Google recently made huge announcements that businesses can gain more exposure to their website through ‘Surfaces Across Google’ and it’s definitely a game changer.
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What is Surfaces Across Google?
In the context of this article, Surfaces Across Google includes what’s currently known as Google Shopping or a Product Feed.
Why is this a Game Changer?
In the recent past the only way to get your products shown in Google Shopping was through Google Ads which means effectively bidding in an advertising auction and paying per click.
What businesses are eligible?
E-Commerce and online retailers of products can benefit from this. You need to have a product to sell and not a service offering so if you’re an electrician or an accountant, you can’t sell your services through shopping. However, if you are an electrician or an accountant and you are selling a book about the subject matter, or you sell physical products then you can get found in this space.
HOW DO I GET MY PRODUCTS LISTED?
The current way is through Google Ads and this continues to be available if you wish to participate in the pay per click space. If you want to get your products in the new ‘free’ sections, there’s a couple of ways.
- A Product Feed & Google Merchant Centre – If you already have this set up for Google Ads, there’s a good chance that it’s already available in your merchant centre so jump in and check. If not you will need to get one established along with a product feed from your website. This would be the main way to get your products seen.
- Structured Data – You can add structured data to your products. Often there are plugins that can help with this or you can add it manually to your site if your webmaster or CMS permits. Naturally it’s not definite that just because you have structured data on a website that a search engine will display the data or show your product but it gives search engines much more reason why to want to result your website.
Little Aussie Thoughts: Product Feed & Google Merchant Centre is our current preferred way because not only are you telling Google directly within it’s own platform about your products, the merchant centre gives you feedback about which products are eligible or may need some extra work to be eligible for listing. Furthermore, just because your products are eligible, it does not mean you are guaranteed to show. Is your eCommerce SEO strategy up to date? This is when you should really be talking to your web marketing guru. If you don’t have one and the technical stuff goes over your head, reach out to us at Little Aussie.