Are you wondering free (organic) product listings compare to paid product listings on Google Shopping? Google Shopping has existed for nearly a decade, but not for un-paid product listings.
The decision to add Google Shopping organic products comes after 8 years of google Shopping being exclusively paid search listings. Online store owners and marketers now have a big, new opportunity to take advantage of.
Because many physical stores have closed down temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, going digital has become a huge priority for retailers. And as buyers increasingly spend money online, their attention has started to go to Google Shopping.
So, are paid product listings better than free product listings on Google Shopping? It depends on your objectives. Paid product listings on Google Shopping are listed above free products listings which means they have more potential to bring in sales faster. Free product listings on Google Shopping take longer to bring in sales.
The free vs. paid product listing debate is similar to the SEO vs. PPC for online stores debate.
SEO (which brings in free traffic) usually leads to a higher ROI in long-term, but PPC (which brings in paid traffic) ads can make an online store profitable way faster.
Remember that Google still plans to increase their revenue by charging companies for promoted listings that show up at the top of search engine results pages for product based search queries.
How To Get Started With Google Merchant Center
To begin optimizing your product listings for Google Shopping, take a look at the Google Merchant Center. It allows online store owners to upload product information to Google so that the product listings will be seen on Google Shopping as organic product listings.
It also allows merchants to track key metrics for their organic product listings. You can also pay for promotions that will show up as suggestions that are relevant to searches made by users.
Click “Explore more options to grow” on the Google Merchant Center dashboard after you verify your website.
Then, follow the steps and upload your product feed.
As a rule of thumb, look out for updates. Remember, Google is doing this in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, so Google Ads guidelines can change.
Fortunately, new Merchant Center users who want to have product listings show up for free, users do not have to spend money on Google Ads.
Setting Up Your Product Feed For Google Merchant Center
A product feed is a spreadsheet or file that has structured data. The data includes all of the products you sell and the corresponding titles, descriptions, images, pricing, availability, and more.
Next, upload this product feed to the Google Merchant Center. The product feeds can be manually created in Google Sheets or Excel. However, Commerce platforms, like (Woocommerce and Shopify) have plugins that automate parts of product feed upload process.
Woocommerce Plug-ins Made For Google Merchant Center
The Google Product Feed plug-in makes it easy for users to create a feed that gives product information to Google Merchant Center in real-time. It is also a prerequisite for setting up Google Product Ads.
The Multichannel for WooCommerce: Google, Amazon & eBay Integration is similar to the previously mentioned plug-in, but it is also compatible with Amazon and Ebay.
Shopify Apps Made For Google Merchant Center
The Google Channel Shopify App makes it simple for users to get their organic or paid product listings viewed by a wide variety of shoppers that use Google Shopping to find products.
Google Merchant Center users can:
- List their product listings for free on Google Shopping as well main search engine results page
- Initiate paid Smart Shopping campaigns on Google Shopping, YouTube, Gmail, Google Display Network and the main search engine results page.
The Feed for Google Shopping Shopify App is similar to the previous app, but the main difference is that this app is compatible with Facebook, Microsoft, and Instagram.
The app currently supports more than 50K Accounts for Various Feeding and Campaign needs through its API in almost real-time sync.
Google Merchant Center Paypal Integration
Google Merchant Center users that also use PayPal can link their Paypal account to Google Merchant Center. This makes it easy for Google to acquire a merchant details and verify merchants quickly.
SEO Strategies for Free Product Listings on Google Shopping
We do not know for sure which SEO ranking factors will effect Google Shopping organic results. A decent rule of thumb for marketers would be to adhere to the best practices and guidelines utilized for paid listings.
It is more than probable that organic (free) Google Shopping product listings will perform way better with well-optimized on-page titles and descriptions. Also, accurate and detailed product information will help.
Google’s Merchant center still requires you to upload your product data to the platform and you will still have to follow the same processes. If you currently use structured data (Microdata, JSON-LD or RDFa), then you will have to make sure that the product’s data is entered correctly through your Merchant Center account.
See this Google guide on structured data for products for more information on this topic.
Google Shopping Paid Product Listing Optimization
Similar to your meta titles (page titles) in SEO, your product titles are are your top priority. Select an accurate product title that has your keyword near the beginning of the title. Make sure to avoid keyword stuffing. Add relevant information like gender, sizing, or brand.
Similar to optimizing the description on a product page on your online store, you will need to ensure that the information is accurate and relevant. Make sure to include your top keywords and remember that there is no such thing as too much information for a product. You should write descriptions that are as long as they NEED to be.
It’s critical to optimize the images of your product. The image of your product will be seen first when it comes up on Google Shopping so ensure that the photo is high quality and is very professional. Google also has rules for photos that include no additional text on the photos, no watermarks, and no logos.
You will then need to optimize the categories and types of the products. Remember the more information that Google has on a product, the better so make sure to categorize them as accurately as you can. Category (rather than types) are required for Shopping ads and optimizing product type is not required but can be viewed as an opportunity to increase the relevance of your products.
Google Shopping paid product listing optimization is very similar to regular SEO in multiple ways. If your website’s pages are optimized well and rank well in the organic section of the search engine results page, then Google Shopping paid product listing optimization should be pretty easy and relatively simple.
What Are the Benefits of Free and Paid Google Shopping Listings for Online Stores?
Increased exposure for eCommerce business owners is easily the most important benefit of Google Shopping product listing creation. The smart online shoppers who utilize Google Shopping to find the products that they need will see your products and then maybe check out your website and social media accounts.
Google Shopping ads (also called PLAs or Product Listing Ads) have higher conversion rates than most PPC ads, so it can be assumed that the organic results will be the same in terms of conversion rate.
In Q1 of 2018, a study showed that 60% of ad clicks were on Google Shopping ads rather than text ads. In 2019, nearly half of US internet shoppers claimed that they initiated their search for a product with Amazon and around 20% started with Google.
However, nearly 20% of the search market still includes a decent opportunity for marketers especially since it is underrated. Google’s newest organic Google Shopping channel offers a whole new revenue stream for many online store owners.
Shopping ads account for more than 75% of retail search ad spend. They end up generating a majority of the ad spend for Google Ads and they give retailers a decent conversion rate based off of a system that won’t drive them away from the search results results page.
Should I Not Spend Money Paid Google Shopping Listings Since Free Product Listings Exist Now?
The answer to this question is that it depends on your niche and your current ROI from paid Google Shopping listings.
Do not count on the free product listings being around forever because Google might want additional revenue in the future. Also, the pandemic was the reason that the free product listings were created (according to Google) so Google might remove them after the pandemic.
Final Words on Google Shopping Product Listings
Organic (free) Google Shopping product listings are a relatively new opportunity for online store owners and marketers. Every online store owner should give them a shot and use Google Analytics to see if organic (free) Google Shopping product listings generate any traffic for their online store and sales too.
Paid product listings on Google Shopping are listed above free products listings so it is not surprising that they bring in sales faster. Do not sleep on those either.
Contact us today to learn how we can bring in consistent results and boost your organic traffic. We will go over your online store and figure out the best route to success with SEO.