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What is Merchant Center?
The Merchant Center is a powerful and indispensable platform offered by Google for online merchants. It enables you to upload and manage information about the products you sell, with the aim of making them visible on Google Shopping and other Google services.
However, it's important to note that the effective use of Merchant Center in SEO can sometimes be complex for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of search engine optimization. If you find yourself lost in using Merchant Center in SEO, don't worry. You can call on Eliane Sonneville, a Montreal-based Montreal-based SEO expertwho can guide you in optimizing your presence on Google Shopping and help you make the most of this platform.
What is a free plug?
A free listing is a detailed, structured presentation of a product on Google's Merchant Center. It enables online retailers to showcase their products on Google Shopping and other Google services, free of advertising costs. It contains essential information such as product name, description, price, availability, images, customer reviews and more. By providing this information in an organized way, free sheets help Google to better understand your product catalog, thereby boosting the visibility of your products on the search engine.
Where do free listings appear on the Google search engine?
The Merchant Center's free listings offer a powerful presence on various strategic Google locations, enabling users to discover products from different suppliers. Here's where you can find these free listings on Google:
- Shopping" tab:
Free listings can be displayed in the "Shopping" tab, offering attractive visual experiences for customers looking for similar products. By clicking on these cards, customers are redirected to the merchant's online site to finalize their purchases.
- Enhanced Google search results:
Enriched results, in the form of lines of text including information such as price, availability and product reviews, can appear alongside search results. This provides customers with additional product information, enhancing their search experience.
- Popular products (US only) :
For customers looking for clothing and accessories, more visual cards can be displayed in a carousel. These sheets feature popular products from various brands and merchants, with links to their respective websites.
- Shopping info sheet :
This sheet, available in some countries, organizes information about a specific product, including product details, merchant offers and customer reviews. Once the merchant's product datastream includes the desired product, it can appear in this card.
- Google Images :
When customers search for products and brands on Google Images, they may see images with the annotation "Product", indicating that the product is available for purchase. By interacting with these images, users can see enriched extracts including price, availability, reviews and product brand.
- YouTube:
When watching a video on YouTube, customers can see a list of products they can buy directly next to the video. What's more, when they perform specific searches, corresponding products may appear in YouTube search results.
By exploiting these different distribution channels, retailers can maximize the visibility of their products and attract qualified traffic, improving their SEO and brand awareness. The Merchant Center's free listings thus represent an invaluable opportunity to conquer new horizons on Google and in the competitive world of online commerce.
Two other advantages of free plug visibility:
Improving your local visibility
Google has officially updated its Help Center terms for business profiles, highlighting the importance ofadding in-store products to improve local visibility. This update means that the functionality will be managed by the Google Merchant Center through specific local feeds.
These recent developments underline the vital importance of the free Google Merchant Center listings in optimizing the local visibility of online businesses. By leveraging this functionality and optimizing local feeds, companies have a unique opportunity to stand out locally and capture targeted traffic, which can translate into a significant increase in their online presence and conversion opportunities. This strategy should be considered by SEO professionals and marketers looking to strengthen their local presence and reach their target audience more effectively.
More chances to appear on Google Lens
Over the years, Google has made huge strides in connecting the physical and digital worlds through its search engine. Nothing has been more exciting than the evolution of Google Lens. This image recognition technology enables users to download photos to search and buy products, translate languages and identify monuments in real time.
The presence of Google Lens is made possible by the Google Merchant Center (GMC), structured data and/or image optimization. By adding additional product detail information to free listings, as well as following Google's image optimization best practices, you can improve your chances of appearing in the Google Lens experience.
Step by step, install Google Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center is a powerful tool that enables companies to present their products to millions of potential customers on Google. After this video, let's take a look at the steps involved in using Google Merchant Center.
Create an account :
The first step in using Google Merchant Center is to create an account. You'll need to provide important information about your company, such as its name, address and contact details. These details are essential so that customers can find you easily and access your products. Once you've created your account, be sure to check and update the information regularly to ensure its accuracy and relevance.
Upload your products :
Once your account is up and running, it's time to upload your product data. You can prepare this information in a structured data stream, or automatically synchronize it from a compatible e-commerce platform, such as Shopify. Make sure your product information is complete, accurate and up-to-date. This will enable Google to better understand your products and display them to potential customers in a relevant way.
Showcase your products everywhere on Google:
Once your product data has been uploaded, you can integrate it into various Google programs to expose your products to a wider audience. Shopping ads highlight your products in Google search results, while local stock ads let customers know they can find your products in a nearby store. Shopping Actions allows you to sell your products directly on Google, offering customers a seamless shopping experience.
What is a Product Flow?
A product feed, or data feed, is a file containing information about your products that enables online retailers to list and promote items on e-commerce channels such as Google Shopping, Facebook and Amazon.
Google prefers XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for product feeds to Google Merchant Center. The use of a structured XML file enables Google to better understand product information and display it in a more relevant way in search results and Shopping ads. The XML file must follow the specifications defined by Google, which include specific tags and attributes for each piece of product information. Correct structure and syntax are also essential for Google to process data efficiently.
What data should go into the product feed?
We'll now take a look at the different types of feed attributes, focusing on the mandatory and optional data you need to include.
1. Mandatory attributes :
These attributes are essential for any merchant to be able to advertise their products on Google Shopping. Mandatory data includes :
- ID (identifier): A unique identifier for each product in your catalog. This can be a SKU code or another specific identifier.
- Title: The product title, which must be relevant, precise and representative of what you're selling.
- Description (description): A detailed description of the product, explaining its features and benefits.
- Link: The URL of the product page on your website where users can find out more or make a purchase.
- Image (image_link): The URL of the product image. A high-quality, attractive image is essential to attract potential customers.
- Price: The price of the product, displayed in the local currency of the country of sale.
- Availability: The current state of product availability, e.g. "in stock" or "sold out".
2. Mandatory or optional attributes depending on circumstances :
Certain attributes may be mandatory, depending on your country of sale, the type of products sold or other factors specific to your company. For example, if you sell clothing products, color, size, gender and age group attributes may become mandatory. Other attributes that may be mandatory depending on various factors include: Brand, Condition, Color, Size, Age_group, Gender, Shipping_weight, Adult only, Multipack.
3. Optional attributes :
In addition to mandatory attributes, there are optional data you can include to help Google better understand your products, which can improve your conversion rates. Here is a list of the most popular optional attributes:
- Sale price (Sale_price): The product's promotional price, if it's on sale.
- Product type (product_type): The product category or type to which the item belongs.
- GTIN (Global Trade Item Number): The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) such as EAN, UPC or ISBN of the product.
- MPN (Manufacturer Part Number): The product's manufacturer part number.
- Material: The main material used to manufacture the product.
- Custom labels (custom_labels): Custom labels you can use to organize your products into specific groups.
- Additional image (additional_image_link): Additional images of the product for better viewing.
- Google product category (google_product_category) : The product category defined by Google for your item.
- Item group ID (item_group_id): A unique identifier for grouping product variants, such as different sizes or colors of the same product.
- Excluded_destination: Websites or countries where you do not wish to display your ads.
How to optimize the SEO of your product feed?
Give GTIN:
The International Trade Item Number, or GTIN, has become an essential part of the product optimization process. Although GTINs are no longer mandatory, they offer significant benefits that justify the time and effort needed to include them wherever possible. GTINs are usually supplied by the manufacturer, and even if you don't always have a GTIN available to add, understanding the reasons for their use helps you to better grasp their value in the optimization process.
The advantages of the GTIN code
Ensuring information accuracy
One of the main advantages of using GTINs is to guarantee the accuracy of your product information and avoid conflicts with your competitors' data. When you include a valid GTIN, you can be sure that your product details are correct and consistent, which reinforces the reliability of your listings.
Increased impressions
What's more, adding a GTIN can lead to increased impressions for your products. When a buyer searches for a specific product, Google uses GTINs to associate your product exactly with the one they're looking for, improving the visibility of your ad. What's more, GTINs play a crucial role in the fight against counterfeiting. By using GTINs, Google can verify the authenticity of products, offering a more secure shopping experience for customers.
Make it easy to compare products
Another significant advantage of GTINs is that they enable customers to easily compare items. When buyers are looking for the best products in a specific category, GTINs come into play. Google uses GTINs in combination with customer reviews to determine the position of your ad. Positive reviews can lead to higher rankings, increasing the chances of attracting potential customers.
Choosing the right image for effective optimization
Product images are the first thing buyers see when your listing is displayed. So it's essential to ensure that these images are of high quality and attractive. Here are a few key points to consider when optimizing links to your images:
Use high-quality images (for mobile devices) :
High-quality images are essential, especially for mobile devices, as more and more people shop on their cell phones. Crisp, clear images will grab users' attention and encourage them to find out more about your product.
Ensure consistency between variants and image:
Please ensure that the product variants match the image displayed, whether in terms of color, size, material, etc. Customers need to be able to see exactly what they're buying, without confusion or unpleasant surprises.
Avoid text on images:
Brand names, sales information or part numbers (MPNs) superimposed on the image can distract the buyer's attention from the product itself. A clear, clean image enhances product appeal.
Crafted product titles
Just like meta-title tags on web pages, product titles in the product flow play an essential role in SEO optimization. These titles are the first thing users see when they search on Google Shopping. It is therefore crucial to optimize them to improve their relevance and visibility in search results.
To optimize product titles in the feed, make sure to :
- Include relevant keywords: Use keywords that users are likely to search for when looking for your product.
- Highlight important features: Place crucial information at the beginning of the title so that users can see it quickly.
- Avoid unnecessary or confusing terms: Avoid including unnecessary words that could confuse the title or devalue the product.
Become a certified merchant
The Google Trusted Store program, also known as Google Customer Reviews, offers several benefits for online stores that pass Google's compliance test. Here's what makes this program so special and beneficial:
- Display Google Customer Reviews badge: The badge shows customers that your store is trustworthy and offers a high-quality shopping experience.
- Seller reviews: Customer reviews help attract more customers via Google, increasing your store's visibility in listings and search results.
- Customer confidence: The badge on your website reinforces the credibility of your store, building trust with potential customers.
Merchant Center with Shopify: Seamless integration
Using the Google & YouTube channel has many advantages for Shopify store owners who want to expand their online presence on Google and YouTube.
The Google & YouTube channel enables automatic synchronization of your products and relevant Shopify store information with the Google Merchant Center. This eliminates the need to manually manage your products on both platforms, saving you time and effort.
Merchant Center with WordPress and WooCommerce: Maximize your opportunities
The WooCommerce Google Product Feed extension makes it easy to create an automated product feed for Google, which is of great benefit to WooCommerce store owners. Here's why using this extension is an excellent option:
With the WooCommerce Google Product Feed extension, you can choose which fields to include in the feed, allowing you to provide all the necessary product information and variations in the right format for Google. You can also add additional data fields specific to your products and variations.
Merchant Center with Prestashop: Your success in just a few steps
The Google Merchant Center module for Prestashop offers a powerful solution for presenting your products on all Google Ads Shopping channels. This integration enables you to rapidly increase your visibility and attract thousands of new, highly qualified visitors to your store, both nationally and internationally.
With this module, you can easily create a step-by-step product data flow, giving you total control over the information provided. Throughout the configuration process, you'll benefit from links to precise, comprehensive documentation based on official Google regulations. You'll quickly obtain a clear product data file that you can export to Google Merchant Center and schedule for automatic update at the desired frequency.