Google Shopping Tab: Worth It Even For Small Businesses

Nov 13, 2024, 6:15 AM

Question - I do SEO for a small e-commerce website that sells bracelets. Is there value in participating in the Google Shopping Tab? Are there drawbacks?

Forwarded thread from another channel:

Dave Smart

Nov 13, 2024, 7:15 AM

> Is there value in participating in the Google Shopping Tab

Huge, it takes a lot of space in the serps beyond just the tabs, for example if I search "right angled steel bracket" here in the UK, after the paid shopping is this panel, all Merchant Center powered free listings:

Dave Smart

Nov 13, 2024, 7:16 AM

> Are there drawbacks?

Really just the time to implement it, and depending on the CMS the site might have, that could be pretty simple.

Maggie Castle

Nov 13, 2024, 8:19 AM

+1 to what Dave said. what ecommerce platform are you on? shopify and the likes have easy merchant center integration apps.

Eric Vallee

Nov 13, 2024, 8:31 AM

@dave297 @maggie.s.castle Thank you for your quick response. The customer is on WordPress with a SureCart plugin.

Maggie Castle

Nov 13, 2024, 8:40 AM

haven't used surecart before, and a cursory search did not surface any info on surecart and google merchant center integrations. worth an inquiry to surecart support though - this ought to be a common problem - maybe they just don't have good documentation on their site.

Dave Smart

Nov 13, 2024, 8:44 AM

Likewise, never used it. Hopefully they can point you in the right direction! As a fallback, you could do it via schema on the site: <https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing|https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing>

How To Add Merchant Listing Structured Data | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers

Discover how you can add merchant listing structured data to attract potential buyers while they are searching for items to purchase on Google.

Nov 13, 2024, 12:49 PM

Yes I would do it, is free (apart from time to set up and excluding product ads) and in the last year Google have been really investing in the GMC platform which hints that they are ramping something up, maybe to compete more with Amazon for ecom.

Either way, having an optimised feed is a worthwhile task IMO