TABLE OF CONTENTS
Data is an important function of a search engine because it affects product, keyword, and related product/keyword rankings on the SERP and in the autocomplete box. By having accurate rankings, shoppers can easily find what they’re looking for. The product shown first should be the most popular and most relevant, then the rest of the products should be sequentially less popular/relevant.
The product displayed in the first position should be the most popular and the products’ popularity should sequentially decrease as shown here.
The data refresh is critical to ensure accurate rankings. Product preferences change seasonally and over time, so ensuring you’re ranking the most popular products is critical in order to provide an enjoyable shopping experience. Data refresh is the process in which popularity scores for products and keywords are recalculated, these score changes affect the way products on your site are ranked. In this process, user behavior is constantly analyzed and used to update product rankings on the SERP, suggestions in the autocomplete box, and in the search engine.
When products are being re-ranked, user behavior over the last 90 days (when the setting “near past” is selected) is analyzed. This time period can be edited in the portal. In general, the most recent events are weighted heavier than those occurring farther in the past.
The ranking system also takes into consideration user actions and search engine results. Result found events help boost a product’s ranking. These occur when a query is executed, a keyword is found, and the shopper is redirected to the SERP.
Result clicked actions also help boost a product’s ranking. These occur when a user clicks on a product on the SERP and also when they select to add a product to their cart. In order to track these results, you will have to implement some JavaScript on your site.
Every time the data is refreshed, a new list is created with the updated product ranking. Previous lists are saved and can be accessed in the portal. So if you’re curious about how your rankings changed over time, you can analyze these lists. If you don’t like to save so much data, you can select a setting where only files from the last 14 days are saved.