Onebox - this is NOT comparison shopping
There are a lot of things that people have mentioned to me about onebox results over the years. They’re all excuses for not wanting to get IT involved in marketing. Let me address a few of those now, and more as I hear them again (I don’t keep a list of excuses because I don’t believe them).
First, I hear that “We’re not competitive priced enough”. Well, we’re taking onebox here, not froogle.google.com. This is not comparison shopping, this is feed optimization. Whoever optimizes a product best for the search phrase gets the impression, maximum of 3, but many times only one or two. Price is not an issue. If you’re already selling stuff online, you must be priced competitive enough.
Another excuse I love is “We don’t have the time”. Well, these same companies spend countless hours performing every aspect of SEO known to man, and spend countless dollars on PPC. It only takes a few minutes to make a mod for your next test, then you move on to something else for the rest of the day.
“All we need is PPC.” Right… and all I need is a wad of cash and I can be the next Amazon. What they’re missing is plenty of free traffic - yes, FREE - which has a small development cost associated with it. Once that is done, it’s set and forget.
“Our organic rankings are doing really well already.” So you’re doing well already. Would a few extra clicks hurt anything? What if those were clicks that could add 7 figures to your sales volume annually? Exactly. If you’re not ranking in the onebox area, then someone else is ranking above you. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. You’re either there or someone else is.
“It’s not worth the effort.” Again, 7 figures, even at 10% margin, pays some salaries. Maybe not your SEO people or your programmers, but it won’t occupy much of their time and it’s ongoing sales.
It doesn’t matter what product you’re selling - be it power tools or gourmet coffee - if there’s an audience for your product, onebox optimization can increase your sales. All you need is some time to do some experimentation and you’ll be ahead of many of your competitors.