Google announced some big news - Google Shopping is now free. That means you can add your products for free to the Google Shopping tab in Google Search. Google said "Beginning next week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google."
If you already pay for your products to show in Google Shopping, Google said "you don't have to do anything to take advantage of the free listings." But "for new users of Merchant Center, we'll continue working to streamline the onboarding process over the coming weeks and months," Google added.
This will be live next week in the US and roll out to more regions later.
If you’re an existing user of Merchant Center and Shopping ads and you’ve already opted into the surfaces across Google program, you might already be eligible to show your products in these unpaid experiences, and no further steps are necessary to participate. To opt in, select “Growth” and then “Manage programs” in the left navigation menu and select the “surfaces across Google” program card. You can also add products to your product feed, to make even more products discoverable in these free listings.
For new users of Merchant Center who are interested in joining this program, it's open to you today and does not require Google Ads, but we're working to significantly streamline the onboarding process over the coming months. You can opt into surfaces across Google during the Merchant Center sign up process and start creating your product feed.
You can view your unpaid clicks in the new performance report for surfaces across Google in Merchant Center by selecting “Performance” and then “Dashboard” in the left navigation.
We had a hint that this was coming when Google launched free Google Popular Product Listings. We said then that Google was hinting at bringing back Froogle. So here it is.
Ginny Marvin has a deeper dive into this at Search Engine Land.
Forum discussion at Twitter and WebmasterWorld.
