What is the Google Shopping Graph and how does it work?

5/5 - (1 vote)

The Google Shopping Graph is an advanced, dynamic data structure developed by Google to enhance the online shopping experience. It integrates a vast amount of product information from various sources, including websites, reviews, inventory lists, and prices, to provide users with up-to-date and comprehensive information about products they search for online.

The Google Shopping Graph is the equivalent of the Knowledge Graph just for products.

Contents

1 How does the Google shopping graph work?
2 What are the data sources for the Google shopping graph?
3 Why the shopping graph should be the focus spot for ecommerce SEO?

How does the Google shopping graph work?

Here’s how the Google Shopping Graph works:

Integration of Diverse Data Sources: Google collects product information from a wide range of merchants, brands, and other sources. This includes product details, prices, availability, reviews, and seller information.
Dynamic Updating: The Shopping Graph is updated in real-time to reflect the latest information on price changes, stock levels, and new product reviews. This means users have access to the most current information when making decisions about their online purchases.
Personalization and Recommendations: Based on search queries and user behavior, the Google Shopping Graph can deliver personalized product suggestions and deals. It can identify what users are searching for or need and present them with relevant products that match their interests.
Integration into Google Services: The Shopping Graph is deeply integrated into other Google services, including Google Search and Google Shopping. This allows users to search for products directly through Google, make price comparisons, and complete purchases without leaving the platform.
Support for Merchants and Brands: The Google Shopping Graph offers merchants and brands enhanced opportunities to showcase their products and connect with potential customers. By providing accurate and up-to-date product information, they can increase their visibility and improve sales opportunities.

Google’s Shopping Graph is the counterpart to the Knowledge Graph.

Product data and their relationships are organized in nodes and edges, where the nodes, the respective product entities and the edges represent the relationships to each other.

In summary, the Google Shopping Graph offers a powerful platform that helps users efficiently find and compare products, while simultaneously supporting merchants and brands in showcasing their offerings. By leveraging advanced technologies and integrating extensive data sources, it contributes to optimizing the online shopping experience for all parties involved.

What are the data sources for the Google shopping graph?

According to Google’s statements, possible sources are:

Youtube videos
Manufacturer Websites
Online shops and product detail pages (PDPs)
Google Merchant Center
Product tests
Product reviews

For me the most important ressources are the merchant center and the structured and unstructured info on product detail pages. There should be the main focus for optimizing for the shopping graph.

Why the shopping graph should be the focus spot for ecommerce SEO?

The introduction of SGE rolls out a new era for e-commerce SEO.

“That’s because this new generative AI shopping experience is built on Google’s Shopping Graph, which has more than 35 billion product listings — making it the world’s most comprehensive dataset of constantly-changing products, sellers, brands, reviews and inventory out there.” Source: https://blog.google/products/shopping/shopping-graph-explained/

This switch puts the optimization of the shopping graph into the focus of e-commerce SEO.

About the Author
Latest Posts

About Olaf Kopp

Olaf Kopp is Co-Founder, Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) and Head of SEO at Aufgesang GmbH. He is an internationally recognized industry expert in semantic SEO, E-E-A-T, modern search engine technology, content marketing and customer journey management. As an author, Olaf Kopp writes for national and international magazines such as Search Engine Land, t3n, Website Boosting, Hubspot, Sistrix, Oncrawl, Searchmetrics, Upload … . In 2022 he was Top contributor for Search Engine Land. His blog is one of the most famous online marketing blogs in Germany. In addition, Olaf Kopp is a speaker for SEO and content marketing SMX, CMCx, OMT, OMX, Campixx...