Google announced it is expanding Merchant Center capabilities to all online retailers allowing them to directly provide up-to-date product information.
Product data feeds uploaded to Google Merchant Center are eligible to display in search results, which will be updated in real-time.
Giving all retailers access to this capability means there is no payment required and it’s not necessary to have a Google Ads campaign.
As long as you have a Merchant Center account and sell products in the US, you can upload a product data feed directly to Google.
Along with this update, Google is adding new ways to assist retailers who markup their products for search results with structured data.
Products Report in Search Console
Google Search Console has a new report for products marked up with the appropriate schema.org structured data.
The report notifies site owners of any errors detected in the structured data.
When an issue is resolved, the products report can be used to validate the fix and request that the pages get re-crawled.
This is one of the updates we reported was likely coming to Search Console in the near future. Now it’s live.
Lastly, Google announced an update to Manufacturer Center that can improve the way product information is displayed in knowledge panels.
Manufacturer Center Update
Another way online retailers can improve the visibility of their products in search results is with Google Manufacturer Center.
Retailers can now provide product information through Manufacturer Center, including product description, variants, images, and videos.
Information provided through Google Manufacturer Center will appear on the product’s knowledge panel.
