Mastering the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel: Boost Your E-commerce Visibility and Sales
Boost e-commerce visibility and sales by optimizing your Google Merchant Knowledge Panel. Discover practical tips for small businesses to stand out and build trust.
For brands and merchants, getting noticed online can be challenging, especially when competing with larger, well-established companies. It’s crucial to find ways to highlight what makes your shop unique—whether it’s your personalized service, locally sourced products, or the authenticity of your brand. But how can you effectively showcase these unique qualities to potential customers?
What is the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel and How to Optimize for It
In today’s e-commerce landscape, standing out from the crowd is key for both online and local merchants. With numerous sellers offering similar products, it’s essential to differentiate your business and build trust with potential customers. This is where the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel comes into play, serving as a powerful tool to showcase your unique value proposition and establish credibility.
The Google Merchant Knowledge Panel is effectively an extension of the Product Knowledge Graph Panel to help businesses (both small and large) build trust with users by displaying information about the merchant directly on the Google web page. This article will walk you through:
- What the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel is and why it’s crucial for your business
- Boosting Your Business Credibility with the Store Quality Program
- What Information do Store Pages Display?
- Strategies for identifying as a small business on Google
- Understanding where Google sources information for Merchant Profiles
- How to optimize your Merchant Knowledge Panel and Store Pages
- Practical examples with markup to help you implement these strategies
- Conclusion
To illustrate the potential benefits, let’s look at a real-world example with Ray-Ban.
Here is the Knowledge Panel for the Ray-Ban.com online store
From the Merchant Panel, by clicking on the Top Quality Store badge you can access the corresponding Store Page. See below:
The Store Page
Now, let’s consider an example related to the Small Business attribute. Imagine a small business specializing in foam blocks for kids. By identifying as a small business on Google, this company can attract customers who prefer to support local and small-scale enterprises.
Research shows that parents searching for educational toys like foam blocks often value the quality and safety assurances that small businesses can provide. By optimizing their Merchant Knowledge Panel and highlighting their small business status, this company can stand out in search results, build trust with parents, and drive more sales.
The Small Business attribute
Whether you’re a small local shop or a large online retailer, mastering the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel can help you build trust with potential customers, improve your visibility in search results, and ultimately drive more sales. By the end of this article, you’ll have the knowledge and tools to optimize your online presence and make the most of this powerful feature.
Let’s dive in and explore how you can harness the power of the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel to take your e-commerce SEO to the next level.
Why is the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel Important?
- Differentiation: In a sea of merchants selling similar products, the Knowledge Panel helps you stand out by highlighting your unique attributes, policies, and reputation.
- Trust Building: By displaying verified information and customer reviews, it helps build credibility and trust with potential buyers.
- Improved User Experience: Users can quickly access important information about your business without leaving the search results page, streamlining their decision-making process.
- Enhanced Visibility: A well-optimized Knowledge Panel can increase your visibility in search results, potentially driving more traffic to your online store.
Boosting Your Business Credibility with the Store Quality Program
An essential component of optimizing your Merchant Knowledge Panel is participation in Google’s Store Quality program. This program is designed to help merchants deliver an exceptional shopping experience for their customers and can significantly impact your visibility on Google’s shopping platforms.
Key Features of the Store Quality Program
- Quality Signals: The program monitors your performance in several areas, including shipping, returns, browsing experience, purchasing experience, and store rating.
- Scoring System: For each category, you’ll receive a score from 0 to 10, with ratings ranging from “Low” to “Exceptional.”
- Overall Quality Score: Your performance across all categories determines your overall quality score.
- Top Quality Store Badge: Merchants who achieve an “Exceptional” overall quality score can earn the “Top Quality Store” badge, which displays on your listings and improves customer confidence.
- Increased Visibility: High-performing merchants may receive prominence in placements on the “Shopping” tab.
- Early Access to Features: Top performers may get early access to Google’s new features.
What Information do Store Pages Display?
Store Pages provide a detailed overview of your business, helping customers make informed decisions. These pages are accessible through various channels, including store ratings, Top Quality Store badges on Google Search, or direct links.
Key features of Store Pages include:
- Overview: A concise business description, logo, homepage link, and contact details.
- Rating and Reviews: An overall rating out of five, based on multiple sources like Google Customer Reviews and partner review platforms. Users can read detailed customer reviews.
- Store Insights Panel: This panel compares your store to others on Google across several categories:
- Shipping: Cost and speed of shipping options
- Returns: Cost and timeframe for returns
- Pricing: Product cost comparison
- Payment Options: Variety of accepted payment methods
- Website Quality: Key website performance metrics
Each category is rated from Low to Exceptional, giving users a quick understanding of your store’s strengths and areas for improvement.
You can access Store Pages directly using a URL structure like this: https://customerreviews.google.com/v/merchant?q=your-website.com&c=US
Replace ‘your-website.com’ with your domain and ‘US’ with your country code.
Identifying as a Small Business on Google
Small merchants in the U.S. can now highlight their status on Google’s platforms, potentially increasing visibility to customers who prefer supporting small businesses. This feature is available for users of Merchant Center, Business Profile, and the Google & YouTube app on Shopify.
To add the “small business” attribute:
- In Merchant Center: Go to “business information” > “details” or “about your business” > toggle on “small business”
- In Business Profile: Navigate to “edit profile” > “more” > enable “small business”
Google has also partnered with Etsy to include eligible sellers in this program, expanding its reach across e-commerce platforms. Remember that Google might opt-in automatically by analyzing different signals.
By identifying as a small business, you can differentiate yourself in the Merchant Knowledge Panel and other Google Search results, potentially appealing to a customer base that actively seeks to support small enterprises.
A “Small business” according to Google is not a franchise and has less than 10M $ of annual revenues.
Other Business Identity attributes to help merchant differentiate in Google Merchant include:
- Black-owned
- Latino-owned
- Veteran-owned
- Women-owned
Google’s Information Sources for Merchant Profiles
Google compiles information for Merchant Profiles, including the Knowledge Panel, from various sources:
- Google Merchant Center data (e.g., promotions added by the business)
- Publicly available information, particularly structured data from your website
- Licensed data from third-party sources
- User contributions of factual information
Google uses an automated system to frequently extract and update this information. As a merchant, you can ensure accuracy by:
- Regularly updating your schema.org markup on your website
- Editing promotions directly in Merchant Center
- Encouraging users to provide feedback and suggest edits to your profile
For businesses in Europe, be aware of privacy considerations and the process for submitting removal requests under European data protection law or other legal grounds.
By understanding and leveraging these information sources, you can better control and optimize your online presence, improving visibility and building trust with potential customers.
How to Optimize for the Google Merchant Knowledge Panel and Store Pages
Before delving into optimization tactics, it’s essential to recognize that Google’s Shopping Graph, like any other knowledge graph, must integrate entity resolution processes. These processes eliminate duplicate entities and establish clear connections among various datasets, resulting in a unified representation of data where each entity appears only once. This enhances clarity and usability for analysis. Effective entity resolution is critical; we need to assist Google in merging entity accurately and preventing duplicates to ensure the integrity and reliability of the data presented.
To ensure your Merchant Knowledge Panel effectively represents your business and its entity is correctly found and reconciled, follow these optimization strategies:
1. Implement Accurate Schema.org Markup:
– Use schema.org markup on your website to provide structured data about your business.
– Ensure all information is accurate and up-to-date, especially the “organization” type markup.
We want Google to effectively reconcile the entity of the merchant, this can be done by leveraging on Organization markup. When representing your organization in Google’s search results and knowledge panels, the structured data you provide plays a crucial role. Different types of data properties influence your online presence in various ways. Some properties, such as ‘iso6523’ and ‘naics’, work behind the scenes to help Google distinguish your organization from others. While not visible to users, these properties are essential for ensuring accuracy in search results.
Other properties directly affect how your organization appears visually in search results. For instance, the logo property can determine which image is displayed in your knowledge panel and search results, shaping your brand’s visual identity online.
2. Utilize Google Search Console:
– Use the Merchant Listing report in Google Search Console to identify and address any issues with your markup.
– Regularly check for new validations related to shopping data fields.
3. Maintain Consistent NAP Information:
– Keep your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) consistent across all online platforms and directories.
4. Encourage and Manage Reviews:
– Actively encourage customers to leave reviews.
– Respond to both positive and negative reviews professionally.
5. Optimize for Upcoming Features:
– Prepare to implement the new “loyalty” structured data class when it becomes available.
– Ensure your shipping and return policies are clearly defined on your website.
6. Keep the Merchant always up to date and in sync with information provided with Structured Data:
As a merchant, you have the opportunity to influence additional details in your merchant knowledge panel and brand profile. This includes important information such as your return policy, physical address, and contact information. By providing comprehensive and accurate data in these areas, you can ensure that potential customers have access to the most relevant and up-to-date information about your business.
It’s worth noting that Google takes a flexible approach to data properties. Rather than mandating specific required properties, they recommend including as many relevant properties as possible to provide a comprehensive representation of your organization. This approach allows you to tailor your online presence to best reflect your unique business characteristics and offerings.
Practical Examples With Markup To Help You Implement These Strategies
To effectively optimize your Google Merchant Knowledge Panel, it’s important to understand what Google looks for in its quality score program. This involves reviewing the data requested in Google Merchant Center, which can be broken down into several key areas:
- Shipping Experience: How quickly and reliably you can deliver products to customers.
- Return Experience: How easy and straightforward it is for customers to return products.
- Purchase Experience: The overall satisfaction of customers with the buying process.
- Browsing Experience (BETA): How user-friendly and efficient your website is for customers to navigate and find products.
Google uses these factors to assign a Store rating, which can significantly impact your visibility and credibility in search results.
Additionally, there’s the Product Rating Program, which allows you to integrate reviews from trusted aggregators like Trustpilot. This can further enhance your store’s credibility by showcasing customer feedback.
Key Attributes to Focus On
When optimizing your Merchant Knowledge Panel, it’s crucial to pay special attention to certain attributes that influence purchase decisions. These include:
- Shipping Times: Clearly communicate how long it will take for products to reach customers.
- Return Policies and Timelines: Provide detailed information on how customers can return products and the time frame for returns.
- Product Reviews: Highlight customer reviews to build trust and provide social proof.
To effectively communicate these attributes, you can use structured data. Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. Here’s how you can implement it:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Product",
"@id": "https://yourstore.com/product/sustainable-dress#product",
"name": "Sustainable Handpicked Fashion Dress",
"image": "https://yourstore.com/images/dress.jpg",
"description": "A sustainably sourced, handpicked fashion dress from our exclusive collection.",
"sku": "12345",
"mpn": "56789",
"gtin": "0123456789012",
"url": "https://yourstore.com/product/sustainable-dress",
"brand": {
"@type": "Brand",
"name": "Your Brand Name"
},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"url": "https://yourstore.com/product/sustainable-dress",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"price": "99.99",
"priceValidUntil": "2024-12-31",
"itemCondition": "https://schema.org/NewCondition",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
"seller": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Your Store Name"
},
"shippingDetails": [
{
"@type": "OfferShippingDetails",
"shippingRate": {
"@type": "MonetaryAmount",
"value": 0.00,
"currency": "USD"
},
"shippingDestination": {
"@type": "DefinedRegion",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"deliveryTime": {
"@type": "ShippingDeliveryTime",
"handlingTime": {
"@type": "QuantitativeValue",
"minValue": 1,
"maxValue": 2,
"unitCode": "DAY"
},
"transitTime": {
"@type": "QuantitativeValue",
"minValue": 5,
"maxValue": 7,
"unitCode": "DAY"
}
}
},
{
"@type": "OfferShippingDetails",
"shippingRate": {
"@type": "MonetaryAmount",
"value": 15.00,
"currency": "USD"
},
"shippingDestination": {
"@type": "DefinedRegion",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"deliveryTime": {
"@type": "ShippingDeliveryTime",
"handlingTime": {
"@type": "QuantitativeValue",
"minValue": 0,
"maxValue": 1,
"unitCode": "DAY"
},
"transitTime": {
"@type": "QuantitativeValue",
"minValue": 1,
"maxValue": 2,
"unitCode": "DAY"
}
}
}
],
"hasMerchantReturnPolicy": {
"@type": "MerchantReturnPolicy",
"applicableCountry": "US",
"returnPolicyCategory": "https://schema.org/MerchantReturnFiniteReturnWindow",
"merchantReturnDays": 30,
"returnFees": "https://schema.org/FreeReturn",
"returnMethod": [
"https://schema.org/ReturnAtKiosk",
"https://schema.org/ReturnByMail",
"https://schema.org/ReturnInStore"
]
}
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.7",
"reviewCount": "150",
"sameAs": "https://www.trustpilot.com/review/yourstore.com"
},
"review": [
{
"@type": "Review",
"reviewRating": {
"@type": "Rating",
"ratingValue": "5"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Jane Doe"
},
"reviewBody": "This dress is beautifully made! I love that it's sustainably sourced and part of a handpicked collection. The in-store pickup option was so convenient!"
}
]
}From the previous product markup, we can convey a lot of crucial information, such as:
Shipping Details as an example the Free Shipping:
- shippingRate: This indicates that shipping is free.
- shippingDestination: This option is available for customers in the United States.
- handlingTime: It will take between 1 to 2 days to prepare the order before it ships.
- transitTime: The product will take 5 to 7 days to reach the customer after it ships.
Return Policy
- applicableCountry: The return policy applies to customers in the United States.
- returnPolicyCategory: There is a specific window of time for returns (30 days).
- merchantReturnDays: Customers have 30 days to return the product.
- returnFees: Returns are free for the customer.
- returnMethod: There are different ways customers can return the product:
- ReturnAtKiosk: The product can be returned at a kiosk.
- ReturnByMail: The product can be returned by mail.
- ReturnInStore: The product can be returned in a physical store.
Aggregate Rating
- ratingValue: The average customer rating is 4.7 out of 5.
- reviewCount: A total of 150 customer reviews contributed to this rating.
- sameAs: This is a link to the product’s reviews on Trustpilot, where customers can verify the ratings.
Conclusion
By effectively optimizing your Google Merchant Knowledge Panel, you can distinguish your business from competitors, build trust with potential customers, and ultimately drive more sales. Here are the key takeaways from this article:
- Accurate and Comprehensive Schema.org Markup: Ensure your website uses accurate and comprehensive schema.org markup. This structured data helps Google understand your business better and display relevant information in the Knowledge Panel. (Check out the examples provided above.)
- Consistent Business Information: Maintain consistent business information across all platforms. This consistency builds trust and ensures customers can find accurate details about your business wherever they look.
- Highlight Unique Attributes: Identify as a small business or highlight other unique attributes. This can attract customers who prefer to support local or unique businesses.
- Customer Reviews and Ratings: Leverage customer reviews and ratings to shape your online reputation. Positive reviews build trust and can significantly influence purchase decisions.
- Stay Informed and Adapt: Stay informed about upcoming features and changes in Google’s merchant ecosystem. Adapting your strategies to these changes ensures you remain competitive and take full advantage of new opportunities.
Remember, optimizing for the Merchant Knowledge Panel is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process. As Google continually evolves its features and algorithms, it’s crucial to stay informed and adapt your strategies accordingly.
Small e-commerce local businesses can leverage Google Merchant Center and structured data to highlight strengths like local delivery, in-store pickup, and easy returns. Unlike larger stores, they offer faster, more personalized service, which can be effectively communicated through structured data. This helps them stand out by appealing to customers who value speed, convenience, and a local touch.
Take action today: Book your free Merchant audit and consultation with us. Let us help you transform your Merchant Knowledge Panel into a powerful asset in your digital marketing arsenal. Don’t miss this chance to elevate your e-commerce presence and stay ahead of the competition.