Findability on bol: how it works and how you improve it
Lars HurkmansCo-founder17 February 2026Temps de lecture 5 minutesFindability on bol determines whether consumers see your product. Three algorithms drive where you appear: the organic search results, the Google Shopping feed and Sponsored Products. You improve it by finding the right keywords, optimising your listing and monitoring your organic positions. Findability isn't a one-off action; it needs ongoing attention.
How does findability work on bol?
Findability on bol revolves around three algorithms that each determine where and how your products appear. If your product isn't found, you sell nothing. On bol, consumers search via the search bar, just like on Google, and about 80% doesn't look beyond the first page of search results. Are you on page three? Then you don't exist for the vast majority of your potential customers.
Organic search results. This algorithm determines which products consumers see when they search on bol. Among other things it looks at keyword indexing (are the relevant keywords in your title and specifications?), sales performance (how well does your product convert historically?), and filterable specifications (can consumers filter by relevant attributes?). This is the most important algorithm for your findability. This is what you focus on for SEO.
Google Shopping feed. bol also lists products on Google Shopping. Here price stars and conversions play a role. Products with good prices are preferred for external ads, and bol only advertises products it knows are going to sell. This algorithm doesn't affect your position within bol, but it does affect whether you're findable externally.
Sponsored Products. For paid ads within bol, bol uses a separate algorithm. This determines which ads appear where based on your bidding strategy and the relevance of your product. Click-through rate and conversion play an important role here.
How do you find the right keywords?
You need to know which keywords are relevant for your product type, how competitive they are, and how much you need to sell to reach the top. Keyword research is therefore part of your broader market research.
Per keyword you want insight into the search volume (how many consumers search for it), the competition (how many sellers there are), the number of views per listing (how many views each product gets on average), the sales needed to rank high, and the category distribution (in which categories consumers search for these products). We work out how you build that insight in keyword research in the niche explorer.
A handy technique is the reverse EAN search: look up a successful competitor product and see which keywords bring that product traffic. Those keywords form the basis for your own listing and advertising strategy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, you learn from what already works.
How do you optimise your listing?
Your listing not only needs to be findable for the algorithm, but also needs to convince consumers when they see it. A good title contains the right keywords in the right place and is easy to read. The product description should highlight the strengths of your product, preferably based on the weaknesses consumers mention about competitors in reviews.
MarktMentor's Listing Builder combines keywords, competitor analysis and review insights to generate a listing optimised for both the bol algorithm and Google Shopping, within bol's guidelines. You see visually which keywords are covered in your listing and which you're missing. The difference with having a listing written generically by AI: here real market data is used as input, not just a product name and a category.
How do you monitor your positions?
After your listing is live, you need to track how your positions develop. Are you dropping? Then you need to take action. Are you rising? Then your approach is working.
Here it's essential to know what your organic position is, separate from advertising. If you're advertising on a keyword and the position you see is a mix of organic and sponsored, you don't know whether you're growing organically or whether your position depends entirely on your advertising budget. That distinction determines whether you spend money on ads you don't need, or miss out on opportunities.
MarktMentor measures purely organic positions per keyword and per category, separated from sponsored results. Per product you also see the Share of Voice: what percentage of your potential customers you actually reach. Positions are tracked automatically once you connect your bol shop, with no manual setup.
More on how to analyse those positions and improve your rankings.
How do you base your advertising strategy on data?
The combination of organic positions, Share of Voice and search volume gives you a concrete framework for your advertising budget.
Keywords where you already rank high organically have lower priority for advertising. Your budget is better spent on keywords where growth is still possible. Keywords where you fall just outside page one (roughly position 30 to 50) are interesting advertising candidates, because consumers rarely reach there but the search volume can still be there. The trigger to start advertising is the combination of a high search volume, a low organic ranking and a low Share of Voice.
One nuance: if the top positions for a keyword are largely taken up by sponsored results, it can still be worth advertising, even if you score well organically. Consumers look at what's visible first.
More on how those ads work is covered in bol's advertising system.
Why do you start with categories and not keywords?
For those who are just starting to monitor findability: start at the category overview instead of the search terms. The reason: products on bol are indexed based on categories. A drop at category level also leads to a drop in keywords underneath it. Because categories are more compact and clearer, they give you insight faster into where increases or decreases are happening. From there you can zoom in on the search terms for more detail.