CSE – Comparison Shopping Engine Optimization

Every few months or so, I think it’s good to put out a general list of things to do when optimizing for shopping comparison engines. A sort of refresher when concepts usually stay the same, but it’s good to mention as a reminder. After all, sometimes the basics get lost when thinking about all the tiniest details.

Categorization
Probably the simplest and most straight forward thing to do. When building out a product feed or just keeping a feed up to date, be sure to properly categorize all items. This means matching products to the comparison engine’s taxonomy or category structure, and ideally done in a careful and methodical manner. Many people simply look for a good fit, but this is only half the story. Many engines automatically revert to a specific category when typing in specific keyword searches. Test for the right category assignments by quickly typing in primary keyword searches as consumers would do. This is hugely important, as many keywords will take you to not-so-obvious categories. Make notes of where the keyword searches lead, and map appropriately.This seems tedious, especially with a large catalog, but is vital to CSE success.

Bidding
Here is the trickiest of the items. Bidding is not an exact science, and will change constantly. Competition will drive up the price during a busy season, and the price will also change depending on category assignments of the items being sent. Always pay close attention to the bidding intelligence in the comparison engine’s control panel, which can sometimes provide great guidance on what other retailers are doing (see Shopping, Shopzilla, Pronto, Become). Also, be careful with category and product level bidding. Many times these overlap (if the engine offers product level bidding), so constantly test different bidding strategies to stay on top of current trends. As a best practice, always bid at least a penny above minimums. This will keep products out the bottom of the bucket where everyone starts off.

Product Title, Product Title, and Product Title
Be very careful of the product title being used. Most heavily weighted in terms of keyword content is the product title. Make sure to include search friendly keywords allowing consumers to find your product. Stay away from any promotional terminology (free shipping, sale), and be detailed. In general, include the Brand at the front, include a descriptive phrase in the middle, and end the product title with the type of product being sold. Example: ‘Acme Bugs Bunny Rabbit Season Yellow Dynamite’

Product Selection
If you are actually sending 100% of your products, hopefully you are only using Google Product Search, or you have amazing merchandising assistance. As with most situations, the 80-20 Power Rule applies here, where a merchant will see 80% of their sales from 20% of their products. Work on actively filtering out products to only display the best. These will change by season and competition, so just like with anything else here, test away. Sending the whole product catalog or even three quarters is usually a recipe for poor ROI.

Hope this helps and if anyone has additional tips, plesae feel free to share!

July 14th, 2008