One of the SEO ecommerce hot topics at the moment is around product grids and how they’ve become prevalent and important to optimise for ecommerce brands. In this article, Fabio our SEO Account Director, will be exploring the nuances of ecommerce product grids and explain how both product grids and Position Zero can benefit your business.
What are ecommerce product grids?
As Brodie Clark explains, product grids, also referred to as popular products (Google’s preferred terminology), free listings, merchant listings and product carousels, are designed to be visually appealing while also maintaining functionality. For ecommerce sites, a well-designed product grid can:
- Increase click-through rates and engagement by making products easy to find and compare
- Streamline the shopping experience, encouraging customers to make faster purchase decisions
- Influence the buyer’s journey by highlighting promotional products, new arrivals, or best sellers
How they look:
The importance and impact of Product Grids on organic clicks and traffic
Product grids can take up almost half of all organic results on page one, which means that organic listings are now being pushed down below the fold and are not immediately visible. This can lead to a decrease in organic clicks. These product grids are increasingly showing up in Position Zero, referring to the very top results on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Ecommerce brands can ensure their products are seen first on the search results by combining effective product grid design with strategies that capture Position Zero. For example, showing products that are clicked on more often and purchased with greater frequency.
Recently, ecommerce sites have seen organic Product Grids increase massively for high-traffic queries. Options for facet navigation within the product grid now allow users to filter products by feature, price and other attributes. This means that before an organic listing or a website link is even clicked, the user is now exposed to pricing, scrollable product images, dimensions, product descriptions, and third-party retailers, significantly impacting overall organic search traffic and conversions.
How can ecommerce brands appear in product grids?
Successful ecommerce product grids use data-driven insights to display products in a way that maximises conversion. An optimised grid can improve site performance metrics like bounce rate and average session duration, both of which contribute to improved SEO performance.
Here are the best ways for ecommerce brands to appear in product grids:
- Optimise for Google Merchant centre: Ensure your products are eligible and entirely SEO optimised with 2-3, high-quality images per row, adding identifiers, return and shipping policies, product reviews and ratings, detailed tagging etc.
- Prioritise Product Grid visibility: Use data-driven insights to display products that are most likely to convert.
- Master Position Zero: Create high-quality content that answers user queries directly, utilising structured data to increase your chances of appearing in featured snippets and AI overviews.
- Use Google Ads help centre: You can find a list of best practices to be followed for Google Merchant centre that all ecommerce brands should follow.
The rise of Position Zero: what it means for ecommerce
What is Position Zero?
Position Zero is an SEO term describing the position above all organic listings on search engines, like AI overviews or featured snippets. Search engines now prioritise delivering immediate and comprehensive answers to the users before the need to click on any website.
The AI overviews and featured snippets might include a direct answer to a question, a summary, or even a product list with images and prices (product grids). A zero-click search happens when users end their session or enter a new query without clicking on any results. The only results showing above Position Zero are paid ads.
For ecommerce, this can be a game-changer. Instead of relying solely on paid search or organic search rankings, ecommerce sites can now use structured data and relevant content to earn the top spot on search results, often without needing users to click through multiple search results.
According to the latest research, nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click, almost 30% of clicks go to Google’s properties and about 36% of clicks go to the open web. In the U.S the majority of Google searches (58.5%) end up in zero clicks, compared to 59.7% in the EU.
Why Position Zero matters for ecommerce
For ecommerce websites, Position Zero can bring more than just visibility; it’s also a way to capture a user’s attention right at the beginning of a user’s journey. For example, if a user searches for “best winter boots for men,” a featured snippet could appear with a grid of men’s winter boots from an ecommerce website, giving that website a competitive advantage over its competitors.
Tamas Biro, one of the founders of Netzoll marketing agency said “ecommerce product grids and Position Zero are reflections of evolving consumer behaviour shaped by AI-driven convenience. People seek instant answers and seamless access to products or services, without the need for time-consuming and extensive searches. However, while AI enhances customer satisfaction, it also challenges businesses to compete for visibility and maintain direct engagement amidst AI’s rise.”
By appearing at the very top of the results, ecommerce websites can:
- Drive more traffic to their site by being the first result users see, increasing the likelihood of a click-through
- Increase their brand authority by showing in Position Zero can give your brand exposure, increase brand awareness and make your brand appear as a market leader or seen as a trusted source
- Boost conversions as the visibility of Position Zero can fast-track users to a purchase decision
On the other hand, Position Zero can and will impact overall organic clicks. The more AI overviews and feature snippets appear at the top of the searches, the more organic listings will be pushed down the SERPs, impacting the overall number of clicks and site traffic arriving from organic search. We know that clicks impact Google Search rankings and that it is important to get as many clicks as possible to drive not only traffic but ultimately conversions. This was confirmed during the Google antitrust trial and findings from the Google Search leak.
It’s also important to note that not all users want to click on a link and go to a website to get an answer, however many of those zero-click searchers were never your intended target audience in the first place.
By understanding and implementing strategies for both product grids and Position Zero, ecommerce businesses can significantly enhance their online visibility and drive more organic traffic. However, it’s crucial to remember that these strategies are constantly evolving. Staying updated on the latest SEO trends and Google algorithm updates is key to maintaining a competitive edge.
Need help optimising your ecommerce site for product grids and Position Zero?