Retailers OK with Google searches
By Brian Carroll -- Furniture Today, January 11, 2004
HIGH POINT — Although Google's latest reshuffling of how it searches the Web and presents findings has bothered many e-retailers, furniture retailers online welcome the changes.
As the Internet search engine does every so often, Google recently overhauled its algorithms, or the mathematical formulas it uses to rank Web pages in response to a user's query.
While companies in real estate and consumer electronics cry "foul," leading furniture retailers on the Web say they're not bothered.
"We are very pleased with Google's change," said Sev Ritchie, president of FurnitureFan.com, which markets but does not sell furniture online. "We commend them for offering a much clearer search and providing a return of more relevant subject matter."
Relevancy was Google's aim in response to efforts by companies and individuals to manipulate the search engine's algorithms. These manipulations are attempts, many of them successful, to wiggle and wrangle to the top of the engine's search results, efforts called the "Google dance."
Commercial Web sites know a high ranking can mean the difference between huge sales and virtual anonymity. They adjust their site descriptions, details and code accordingly. In response, Google regularly adjusts its algorithms to identify profiteers and screen them out.
"As it relates to furniture, the problem was not as widespread as in other areas," Ritchie said, referring to the dance.
A recent Google search of "furniture" put Furniture.com at No. 1, FurnitureFind.com at No. 2 and Ashley Furniture No. 3.
Carl Prindle, president at Furniture.com, said his site has routinely been the top result for the key word "furniture" since that e-retailer's relaunch in April 2002, a period covering two major algorithm changes at Google.
"We do work hard to ensure that Furniture.com appears first on search engines," Prindle said. "Customers search for furniture-related terms an estimated 390,000 times a day, primarily for the keyword 'furniture'." Though pleased with the Google ranking, Prindle said the company's Web address is the primary way it generates traffic to the site.
Another top e-retailer in home furnishings, BeHome.com, also welcomed the recent reshuffling. Emily Davidow, who oversees BeHome.com and Benchmark Home Furnishings' e-commerce efforts, said it's "foolish" for a site to chase high search results.
"In developing BeHome, we keep our customer in mind rather than search engines," said Davidow, who made Kansas City, Kan.-based Benchmark a pioneer in Web-based marketing eight years ago. "The update seems to have been effective at demoting the sites that are full of listings with no real content, and therefore boosted the rankings of real destination sites with content relevant to the search terms."
At Houston's Frontera.com, seasonal buying habits have a much bigger effect on traffic than any Google search formula changes, said Jennifer Rodgers, general manager.
"We continue to get a great deal of business from paid search results, vendor referrals and repeat customers," she said.
FurnitureFan.com has seen a "marked increase in traffic" since the Google changes, Ritchie said, "as well as a significant increase in the amount of products viewed."
For their part, Google's algorithm meisters have apologized for the effects of their changes on small businesses. Craig Nevill-Manning, senior research scientist at Google, said, "We don't make changes lightly."
Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products at Google, said that having unique and useful content, providing site maps and easy navigation, and giving a site hierarchal structure will boost a site's Google ranking.
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