What’s the future of OneBox?
I’m not usually one to try to predict exactly what’s coming down the road. So I’ll use the concept that Danny Sullivan has shared many times at SES and online.
Danny says that one day - probably before too long - Google is going to flip a switch. At this point, for searches that they have a certain level of confidence that the searcher is wanting to buy a product they will just show Google Base results. So what exactly does that mean for those of us already doing OneBox optimization?
For starters, it means we’ve got a leg up on the competition. Secondly, instead of having to optimize against 10M results for a product, we’re competing with hundreds of feeds. It certainly makes SEO for products a whole different idea.
It also means that anyone that hasn’t been working on optimizing feeds is going to be at a huge disadvantage. They’re going to not only have to learn how to create the feeds, but then they’ll have to learn optimization at the same time. Start now and you’re way ahead of the game.
It also means Price could very easily enter the algo, as could website ratings. How interesting could that be… hmmm… we’ll have to make sure to keep those 4.5 stars we currently have.
Personally, I can’t wait until this change occurs. I’ll be so far ahead of most of our competitors that we should see a huge sales spike. I also look forward to not having to compete with affiliates and shopping engines for the top rankings. Of course, some people won’t like the change at all. Those people will mostly be affiliates and shopping engines, because they’ll only be able to do PPC, although I’m sure many people will be placing feeds that aren’t actually eligible. But overall, this will be a real win for online retailers. Many of the more “researching” phrases could still be targeted by the other sites, but the true conversion phrases should be owned by the sites selling the products, and that only makes sense for a good user experience.
Comment by your_store | January 17th, 2007
I’d say we’re a couple of years away from what you describe, but it is definitely the way things are heading. My main worry is that when that day comes, G will give even more precedence to stores using GCheckout and/or PPC product listings
BTW, love the blog. Even if you’re starting to give away “my secrets”
Comment by Brian Mark | January 17th, 2007
your_store,
I haven’t even begun to give away secrets yet. It’ll take a good 3 - 6 months before I start getting to that level.
Comment by your_store | January 17th, 2007
I’ll be on the lookout for the secret formula in a few months then.
Comment by NeO | January 18th, 2007
So how much hate mail have you gotten so far?
Comment by Brian Mark | January 18th, 2007
Actually, I’ll be posting something fairly controversial on Monday.
Comment by Brian Mark | January 18th, 2007
NeO, just a little. More than I wanted, but less than I feared. I think most of the people that are doing lots of onebox optimization already haven’t found the blog yet.
I also thought it was timely that Danny Sullivan mentioned his vision of the future in the Daily Searchcast today. You can download and listen to it Here.
Comment by SEO for Google | January 19th, 2007
Love the blog - I never knew there was soo much opportunity using Google Base - I will certainly have to learn up on this.
Thanks again for sharing!
Pingback by Local is Coming, Local is Coming! Get Ready for Local Search to Explode | February 5th, 2007
[...] Danny Sullivan (The Godfather of search) has been telling everyone for a long time now that Google will flip a switch to become a lot more local-centric whenever somebody looks for something that Google determines is local-based. That has been slowly creeping into search results, and has accelerated as of late with the Onebox, Plusblox, and (very recent) integration of Google Maps into SERPS for local-centric queries. [...]