SEO for e-commerce: Google updates can influence your online store sales
In SEO for e-commerce, things are dynamic. That is, the rules of search engines like Google are constantly updated, which influences search results. In this way, the audience of your virtual store and your e-commerce blog is also influenced.
Thus, with each Google update, your store and/or blog pages may receive more or less audience. Everything will depend on how much they are (or not) optimized according to the new rules that are integrated into the updates.
Next, I point out some of the main updates to Google's indexing algorithm and their consequences. Check out!
Top Google Updates
According to SEO consulting website Moz.com, Google's algorithm is updated about 500 to 600 times a year.
In the following list, however, it is possible to know only some of the main ones, which have occurred since 1998. Note the year, name and a summary of the rules integrated into them:
• 1998 – Google : Launch of Google, a keyword search engine.
• 2003 – Florida : penalizing pages that excessively repeated keywords.
• 2004 – Austin : penalize pages that repeated keywords via invisible text.
• 2004 – Brandy : penalize poor quality content and content with unrelated links.
• 2005 – SERP : User history begins to influence search results.
• 2007 – Universal Search : Google integrates images, videos, maps, news, etc.
• 2008 – Google Suggest : search engine starts displaying search suggestions.
• 2009 – Vince : Well-known offline brands rank better online.
• 2010 – Caffeine : website updates begin to be indexed in real time.
• 2011 – Panda : pages with rich content achieve better ranking.
• 2012 – Penguin : penalizing pages with bad internal and external links.
• 2012 – Pirate : penalizing websites with reports of copyright infringement.
• 2013 – Hummingbird : taking into account the user's intent when performing searches.
• 2014 – HTTPS/SSL : HTTPS (security) becomes a ranking factor.
• 2014 – Pigeon : location begins to influence search results.
• 2015 – Mobilegeddon : prioritize mobile-friendly websites in search results.
• 2015 – Rankbrain : using artificial intelligence to present research results.
• 2016 – Possum : A business's location influences search results.
• 2016 – Adworks : integrate ads at the top and bottom of search results.
• 2017 – Fred : penalize websites with too many affiliate banners and poor content.
• 2018 – Mobile First : launch of the index for mobile devices.
To keep up with Google updates, I recommend reading the history published by Moz.com , as well as information from websites like SEO Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal, among others.
Google Updates and SEO for Ecommerce
In fact, all people who have a virtual store and/or an e-commerce blog should keep an eye on Google updates. In this way, interventions can be carried out more quickly and avoid penalties and loss of visitors.
In Brazil, the Sales Conversion Rate is approximately 1,5%. And in this scenario, a virtual store that receives 10 visitors a month tends to make 150 sales. Therefore, the loss of organic audience from Google also decreases the number of sales.
Of course, it is important to pay attention to Google's indexing algorithm updates and carry out appropriate interventions in your online store quickly.
In this way, the organic audience of your online store is not compromised.
Thus, by maintaining and/or increasing the number of unique organic visitors, it is possible to maintain and/or increase the amount of sales on your e-commerce site.
