Google Merchant Center for WooCommerce: Show Products on Google for Free

On this page

1. What free listings are
2. Step 1: Prepare your store
3. Step 2: Create a Merchant Center account
4. Step 3: Connect a product feed
5. Step 4: Set shipping and returns in Merchant Center
6. Common reasons products get disapproved
7. Product structured data helps too
8. Optimise listings
9. Next: Shopping ads

Google can show your products with images and prices in the Shopping tab and other Google surfaces, and basic listings are free. To appear, you need a Google Merchant Center account and a product feed from your WooCommerce store.

What free listings are

Free product listings can appear in Google's Shopping tab, Images and other places without paying for ads. Paid Shopping ads get more prominent placements, but free listings are a great start for any store.

Step 1: Prepare your store

• Accurate prices and stock status on product pages
• Clear shipping and return policies; see returns and refunds
• Contact information visible on the site
• Secure checkout (HTTPS)
• Good product images without watermarks or promotional text over them

Step 2: Create a Merchant Center account

Add your business information and verify and claim your website, which is easiest through Search Console or Google tag verification.

Step 3: Connect a product feed

Google's official WooCommerce extension (Google for WooCommerce) can sync your products automatically. Other feed plugins also generate product feeds with more control over fields.

Important feed fields include title, description, link, image, price, availability, brand and, where applicable, GTIN (barcode) or MPN.

Step 4: Set shipping and returns in Merchant Center

Configure shipping costs and delivery times to match your website. Mismatches cause disapprovals.

Common reasons products get disapproved

• Price or availability on the site doesn't match the feed
• Missing shipping information
• Missing or incorrect identifiers
• Images with overlays or low quality
• Restricted products or policy violations

Check the Diagnostics section in Merchant Center and fix issues regularly.

Product structured data helps too

Product schema on your pages (price, availability, reviews) helps Google understand and verify your products; see schema markup explained.

Optimise listings

• Descriptive titles: brand, product type, key attributes like size or material
• Detailed, accurate descriptions
• Multiple quality images
• Product reviews

Next: Shopping ads

Once your feed is clean, the same Merchant Center feed powers Google Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. See SEO vs Google Ads.

For organic rankings, see the WooCommerce SEO guide.