How to Display Your Products on Google for Free

I bet you didn’t know that one of the easiest tools you have out there to get your products seen in Google search results and across Google is not only easy to set up, it’s completely free to do so! Here are the exact steps you need to take to set up a free Google Merchant Center account and sync your Squarespace eCommerce site up to it.

Bonuses:

🚫 No confusing CSV files to format.
🚫 No manually adding products to Google one-by-one.
🚫 No need to update Google anytime you make a change to your shop’s inventory.
🆓 (Did I mention it’s free??)

What is Google Merchant Center & Where Do Products Display?

Google Merchant Center is the place where you’re basically telling Google what it is you sell and how you sell it. It’s where you can set up and manage free product listings that control how your products are displayed across Google’s various products, such as:

Google Search

Google Maps

YouTube

Google Shopping

Google Images

Create a Google Merchant Center Account & Connect It To Squarespace

Connecting your eCommerce site to Google Merchant Center is the way to go because it allows you to automatically sync all your products to Google versus having to add them one by one or worrying about formatting everything correctly. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to display your Squarespace products in Google Product Listings:

1. On your Squarespace site, go to the Commerce panel and then click on Google under Sales Channels.

2. At the bottom of the page click on “Sign Up With Google.” Assuming you don’t already have a Google Merchant Center account, you’ll be presented with a few prompts to help you create a new account. (Alternatively, you can also go directly to Google Merchant Center here and create your account first. The steps will be the same from here.)

3. Once you’ve create your Google Merchant Center Account, click Verify & Claim Website and copy the code provided for the HTML tag.

4. Back on Squarespace, click on the "Paste Google verification code into site header” button which will jump you to that section of Squarespace. (You can also get there by going to Settings > Advanced > Code Injection.) Paste the code provided by Google into the Header Code Injection area which is the top box on that page.

5. Click Save!

What happens next?

Now that you’ve connected your site and store to Google, all the physical products that you sell will be automatically synced and sent to Google Product Listings. If you’d like to check on the sync status, you can always head back to Commerce > Google right within Squarespace.

Squarespace + Google Merchant Center FAQs

• What do I need to sign up for Google Merchant Center?

  • A google-based email address (note: this does NOT mean you need a gmail.com address but just a business email address that’s through Google Workspace)

  • A business phone number that you can receive a phone or text on for verification purposes

• Why can't I connect my Squarespace site to Google Merchant Center?

  If you’re having issues creating a Google Merchant Center account or connecting it to Squarespace, make sure you meet the following requirements:

  • You sell physical products. Google Merchant Center doesn’t work for service-based products. (Note: you can sell both on your site, but only the physical products will sync.)

  • Make sure your site language is set to English (United States). (Sorry, this is the only one it works with for now!)

  • Make sure that you’ve already set up at least one shipping option in Squarespace.

• Hold up. Is this really free? Seems sus.

  LOL I understand the skepticism.

  Of course, Google would love it if you also decided to pay for Google Ads after you have all your products set up BUT, yes, displaying your products and store on Google is completely free.

  Think of it this way: adding your products to Google allows them to be seen in search results just like how your site shows up on Google BUT if you want to jump to the very top of that list you’ll need to pay for it.

• Should I set up Google Merchant Center if I have no plans of ever doing paid ads?

  Yes! Why wouldn’t you take every free opportunity out there to get your products on Google’s radar? You can set this all up and never mess with paid Google ads if you don’t want to. But the potential payoff here is pretty big considering the set up process is so simple!

• How do I know it worked?

  Once you’re all connected (meaning your site is claimed & verified by pasting the Google code on your Squarespace site), you can always check on the sync status for your physical products by going to Commerce > Google.

  If you want more information, you can also log in directly to Google Merchant Center.

• Can I sync only some products and not others?

  Nope. It’s all or nothing for all the physical products you sell. However, if you log in to your Google Merchant Center account you can see some more options for managing how your products are displayed.

• What if I change or update my products?

  Once your Squarespace site is set up and connected to Google Merchant Center, any product changes you make on Squarespace are automatically synced to Google meaning you never really need to do anything else. Magic! 🔮

If you’ve got 15 minutes, you can get your Squarespace products synced to Google!