Google And Ecom Sites Trust

[ohno]

A lot of discussion on here revolves around Google & trust or quality. I think what gets my goat as an ecom is Google could easily find this out if we signed up to share data. We accept Pay Pal & have done for over 10 years. About 5 years ago we also offered card payments. In over a decade I can count on my fingers(on one hand!) how many charge back or disputes we've had. I'm proud of that. We'd happily share that data with Google if it meant they'd trust us more. Would others do the same? They talk about trust & for ecom there are so many ways we could do that. When Google Checkout was around we had an equally good record but it seemed to go no where.

I guess it hurts when I see sites with bad reviews etc ranking higher.

Some would say the data is already being shared behind closed doors, I would probably agree with that as would others if they saw our figures but that is another thread/issue.

[goodroi]

I wish Google would start using Paypal & chargebacks as a significant trust signal. That would make it so much easier for me to spam their results.

[EditorialGuy]

Google organic search is what it is (apologies to netmeg for borrowing one of her oft-used phrases). It isn't the Better Business Bureau, Consumer Reports, or Angie's List. Google's algorithm may have more than 200 ranking factors, but "number of chargeback disputes" or "accepts PayPal" are unlikely to be among them.

Still, maybe there's room for an e-commerce version of the Google local search listings with star ratings that are integrated into Universal Search. The challenge for Google would be how to gather enough data to serve up meaningful results. (Mind you, if a "Google Online Store Search" were offered, there's no guarantee that it wouldn't be PFI like Google Product Search.)

[ohno]

I wish Google would start using Paypal & chargebacks as a significant trust signal. That would make it so much easier for me to spam their results

How so? It would be long term spam. 10 years+, thousands of transactions. Unlike what we have now. 12 month old site ranking top 5 page 1 for product search terms. Kindly expand on your reply and let's have a discussion.

[netmeg]

You know how easy it would be to create lots of accounts, buy stuff, and then demand chargebacks? I could practically automate that myself.

To the extent that Google does want to get into policing ecommerce, they created the Google Trusted Stores program. I have one client in the grace period before it goes live, so we'll see how it goes. I don't expect to see any direct reflection on rankings.

Still, maybe there's room for an e-commerce version of the Google local search listings with star ratings that are integrated into Universal Search.

That was called Google Shopping, and it morphed into Product Listing Ads.

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that nothing worthwhile stays free. It just plain doesn't.

[ohno]

I think that would not be quite so easy. New accounts requesting chargebacks or refunds would amount to fraud which would be easy to spot.