Do you own an online business? If yes, that’s awesome!
But just having an online business will not benefit you until people get to know about your business. If your business is not seen on search engine results, you are missing a large number of potential customers.
Business happens when customers find you, visit you, and then make their first purchase from you. If they are pleased with your products and services, they will come back and recommend others. This is how you grow your business. So the first step is to get noticed.
But how do you get found?
Google is the answer. Why?
More than 90% of searches are made on Google. And 81% of people search for a product or service on Google. Hence, getting in the search list of Google will highly benefit you.
Google Merchant Center Account can help to make a splash of your products on search engine results.
In this article, I will explain what Google Merchant Center is, its benefits, and how to set up a Google Merchant Center Account.
Let’s dive in…
What is Google Merchant Center?
Google Merchant Center is an office management software to upload, manage and optimize your product information to let aware users and search engines.
With Google Merchant Center, your products are seen on the Google Shopping Ads at the top of the SERPs.
The better part about the Google Merchant Center Account is, you need not research for keywords. It creates automatic Shopping Ads based on the details you filled in for products.
What is the cost of the Google Merchant Center Account?
It is absolutely Free!
Google makes billions of money out of the ads you buy to sell your products. It supports the ability to sell products, thus you buy more ads. This way you both make money.
Benefits of Google Merchant Center Account
Google Merchant Center Account has many benefits which make it a powerful tool for E-commerce marketers.
- It’s a Freebie
You need not pay a single penny to create a Google Merchant Center Account. So, even if you are running low with the budget, you can still utilize benefits from Google Merchant Center Account.
- Compete with Big Players
Even if you are a small retail business, Google Shopping allows you to compete with huge players in the market. The smallest retailers can add their products with giant E-commerce stores.
- Greater Reach
Your products will be noticed by millions of people on Google. They can buy your products from Google, your website, or physical stores.
- Optimize Product Data
With Google Merchant Center Account, you can upload the product data in bulk. You can include more detailed descriptions of the products in Google Sheets and upload via CSV or TXT file. The detailed description helps easy filtering and finding your products.
- Integrate with other Google Services
Google Merchant Center is a Google Service, so it allows integrating with other services like Google Ads. You can optimize your Shopping Campaigns and your marketing strategies get wide open.
How to Set Up a Google Merchant Center Account?
Before starting make sure
- You have at least one Google Account.
- You need to verify your business on Google My Business to sell products.
Now you are ready to get started with your Google Merchant Center Account.
Step 1: Initially you need to visit the Google Merchant Center Account page and click on Get Started.
Step 2: You will be asked to sign in for Google Merchant Center. You need to have a Google Account for this.
Step 3: Now, add your business information like business name, country, and time zone.
Step 4: Select the preference where you desire your customers to checkout.
Step 5: If you use Shopify or PayPal, select and it will prompt you to sign in to the respective tool. Complete the sign-in process.
Step 6: Select your Email Preference and agree to the terms and conditions of Google Merchant Account.
Step 7: Click Create Account and you are good to go!
Step 8: Connect your website to Google Merchant Account.
Step 9: Verify your website using any of the three ways.
Step 10: Then you will be prompted to claim your website and enter the verification code.
And, you are ready to roll. Now you can connect your Google Ads account and Google Analytics account to your Google Merchant Center Account.
How to Add Product to Google Merchant Center Account?
You can add a single product or multiple products at a time. If your business has a large number of products, it is better to upload products in bulk.
Upload Single Product to Google Merchant Account
- Click on Add Product
- Enter the product data
- Add other information like price, description, returns. At last click the Save button.
Upload Multiple Products to Google Merchant Account
- In the upload multiple product section, select See all Methods
- Select Country, Language, and Destination of the Product listings.
- Give a name to your feed and select the method by which you want to add product data to your Google Merchant Account.
Tips for Optimizing your Google Shopping Feed
Here, we have gathered some tips and tricks for digital marketers to optimize product feed on Google Merchant Center.
- Organize Product Data
You can definitely edit product data after upload but this doesn’t mean you should. It is a good practice to keep your product data clean and organized on a spreadsheet to avoid changes later on. Organizing before uploading reduces analysis afterward.
- Add Custom Columns
More specific your product is, the customer can understand it more clearly. Adding columns like color, size, age, gender, the material allows segmenting products precisely. Include these columns in your spreadsheet and give more information about your products to potential customers.
- Optimize Product Images
Visualization is necessary to grab more customers. High-quality images are a win-win for you. But you must not add large images that affect the loading speed. Also, small images get blurry. Thus, you must optimize your images.
- Happy Customers, More Happier Google
Impressing users will impress Google. For every click on your ads or products, Google earns. Hence, you just need to make users happy with your products and Google will automatically love you.
- Optimize Low Performing Area
You cannot expect to perform your Google Merchant Account well just by launching it. Every campaign needs optimization. Before that, you need to monitor, track and analyze it. Allow your campaign to run for a while and then monitor its performance. After then, focus on the areas that are performing low.
- Keep a watch on your Performance
Once you are all set with Google Merchant Account, it is time to keep an eye on your performance. The dashboard will show traffic, clicks, impressions, and click-through rate. Generate a report of clicks on your products and ads.
Over to you
Now you are aware of all the particulars of the Google Merchant Center Account, it is time to go for it. From setting up to managing and optimizing Google Shopping is easy for you now.
No matter how small you are, you are ready to sell your products and compete with the bigger E-commerce companies.
Author Bio: Gaurav Jain is Co-Founder of MageComp and Adobe Certified Expert-Magento Commerce Business Practitioner. Being a Computer Engineer and possessing Extensive Marketing skills he handles all kinds of customer Queries and his Happy & Helping Nature makes customer’s day Delightful. When he isn’t working, you’ll find Gaurav Reading on Books or Traveling. Also, he is Speaker at Magento Meetups.
