How to appear on Google Shopping for free

At the beginning of this year, Google released a move that made all of us, eCommerce managers, jealous. According to what was published on one of its official blogs, Google Shopping was open to all users (initially in the United States) for free. 

This sounds great, but the subject has, of course, certain nuances that are important to know. .

If something characterizes the search engine, it is that it takes maximum care of Google Ads, which is its monetization tool par excellence. The idea of an organic Google Shopping is great, but it cannot do excessive damage to paid ads and they know it perfectly. 

About all that, we are going to talk about  how to appear in Shopping for free, who can access it and where we appear.

Here we have two versions. 

The official one, comes to say that it is a policy of assistance to electronic commerce in the face of all the uncertainty and the challenges that the health crisis of the coronavirus has posed for eCommerce. This would be in line with other actions, such as SEM loans for companies.  Well, it could make sense. 

The other explanation is less philanthropic and more strategic. it is clear that Amazon is becoming a serious problem for Google's dominant position in a type of search that is critical to the business.

If users use Amazon to find products instead of their search engine, they lose market share and advertisers may consider moving their investment to the marketplace. 

The closest thing to the Amazon model is Google Shopping and, therefore, it seems strategically logical to open the organic results. 

It is not. Obviously they cannot offer the same to those customers who pay as to users who do not. 

Google Shopping ads will continue to appear on the SERPs or on the left side in the desktop version. In addition, like Amazon sponsored products, they will be placed on a line above the organic results in the "Shopping" tab of the search engine. 

So where do the free links appear? Well, precisely in the Shopping tab  we have just told you about. You know that, in addition to the default option in which all types of content are displayed, you can choose to filter by images, maps, or videos and of course, also products for sale. 

By clicking on the corresponding link, we access something very similar to the category of any eCommerce. Different filters, a grid with the products organized in columns and, obviously, a search engine. 

As we are already clear about what it is and how it works, let's go to the practical part this. The first thing you will need is a Google Merchant Center account, which is basically the platform used to register our products. 

The process is not too complicated, but you have to follow some important steps, such as creating the feed with your products. Do not worry if this sounds a bit weird: we have a complete guide to uploading your products to Google Shopping that you can follow from scratch and it will make it very easy for you. 

The only difference from using Merchant Center to create Google Ads campaigns is in one aspect of the platform. Just, go to the program manager and check that you have the option "Google platforms" activated. If it is so, you already have everything you need to start selling for free in Shopping.