, BizRate, and DealTime to find
not only retailers, but also specific products. As email
becomes less effective, retailers need to learn and
test the search engine landscape."
Forrester Research should at least have a bit more clarity.
The "search landscape" is incredibly diverse.
Let's look at shopping search as a part of that landscape,
but first let's take a look at the underlying "geology".
Here's a list of Major portals and their shopping search
resources from an unscientific "click to see"
tour conducted on May 19, 2003. I'll address each of
those mentioned by Forrester and then a couple more.
Google has a shopping search function in 'beta' that
is free right now called Froogle at
http://froogle.google.com
but they also have a PPC program called "Adwords"
that gives paid sponsor listings along the right side
of the normal (non-shopping search) result screen. Google
is pure search when used from the front page or through
any "Google" hosted search box available from
thousands of sites. Standard results here do show those
"Adwords" paid listings, but they are very
clearly labled "sponsored links". Which is
likely to give "shoppers" the best result?
If you want
*information* the standard
search is best. If you want to visit the site that has
bid the highest for the search phrase you typed, then
by all means, visit that link!
Overture is a Pay-Per-Click engine that nobody uses
directly (can't go to
http://www.overture.com
to search for anything), searchers see the results from
Overture displayed on "partner" sites and
portals like MSN and AOL as "sponsor listings".
Overture PPC listings are displayed in differing ways
by different portals, but essentially those results
are served up to searchers as the top 3 or 4 results
on a page depending on the partnership relationship
Overture has with the portal you do your search from.
Where do you see Overture results? Straight from their
"About Overture" page they tell us "advertisers
can bid for placement in search results that Overture
distributes to affiliate partners such as MSN, Yahoo!,
CNN.com and InfoSpace."
BizRate and DealTime are specifically "Comparison
Shopping Search Engines" where a business bids
for listings in order to have their products show up
in comparison list of like products on a Pay-Per- Click
basis at partnering sites and portals. Although you
can go to those sites directly to do your shopping searches,
not many do. They get those results fed to them by the
site they started their shopping on and seldom consider
the source of the results or who partners with whom
to serve them those results.
You'll often hear people call Yahoo a search engine,
when it is a directory. Yahoo does have shopping search
but it defaults to their own Yahoo store owners, nothing
outside of Yahoo Stores is served by Yahoo if you start
in the
http://search.shopping.yahoo.com
page linked from the top of Yahoo under the "shop"
icon or any of the links titled "shopping"
at Yahoo. This means that if Yahoo doesn't host the
store you want to shop at, then you won't get any meaningful
"comparison" shopping results but it does
fit Yahoo's paid Directory business model. If your ecommerce
site is hosted by Yahoo stores, then you are already
benefitting from being in their network of shopping
sites and will turn up in searches from Yahoo pages.
Consider this if you can't afford your own ecommerce
site or getting it indexed on the free search engines.
As mentioned above in the "About Overture"
quote, MSN serves results from Overture PPC from within
the search function at MSN search, but if you start
at the MSN front page, (the default home page for millions
of non-tech-savvy consumers who don't know how to change
their browser settings to display a different home page),
you'll see that MSN simply links directly to the home
pages of hundreds of huge retailers. Those retailers
pay a hefty fee to MSN to be linked from front page
links and more to be linked throughout the "shopping"
sections of MSN in all of the links displayed on any
of those pages at
http://shopping.msn.com
What does shopping search mean to the small retailer
online? Here's a rundown of where you should focus your
energy in the shopping search game.
- Once you have an online presence, make certain
you have your site optimized for the search engines
by including LOTS of good text-based information
about your company, your products, your ingredients,
your industry and your company philosophy throughout
your site. This is the basis for turning up in what
is called "organic" search results. Those
results that are free and show up on non-paid searches.
You'll do best when you limit graphics and images
to small logos and product photos. Include your
keywords often in page text, "title" metatags,
text links, headlines and body text. This represents
the least expensive strategy. I have a small client
that has never spent a dime on advertising but his
site ranks number one for the phrase "fragrance
free lotion" which I'm proud to say we achieved
for him with simple otpimization techniques. Check
his ranking at any google partner site. Here's a
search on CNN.com that reflects his search phrase
in the top 10 as served by their search partner,
Google. Fragrance
Free Lotion Search at CNN. To learn more about
how to achieve this for your products visit
this article.
- When you've optimized your site for all the important
search phrases for your product or service, then
move on to the next level of shopping search marketing,
Pay-Per-Click advertising. This strategy allows
you to gain top positions or at least increase your
visibility through being one of those "sponsored
links" that is displayed above and beside those
"organic" search listings at dozens of
large portals and search sites. To learn more about
that type advertising visit the following articles
describing PPC engines and programs in more detail.
http://www.searchengineoptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/index.html#PPC
- If you operate an ecommerce web site that competes
with major name-brand retailers for organic search
terms as well as PPC phrases then you may find it
more economical to contact one of those shopping
search engines. BizRate and DealTime are both PPC
shopping search programs where you become a part
of their list of comparison of like products, so
be prepared to see your competitors listed here
as well. But the benefit of being in the same area
as your competitors is well known and understood
by major retailers who will sometimes open up new
stores right beside well-established competitors
to gain new customers. See http://www.bizrate.com
or http://www.dealtime.com
- Finally, search outperforms advertising in most
circumstances on the web. There is no question that
Forrester research have it right when they say,
"retailers need to learn and test the search
engine landscape." Be aware of the fact that
advertising is an interruption to any surfers who
are looking for information online, but search is
an active move to FIND INFORMATION about products
and services online and search results that provide
more information first, will show up first in any
search. Only after you've provided that information
on your site should you consider paying for your
traffic in any form, including PPC or those shopping
search sites.
