Google Trusted Stores: For Organic Rankings & Search Ads?

Google Operating System Blog discovered a new feature to be released by Google named “Google Trusted Stores.”

The landing page for this feature will be at google.com/trustedstores but it is currently not live. There was a video that was released today that was just made private. The video was shared on Google Operating System Blog but was then marked as private shortly after.

The blog reports that the service “makes it easy for online shoppers to identify stores that provide an excellent online shopping experience.”

We know Google was likely to incorporate merchant reviews as ranking factors since a New York Times article exposed how treating your customers poorly or even abusing them can lead top rankings. Google disputed that and days later released an update to use merchant reviews as a ranking signal.

Now this new feature, Google Trusted Stores, may be simply ad related and have nothing to do with the organic reviews. Google recently removed the checkout badge from the AdWords listing. Maybe this will replace it? Maybe this is just a feature for Google Product Search?

A Google spokesperson told us “We’re always exploring new ways to help improve the online commerce experience but don’t have anything new to announce today. Stay tuned for more.”

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• DecorMyEyes Merchant Vitaly Borker Arrested After NYT Piece On Google Rankings
• Google Eliminates Checkout Badge From SERPs