Google Product Search Seller Ratings: Search and employ!
Often in brick and mortar retail, there are certain products which are in such high demand, that retailers are slow in re-vamping them. This tendency is exhibited through the “easy pour paint can” or “squeeze mayonnaise.”
Thankfully, this trend seems to be less influential in the online sphere.
Where merchants have more of an edge in understanding their customers’ motivations, and tailor to those needs accordingly.
You’ll notice that elements of online shopping which are important to consumers, become immensely important to merchants.
Elements such as customer surveys, which have a substantial impact on conversion rates.
Among the most trafficked comparison shopping engines, Google takes advantage of this customer preference.
Google recently launched Trusted Stores, as a way to augment Google Product Search Seller Reviews, which will have a large impact this holiday season.
Google Product Search Seller Ratings
While it is commonly understood that Seller Ratings in Google Product Search are immensely helpful:
Clarity seems to end there.
Google users can get confused when rating a product or merchant, and both shoppers and merchants often do not know where these surveys originate.
Where do Ratings in Google Product Search come from?
Google explains its Seller Reviews as “snippets from third party sites:”
Ratings in Google Product Search consist of an aggregate ratings score with snippets of customer reviews from third party sites and from Google Checkout which are based on your store name and the registered domain.
We do not modify existing reviews. We merely connect users with reviews from seller rating websites and Google Checkout.
To get a consistent measure, we re-scale the original rating to a 1-5 scale.
So basically, Google compiles existing reviews based on prevalence and relevancy, according to a Google algorithm.
- Pssht, you don
What makes Google Product Search Seller Reviews complicated is:
Their multifarious origins.
Google rightfully does not use one site to generate all of its ratings for sellers- as this could lead to bias and misrepresentation, which would clash with Google’s user centric ideology.
The inclusion of multiple review sources while very reliable and robust- is also easily misconstrued by both customers and merchants.
Google uses multiple seller review sources- yay reliability!
Wait… umm, what are those sources?
Interestingly, Google does not list all of its sources for merchant ratings in any one place (If you can find it-Kudos!).
Merchant review sources are listed adjacent to product reviews however, and are prevalent for most searches, which is very convenient for customers.
But here’s where it gets tricky for merchants: reviews come from a ton of different sources, and vary based on product.
Here are some of the prevalent sources:
Bizrate(Shopzilla)
You’ll notice that the function of these websites are not all geared solely towards reviewing sellers.
Google pulls reviews from Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs): e.g Bizrate, and review sites: e.g Reseller Ratings, Epinions.
Google utilizes engines which integrate their own customer surveys, as well as sites designed only for reviewing sellers.
How do I get one?
For merchants, the important sources for Google Seller Reviews are the Comparison Shopping Engine’s (CSEs) and review sites.
Either of which merchants can integrate into their post-purchasing review process.
- Oooo, Pick me!
If you are an online merchant- you should seriously consider utilizing CSEs.
If you are already on CSEs, make sure your customer review survey pixels are installed (preferably rotating)*.
Otherwise, you can integrate sites like TrustPilot or Epinions as an outlet for customer reviews.
Although not part of Google Seller Reviews, it might also be a good idea to check out sites such as Measure Up and Yelp, to get an idea of your performance metrics.
* Rotating survey pixels enable merchants to utilize multiple CSE merchant surveys without presenting the user with consecutive pop-ups. The rotating pixel presents each user with one pop-up seller survey from a CSE randomly.
This way, merchants can generate a large base of seller reviews without bombarding the user following a purchase, or having to choose only one CSE merchant survey.
CPC Strategy generates free rotating pixels for all of our clients so they can get a range of seller reviews from multiple CSEs that also sync up with Google Seller Ratings.