Google's new more/less shopping sites feature

[MelissaRWE]

I'm finally seeing the new Google today with the handy toolbar of options on the left hand side.

Working for an online retailer, the feature that interested me the most was the 'more shopping sites'/'less shopping sites' option that it gives you when you are searching for something you could purchase.

I clicked 'more shopping sites' to see what change this would have on my sites serp. for the few keywords I checked, our site landed in the same spot on the front page. So nothing too alarming.

I'm wondering if this feature is going to force merchants into untra competetive pricing since now, all the prices are right there in google for everyone to see.

Will this eliminate a portion traffic gained from somparrison shopping when the user would normally visit many of these sites and now so not have the need to?

Any thoughts?

[tedster]

My first thought is how rare it may be for users to understand the search options. The average user just wants to type their query and then click on a result (even on a site search box!)

Unless or until the general user gets more clued in, I don't know how much pressure will realistically be exerted by this feature.

[M_Bison]

Does anyone know how to make your site a "shopping site" in the eyes of Google? We offer products and online shopping, but our rankings go way down when "more shopping sites" is selected.

[vivitron]

We've got the same issue. Our site is an established eCommerce site that has over 5000 products and has been around for 9 years. We drop out on most keywords when you select "More shopping sites," but stay the same when you click "Fewer shopping sites."

Any advice?

[tedster]

Here's a guess - submit a feed to Google Products. That would certainly send a strong signal.

[vivitron]

We've been submitting products to Google for years. We show up in all the shopping results...

[tedster]

Then it sounds like the more/less shopping sites is pretty broken.

[vivitron]

Interestingly some keywords we show up in more shopping sites and others we do not.

On one of our top five keywords we are not in the shopping site list (but we rank #1 & #2 on the keyword)... Some other minor keywords we do pop in. I'm wondering if it is related Google's ability to figure out "pricing" from the site.

I've been studying the sites that do show up and they do not appear to be including any metadata in their html...

Thank you for your time.