As early as 2025, SEO experts noted that Popular Products – Google’s unpaid space for product display – is one of the most important areas for commercial searches, as AI Overviews have taken over much of the informational search. Despite this, there have been questions about how the algorithm prioritizes among e-commerce product listings.
In a new correlation study, presented in March 2026 by the agency Adrelevance, 53,710 products, 5,809 keywords, and 4,595 sellers in the Swedish market were analyzed to map the ranking factors. The results show three clear patterns where reviews, product title, and price interact.
Review Volume Outperforms The Perfect Rating
According to the analysis, customer reviews are the single strongest signal for visibility in the product shelf. Of the analyzed products, 78 percent had reviews. The average was 120 reviews per product with an average rating of 4.43.
The data indicates that a flawless rating is not a requirement. Rather, the algorithm rewards a higher volume of reviews, provided the average rating is around four.
The strongest signal in the data is clear: products with many reviews dominate, states Pontus Vippelius, who is behind the study, in a statement.
Exact Match In Product Title
Second only to reviews, the product title showed the strongest correlation. A majority of the products that gained visibility had adapted the title to actual search behavior:
- 33,822 products in the study contained the entire keyword in the title.
- 10,372 products contained parts of the keyword.
This confirms previous industry advice that the design of the product feed in Google Merchant Center requires the same technical SEO work as traditional landing pages.
Price Functions As A Decisive Margin
The price’s impact on ranking appears less crucial than relevance and trust, but still plays a role. In nearly 60 percent of cases (59.6%), the product placed first in the grid was the cheapest variant.
However, the correlation between a low price and a high placement is relatively weak compared to the product’s reviews and title adaptation.
Price is a 'tie-breaker', not a primary ranking factor. It’s not enough to be cheap, you must also have trust and relevance, explains Vippelius.
Major Players And Price Comparison Sites At The Top
Among the players that appear most frequently in the study are established retail chains with large volumes of their own products, such as Ikea, Bauhaus, Clas Ohlson, and Jula. Marketplaces like Amazon.se and pharmacies like Apotea also take up significant space.
Notably, organic CSS players (Comparison Shopping Services) are also frequently seen in the area, with both PriceRunner and Prisjakt among the best performing players.