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Google seems to have rolled out new automobile search features that show more details specifications without sourcing where it found those specs. It may be some data relationship but supposedly this data isn't as easy to come back as one might have thought.
Brett Tabke from WebmasterWorld started a thread about this saying "Google is testing active pricing forms for new cars in US directly on SERP's. These forms can select trim styles, and other options to 'price' a car." He added "this is similar to what they have done in the airline industry, but the first time they have done it with an industry with non-reactive and generally fixed pricing (such as air, and hotel rates)."
Why is Brett upset? Well, he explained "this will have a profound effect on the entire ecosystem of auto buying: from car sites, dealerships, affiliate sites, to even OEM accessory sites."
Here is a screen shot of some of this:
Jon Henshaw made a video cast of it:
Is this what you're talking about? pic.twitter.com/OauJ6zOR3C
— Jon Henshaw (@henshaw) September 17, 2021
I honestly thought Google had a lot of this information already, so I asked for more detail:
excuse my ignorance about cars, but aren't those spec sheets available from the manufacturer and MSRPs are listed widely on their websites and dealer sites
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) September 17, 2021
Here are some of the responses:
(And frankly, most auto manufacturer websites are a hot mess UX wise, so this is probably good for users as well…)
— Ben (@ben_gc) September 17, 2021
It sucks if you run a site that relies on this type of traffic, but this shift has been happening for quite a while, as I think everyone in this thread would agree. As always, publishers have to figure out a way to adapt. I would focus on brand, unique content, and new channels.
— Jon Henshaw (@henshaw) September 17, 2021
The most revealing answer was from the Senior Director of SEO at Edmunds who shared this:
Some OEMs might send us a catalog of the data you see. Our data team will then manually input and categorize all that data into our system. An OEM might just send us PDFs of the features and specs you see. 2/4
— Matt Smith (@mlsutah) September 17, 2021
On the SEO side, we add all the schema or we won't get search features or knowledge graph rankings. Google then takes our hard work and shows it however they want... But what are you going to do, lose your snippets? 4/4
— Matt Smith (@mlsutah) September 17, 2021
This seems different from what we saw Google testing in April with car dealership listings or maybe it is similar?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Update: Google said it licenses this data and thus does not need to cite or link to the provider.
