What does having "Interactive" content mean?
Google sees Interactive content is any type of content that requires active engagement from its users, more than just reading or watching. This can include quizzes, polls, calculators, interactive infographics, and other forms of content where the user’s input directly influences their experience or the outcome they see. From an SEO perspective, Google values interactive content because it can significantly enhance user engagement, dwell time (how long a user stays on a page), and user experience. Not surprisingly, all of these are factors in search rankings.
Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Beyond that Google is a bunch of nerds who love the web and want to make it more fun. To that end, Google is rewarding sites with cool things that people enjoy interacting with. It makes them feel that they are helping to craft a better online life for all of us. Kind of like your mother helping you become a better person. (Sigh.)
Sites that are developing interactive content are ranking higher than sites who are just sticking to the same old things. So in order to rank better, you need to be more interactive and engaging. Google now requires this of you. If you are a site owner, I feel your pain. If you’ve been in business for more than a few years, you will remember when social media was the new must have thing and brands went from needing to post once in a while, to needing to post three times a day. (Stylaquin can actually help you make Instagram posts and reels in under one minute, read about it here.) Now Google is requiring you to add things that visitors can play with. We’ll look at some options for this, but first let’s dive into how Google measures interactive content.
Does Your Site Do This?
It can with Stylaquin! Stylaquin is the easy to add Shopify app that transforms your website. Stylaquin makes shopping faster, more engaging, and more fun. Stylaquin shoppers stay longer, view over 85% more products, come back more often, and buy more when they do. Find us in the Shopify App Store.
How does Google measure interactive content?
The truth is Google can’t really see what kind of interaction you have, it just counts events. Google defines events as user actions or browser actions that can be detected and responded to with JavaScript. These include actions like clicks, double-clicks, page refreshes, mouse movements, form submissions, key presses, and more. Google counts events to determine which sites and web pages are the most interactive. Here are some of the events Google looks for:
- Click events: Detected when a user clicks on an element on the page.
- DoubleClick events: Detected when a user double-clicks on an element.
- Load events: Detected when a webpage or an element on the page, such as an image, has fully loaded.
- Unload events: Detected when a webpage is being unloaded or refreshed.
- Mouse events: Include mouse movements, mouse over (hovering over an element), mouse out (moving the mouse away from an element), and more. (Stylaquin drag events each count as an event.)
- Keyboard events: Detected when a user presses a key on the keyboard.
Add a Styling Board and a Wishlist!
The Stylaquin Idea Board keeps customers engaged in two ways: it’s an interactive styling board where shoppers can collect and curate all the things that interest them; and it also acts as a wishlist that shoppers can return to. Find us in the Shopify App Store.
What is the best kind of interaction to have?
If you are looking from a purely SEO perspective, the answer is the interaction that creates the most events. More events means Google is happy, job done. From a brand perspective, the best interaction to have is the one that will actually engage your customers in a meaningful way. If you are selling services, then polls, quizzes and calculators are probably the best bets.
If you’re selling merchandise, the answer isn’t as simple. You can use the spin to win apps, It creates at least two additional events, but you have to give up margin to do that. You can add quizzes and polls, but they are interrupting customers while they are on the purchase path. Anything that distracts from the purchase path is not ideal. You can add AI recommendation apps, which can increase the number of items viewed, which often leads to more sales. Using AI for product recommendation shows real promise. Product recommendations can be annoying and clutter up the page, but they do create events, if customers see something they like, and that’s a good thing.
If you’re a Shopify store, you can add Stylaquin. Stylaquin makes the shopping experience more fun and engaging, so shoppers stay longer (increased dwell time), view more items (extra events), come back more often (the ultimate engagement metric), and buy more when they do (Bonus!). Stylaquin transforms any Shopify site in about fifteen minutes with no additional work for you and your team. Check it out in the Shopify App Store.
