Content That Will Get Your Site Noticed
While webmasters tend to believe that their position in the SERPs is relatively stable until the next major algorithm change, this isn't true. Each time Google adds a feature to help users find the best result; it affects the SERPs. Additionally, Google makes hundreds of small algorithm updates every year; if one of these updates affects your website's SERPs, it will feel like a major update to you.
Blogs seem to rank higher than many e-commerce these days, especially blogs with posts that are 500 to 800 words long. Google has consistently talked about promoting high quality content, and the search engine may see long content about a product as more informative than a product description from the manufacturer that is copied and used by all of the major e-commerce websites.
Google, along with Bing, seems to feel that long posts thoroughly answer user's questions, while long posts are not necessarily what users want, especially when the query can be answered in a sentence or two. Google has an artificial intelligence program, Brain Rank, which is supposed to understand questions and serve the best result.
The SERPs change because Google's artificial programs, of which Brain Rank is only one, are constantly learning and adapting. Webmasters who based their content on what they think Google wants, as opposed to what they think that their visitors want, are never going to be able to keep up.
E-commerce webmasters who see blogs ranking above their e-commerce sites need to add unique content that answers a users search query and sells a product at the same time. A hardware store selling snakes could have a question or two with answers under the product description with common questions, such as how to unclog a drain.
E-commerce websites that need to rank better than blogs need more content than just images and a product description that is a duplicate of the description that is on every other e-commerce website that sells the product.