Google Shopping is an excellent channel for promoting products sold in an online store. You invest once in promotion and enjoy website traffic and purchases over time. In Google’s search engine, you can use various search channels: Images, Videos, News, and in recent years, the channel currently known as Google Shopping was added (the name has changed over the years).
Google Shopping was born out of the understanding that many product searches with purchase intent take place on Google. The Shopping channel gathers products for users from stores where online purchases can be made. The channel displays products from various online stores based on the search terms typed into the search bar. It offers various filtering options based on the search to help users find the right product for them. For example, when searching for “cell phone” on Google Shopping, products can be filtered by display resolution, operating system (Android, iOS), brand (Samsung, Xiaomi, Apple, Nokia, etc.), screen size, storage capacity, and more.
Why should you promote an online store through Google Shopping?
Although the Google Shopping channel is relatively new, quite a few users are already using it, and it is gaining momentum and increasing conversion rates. Here are the prominent advantages:
- A one-time financial investment in promotion will yield long-term results. You don’t have to pay for ad impressions on Google.
- The new channel enables reaching new customers.
- Organic Google Shopping is an opportunity to promote products and encourage purchases through the online store.
- A new way to showcase your products to potential customers and take another step closer to a sale.
- Advertisers can use both options simultaneously: running paid campaigns for best-selling products while promoting less popular products organically on Google Shopping to optimize budget efficiency.
How do you access product search on Google Shopping?
When searching on Google, a “Shopping” tab appears alongside the other channels. If you don’t see it as part of the options, you can click on the three-dots icon on the side and select this option.
On the search results page, paid ads appear, and below them appear the organic (free) listings. Paid ads can be identified by the “Ads” label, while free listings appear under the heading “About this page”.
A paid result is an ad that appears on the search results page through payment to Google connected via Google Ads. You can optimize ads to pay less per click. There are companies specializing in paid Google advertising that can optimize ads and manage all your Google campaigns for you.
An organic result is a listing that appears in search results without any payment to Google. You can hire SEO companies for product promotion services for the organic Shopping channel. The company will take action to rank your products at the top of the results and acquire as many customers as possible. Note that since organic Google Shopping is a relatively new field, there are currently not many companies capable of providing promotion services for it.
Where does Google get product information from?
Unlike other Google search channels, in the Shopping channel Google does not pull information directly from the store website. Product information is submitted to Google using a product Feed uploaded to the Google Merchant Center account. In the feed (such as an XML or Excel file), all product information is defined using various attributes in accordance with Google’s guidelines. Examples of product attributes:
- Main image and additional product images – Must comply with all of Google’s guidelines, otherwise products will be disapproved for listing.
- Title briefly describing the product – It is best not to exceed the recommended character limit set by Google, otherwise the title will be cut off and won’t serve users effectively.
- Product description – Google has an ideal character count. Google may reject products and not display them in search results at all if the description does not meet its requirements.
- Different colors / sizes / dimensions available for the product
- The material the product is made of
- Price, sale price, sale expiration date
There is a long list of attributes. Some information is mandatory to include in the feed, while other information is optional.
The importance of information on the product page on the website
Even though Google retrieves information from the product feed, you must pay attention to the information on the website. Google compares product data defined in the feed with the product schema on the product page. Product schema is structured data markup (behind the scenes) via code that enables Google to receive information such as price, description, inventory status, etc. If Google finds that the information does not match, it may disapprove the product and not display it at all in Shopping search results. Therefore, ensuring data consistency is essential.
How to list products for free on Google Shopping?
To list products for free (i.e., without paying Google for the listing), you need to:
- Open an account on Google Merchant Center
- Upload a product feed to it, or alternatively, automatically sync data from a supported e-commerce platform such as Shopify, for example.
- Allow Google to list the products in Free Listings
If you have completed all these steps correctly and the products comply with Google’s policies, the products will appear on the Google Shopping channel. However, your products’ placement in search results may not necessarily be optimal. If there is high competition in your niche, your products could very well be pushed to the bottom of the search results.
How do you rank at the top of search results?
To climb to the top of organic search results, there are a variety of actions you can take in the product feed, in the Merchant Center account, and on the store’s website. It is important to be well acquainted with all of Google’s guidelines and requirements regarding feed attribute settings, as Google rejects products that do not meet its established requirements and chooses not to display them in search results. Recommendations for optimizing your organic Google Shopping channel to boost your products to the top include:
- Proper setup of all required details in the business’s Merchant Center account (shipping details, return policy, logo setup, etc.).
- Checking the validity of existing attributes in the feed (if it exists) and addressing any issues if they are invalid.
- A list of attributes that are missing from the feed and recommended to be added.
- Checking feed attribute errors through the Merchant Center account and resolving them. An example of an error could be a price that does not match the product price on the website (as defined in the product schema) or a product description shorter than the minimum character count set by Google.
- Optimizing product titles and descriptions to attract potential customers. Just like standard SEO practices, promoting products on Google Shopping requires integrating target keywords into titles and descriptions. To do this, you need to know exactly what users are searching for on Google. For example, if more users search for “cell phone” compared to “mobile phone”, it will be more beneficial to include the phrase “cell phone” in the product title. Professional SEO specialists use a variety of tools to find the best keywords to achieve maximum impressions and clicks.
There is a great similarity between optimizing your product on Google Shopping and SEO work as you know it today, such as using a specific keyword in an H1 tag, a description that includes the keyword, and more.
Here are a few tips to help you do it yourself:
- Product Title – Choose a keyword and make sure the product title appearing on Google matches the product title on the website.
- Product Description – Make sure to use the chosen keyword in the first sentence of the product description. Ensure the description is concise, accurately reflects the product, and engages the reader.
- Product Specifications – Make sure to include the product specifications. Some users search for products based on their specifications, and including them will increase the number of impressions for your target audience.
- Product Image – Make sure the product image is high quality and clear. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also run an A/B test to see which image works better and drives more traffic.
- Product Type (Category) – Be sure to choose the correct category for your products.
- Inventory Update – Ensure that the stock inventory updated in Google Merchant Center is accurate, as organic Google Shopping relies on Google Merchant Center data.
- Additional Product Details – The more detailed the product information is, the higher the likelihood that Google will rank you well.
Summary
Google Shopping is an excellent tool for promoting products sold in your online store. For a store’s digital marketing team, it is a wonderful way to drive more traffic to the website and generate higher product sales. In addition, it undoubtedly helps smaller businesses with limited advertising budgets compete with paid ads. All it takes is a minimal initial investment to enjoy sustained traffic and sales down the road.
About the Author
Neta Lupo, SEO Project Manager at A-2-Z, a company specializing in online store promotion and among the first in Israel to master the new field of organic Google Shopping promotion. The company provides end-to-end digital marketing services, from website building and accessibility, to organic and paid Google marketing, as well as social media advertising.