When browsing Google on a desktop computer, free listings don’t differ too much compared to sponsored ads. Google uses several different methods of displaying free listings depending on the product category.
Eligibility For Free Google Shopping Listings
To become eligible to list your products for free in Google Shopping tab, you must follow Google’s policies and have structured data markup implemented across the product pages on your website.
Free tip! You can use Google’s Rich Result Test to check if you have structured data and identify areas that need improvement or find any errors in your schema.
How To Optimise Organic Google Shopping Listings
If you are running your own SEO campaign for your eCommerce store or have an external SEO agency on board helping you, you will have an SEO strategy in place, so the optimisations that you will need to implement on your product pages will be similar to what you are currently doing. If your current SEO strategy already optimises product pages be updating the H1, product title, descriptions and image attributes. Making sure that the product schema markup is correctly implemented on your eCommerce website, will not only help with your positions in the normal search results but also in the Google Shopping Listings.
Below we will talk about the specific aspects of your product pages that should be optimised to improve the free listings on Google Shopping:
Remember you will need to identify target keywords for each of your products by completing keyword research and then incorporating your chosen keyword in your product title. Do this naturally and do not stuff your content full of your keywords, Google aims to serve users with the best experience possible, so bear that in mind and make sure your content reads well. If you can’t get your keyword in the page naturally, it’s probably not the right keyword for that page!
1. Product Descriptions
Also, include your target keyword in your product descriptions. Your descriptions should ideally be around 300 words but keep it concise, a good reflection of your product and it is engaging to read.
2. Product Details / Specifications
It may seem obvious to optimise product details, but it is so important to include information on things like material, fit, colour, size and anything else you feel is a unique selling point (USP) or key details about your product. Including more details about your products can help you be found for longer tail keywords/phrases and/or more specific searches and increase the number of impressions you receive for your products.
3. Product Identifier (GTIN, MPN etc.)
Google aims to give potential customers the best and most relevant information. They have their own ways of categorising product information. How a product identifies itself both on and off-line is an important part of this so make sure you provide a unique identifier (Google prefers GTIN) for all of your products.
4. Product Images
Product images are so important, especially if your eCommerce store focuses on more visual products or items of clothing. It’s important that you include a variety of flat images and model or lifestyle shots of your product on your product pages, make sure that you use high quality images, that they are sized appropriately sized and optimised for page speed.
5. Product Categories
Make sure you pick the most relevant product category or type for your products, for example: ‘women’s outerwear’ or ‘men’s t-shirts’. This will help Google serve your products to the correct people searching, which in turn will increase the number of impressions your product gets in Google.
6. Stock Availability
The availability of your product is a big factor in whether or not Google will show your products to people searching. Your product availability should be listed in the schema markup of your product page and within your product feeds.
7. Product Schema
Use Product Schema and use Google’s Rich Results Test to ensure there are no errors with your schema setup. You can indicate when you have sales or offers on your products and list review ratings. Warnings may be shown in your results if you have not used some of the ‘optional’ fields within your schema data, you don’t need to worry about this if you can’t or don’t want to provide this data.
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