Could Retail Price Be A Google Ranking Factor???

[EGOL]

I have not done any detailed studies on this but it seems that Google might be using low retail prices for specific items as a ranking factor in their organic SERPs.

Does anyone else suspect this?

Just askin' to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

[AWCthreads]

I've not suspected low prices.

I have suspected stock status though.

Edit Add - I would think either of those factors though would be relatively unreliable.  The cheapest prices may not always be in-stock. Conversely, it may say in-stock and come to find out once you place the order you find it's out of stock because the merchant doesn't have live stock status.

[William.Lau]

I'd be curious as well if anyone has seen any correlation between prices and rankings. I'd believe there would be no reason Google to rank an authoritative site lower just because a semi-authoritative site has a better price. Example would probably be Amazon and eBay, vice versa. The site's general authority would probably matter most and pricing would be a miniscule factor.

[EGOL]

Thanks AWC,  I have wondered about stock status too.  I suspect that pages with an out-of-stock item decline in rankings  - but again I am not sure.

[EGOL]

Thank you, William.  I agree.  And ebay would be problematic because the prices there are bids at auction.

[Matt-Williamson]

Hi Egol

This is very interesting and I would be interested to hear the communities thoughts on it. What made you suspect this in the first place?

Do you have any examples or situations that you have noticed which put this thought into your mind?

[EGOL]

I can't point to examples because they involve private information.  And, I have not done general research.   Sorry.

[AWCthreads]

Here's another thought...

Stock and prices can fluctuate dramatically throughout a day. Considering how often Google cache's a page the snippets would be even less reliable.

[EGOL]

Yes, they do change on some sites.  But I bet that most sites put up a price and don't change it very often.

[AWCthreads]

True.

I probably change prices on 5-20 products a day - relatively small compared to our volume of products.

For sale prices we leave the main product price static and put a lower value in the sale price section so the software can calculate the "you save" amount.

The sale price is not cached because the main price is pulled in the snippet.

There are so many variables that if it were a factor in the algo I would think it would be very, very small.

[Matt-Williamson]

That makes sense Egol - one thing you might be able to give us a clue about without giving away any client info is - did the site you are working on increase/decrease ranking with a change in price and no other significant changes to there site such as gaining of authority links?

[EGOL]

Yes, actually we increased prices significantly and saw a decline in rankings.  I can't say that was was the cause - it could have been coincidence.

[Matt-Williamson]

hmm that is interesting - did raising your prices impact on any of your site metrics like bounce rate or time on site out of interest?

[EGOL]

The price increase had very little impact upon sales or conversion rate.  I did not see a change in bounce rate.