For this week's #SPQuiz, we asked our followers on X/Twitter and LinkedIn what they thought the impact of incorporating price in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) would be on CTR (click-through rate).
Here’s what they thought:
Poll Results:
A little over half of our followers believed this wouldn’t affect click-through rates, so let's dive into price’s relationship with SEO.
Price plays a complex role in SEO, influencing user behavior and search engine rankings. When incorporated into key SEO elements — such as title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, and on-page content — pricing information can affect CTR, search visibility, and conversions. However, the impact is not always straightforward and can vary based on industry, competitiveness, and how the information is presented.
For one, displaying prices in search results can help align content with searcher intent, particularly for transactional queries where users actively compare costs. Structured data, such as Product schema with price markup, can enhance search result snippets and improve engagement. However, if prices appear uncompetitive, they may deter searchers from clicking. There is also the concern that if prices fluctuate frequently, there would be discrepancies between search results and landing pages. This could result in a negative user experience and feed into poor bounce rates and dwell metrics, which Google uses via navboost to re-rank their search results.
Ultimately, price is a valuable but double-edged SEO tool, making it much more important to test and iterate on what’s best for your website.
SearchPilot’s Testing of Price
Adding Prices to the H1
It's a common question in SEO to ask how closely H1s and title tags should resemble each other. A travel website examined how incorporating price information into H1 tags to better align them with title tags could affect organic search performance. It was hypothesized that pricing in the H1 could enhance relevance for search queries containing pricing terms and decrease Google’s rewriting of titles in the search results. This test additionally evaluated whether it would boost user engagement by presenting essential purchasing information up front.
Take a look at our case study to learn what happened.
Adding Static Price to Title Tags
Since title tags are among the most significant factors for ranking and engagement, an ecommerce website tested adding static pricing information to its title tags. The hypothesis was that this would increase organic traffic, influencing search rankings and click-through rates. The focus was primarily on users searching with commercial intent, who may find listings with clear pricing more relevant, resulting in higher engagement.
This method does have certain drawbacks. Highlighting pricing in title tags might discourage clicks if competitors present lower prices. Furthermore, variations in pricing could lead to discrepancies between search results and the landing page, mainly if the static price information in the title differs from what's displayed on the page, possibly leading to a higher bounce rate and decreased trust in the brand.
Check out the case study to get the full story!
Incorporating Dynamic Prices in Title Tags
Digging further with pricing in the title tags, a travel rental website found that including a static price in their title tags didn’t produce the results they hoped for, instead getting a negative outcome. They considered whether a difference between the static prices in the title tags and the prices on the page might have played a role in this result. To followup, they decided to test applying prices dynamically, hypothesizing that updating prices in title tags dynamically could make a difference and help keep everything aligned. However, they wondered if search engines could keep up with these real-time changes given their crawling frequency.
Find out if the dynamic price in title tags positively impacted organic traffic by reading the full case study!
Changing Price Related Keywords
There is also the question of which expenses-related keywords best align with user searches. A customer in the health industry sought to answer this question by testing whether replacing the word “price” with “cost” in title tags would better match searcher intent and improve organic traffic. The change was driven by keyword research indicating that some users prefer “cost” over “price” when searching for expenses related to health services.
For more details on this, read the full case study!
Adding Price Inside Product Schema
An ecommerce customer had a different idea for communicating the price to search engines and users. Schema markup provides structured data that helps search engines understand and display rich information in search results. This test wanted to understand the impact of adding price and review schema to product pages to see whether these enhancements would increase visibility and engagement. Rich snippets, such as star ratings and price details, can make listings more appealing and informative, which may improve CTR and potential rankings due to increased user interaction.
Do you think they were successful? Read the full case study!
Ready to Begin a Testing Program?
Collectively, these case studies show that incorporating pricing information into key SEO elements like title tags and H1 tags does not always enhance organic traffic and can sometimes be counterproductive. The success of such strategies depends on factors such as price accuracy, competitiveness, and user perception. Notably, dynamic pricing in title tags and the use of price schema markup have demonstrated positive effects, highlighting the importance of accurate information in search results. Therefore, businesses should carefully assess their SEO strategies concerning pricing, consider market positioning and user expectations, and consistently subject best practices to rigorous testing to prevent negative outcomes.
