Merchant Center is Google's free tool for putting your products on Google. Create an account, add your business details and checkout type, then import products by syncing your store or uploading a feed. Every product needs an id, title, description, link, image link, availability and price before free listings can show it.
| Attribute | Rule |
|---|---|
| id | Unique per product, up to 50 characters. Your SKU works well. |
| title | Up to 150 characters. Name the product, plus colour or size for variants. |
| description | Up to 5,000 characters. Match the text on your product page. |
| link | Starts with http or https, on your verified domain. |
| image_link | Starts with http or https. No watermarks, borders or promotional text. |
| availability | in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder or backorder |
| price | Number plus ISO 4217 currency code, such as 15.00 USD. Not zero. |
Updated
Fill in one product the way it would appear in your feed. The checker flags the rules from Google's specification that a browser can test: lengths, link format, allowed availability values and price format. It cannot see whether Google will approve the product, and nothing you type leaves your device.
Filled with a made-up example product. Replace it with your own.
id: MUG-BLUE-12 (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
title: Hand-glazed stoneware mug, blue, 12 oz (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
description: A 12 oz stoneware mug, glazed by hand and fired twice. Dishwasher safe. (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
link: https://example.com/shop/mug-blue-12 (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
image_link: https://example.com/images/mug-blue-12.jpg (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
availability: in_stock (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
price: 24.00 USD (Passes the checks a browser can run.)
All seven required fields pass.
Tab-separated row
MUG-BLUE-12 Hand-glazed stoneware mug, blue, 12 oz A 12 oz stoneware mug, glazed by hand and fired twice. Dishwasher safe. https://example.com/shop/mug-blue-12 https://example.com/images/mug-blue-12.jpg in_stock 24.00 USDA tab-separated text file with a heading row is the simplest feed you can upload. The heading names are the attribute names.
Separate columns with a tab character, not spaces. Save the file as UTF-8.
id title description link image_link availability price brand condition
MUG-BLUE-12 Hand-glazed stoneware mug, blue, 12 oz A 12 oz stoneware mug, glazed by hand. https://example.com/shop/mug-blue-12 https://example.com/images/mug-blue-12.jpg in_stock 24.00 USD Example Pottery newGoogle's setup flow asks for your business details first, such as the store name. Next it asks where you sell: online, in physical stores, or both. Then you choose how products arrive, either synced from your online store or added by upload.
If your shop runs on a platform such as Shopify, the setup can link it so the catalogue stays in step automatically. Otherwise a spreadsheet or text feed, like the example on this page, does the same job.
Products go through review, and Merchant Center lists any item it cannot show along with the reason. Fix the data at the source, on your site or in your feed file, rather than only in Merchant Center, or the next sync will bring the problem back.
No. Google describes Merchant Center as a free tool, and free listings let products appear at no cost on Search, Maps, YouTube, the Shopping tab, Images and Lens. Paid Shopping ads are a separate, optional choice.
They are unpaid product placements that Google builds from your Merchant Center data. Which placements are open depends on your country.
Google's specification sets a minimum of 500 by 500 pixels, with enforcement starting January 31, 2027. Accepted formats include JPEG, WebP, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF.
For online products, yes: the link attribute must point to the product page on a domain you have verified. Local products sold in a physical store have their own options in Merchant Center.
The price attribute is read as a number followed by a three-letter ISO 4217 code, so 15.00 USD is valid while $15 is not.
Related: Get your business on Google, Google Search Console guide, Shopify pricing, On-page SEO checklist, Social media image sizes.
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