Organic Shopping

With its Free Listings, Google has created a prominent placement opportunity for products – without any advertising budget. A free listing allows merchants to display their products across Google platforms such as Google Shopping, Search, Images, and Knowledge Panels at no cost, increasing visibility and traffic without paid advertising. These organic product displays, often visible as product grids, appear in the majority of commercial search queries.

The free listings program enables merchants to participate at no cost, allowing their products to be shown across Google Shopping, Search, Images, and even YouTube. To join the free listings program, merchants need to optimize their product feeds and follow a simple sign-up process.

Those who invest in data quality and presentation early on can secure cost-effective visibility and qualified visitors – and thus build a real advantage over less prepared competitors. Setting up a Google Merchant Center account is the essential first step to access free listings and take advantage of these opportunities.

What is Google Shopping?

Google Shopping, also known as Google Product Free Listings, offers retailers the opportunity to present their products in Google Search free of charge. Merchants can now list their products for free across Google platforms, making it easier to reach potential customers without paying for sponsored ads. Originally, only paid ads, also known as Product Listing Ads (PLA), were visible in the Shopping tab – users had to actively call them up. With the opening up of free listings, the reach and quality of product data increased. Today, free listings also appear directly in regular search results – alongside paid ads that are marked ‘Sponsored’ and are part of Google Ads. These free listings now also appear in google shopping results, providing visually rich product displays such as images, prices, and product details that enhance visibility and drive traffic to online stores. The introduction of free listings has attracted more merchants to Google Shopping, increasing product variety and consumer choice.

Where to Find Free Product Listings

Free product listings are now featured across a wide range of Google platforms, giving businesses multiple touchpoints to connect with potential customers. The most prominent location is the Google Shopping tab, where users can browse a dedicated shopping experience filled with both paid and free product listings. However, the reach of free product listings extends far beyond the shopping tab.

Your products can also appear directly in Google Search results, often integrated into product carousels or grids when users search for specific items. This means your listings can be seen by customers at the very moment they’re searching for products like yours, increasing the likelihood of engagement and purchase.

In addition, Google Images is a powerful channel for product discovery, displaying free product listings alongside visual search results. Google Maps is another valuable surface, especially for businesses with physical locations, as it helps customers find products available nearby. With the rise of visual search, Google Lens also enables users to discover products by simply snapping a photo, further expanding the reach of your product listings.

By ensuring your product data is optimized and up-to-date in Google Merchant Center, your free product listings can be displayed across these diverse Google surfaces. This multi-platform exposure helps maximize your organic visibility, drive more traffic, and connect with customers wherever they shop or search on Google.

Advantages of organic shopping for SEO

Organic shopping offers online shops numerous advantages. 

• The key benefits of free Google Shopping listings include increased reach, cost savings, and the opportunity to expand your customer base without additional advertising spend.
• Greater visibility and brand presence: Free product listings increase your reach in search results and strengthen your brand presence – especially among new target groups. These free listings appear in organic search results alongside paid ads, helping your products gain more exposure.
• Acquiring new customers: Additional placements allow you to reach users who might not have converted via traditional search hits or paid channels.
• More and better quality traffic: A click on a product usually indicates a concrete interest in purchasing – this ensures better traffic and higher conversion rates, which ultimately increases sales. These are unpaid clicks that do not incur advertising costs, making them highly valuable for your business.
• Higher click-through rates (CTR): Compared to paid ads, free listings often perform surprisingly well because they are visually appealing and not marked as advertising.
• Free testing environment: Organic shopping is ideal for testing product images or new offers – without the budgetary commitment of traditional campaigns.

Quelle: https://awisee.com/blog/ecommerce-market-in-germany/

German consumers shop online. Clothing is particularly popular, closely followed by food and beverages. When it comes to consumer electronics, only about half of all devices are currently sold online.

Quelle: https://www.advancedwebranking.com/free-seo-tools/google-serp-features

Google search results are now more than just ten blue links. Google frequently displays images. For product searches with purchase intent, direct product results (organic shopping) are already displayed in two-thirds of all cases on desktop computers, and even more frequently on mobile devices. Organic shopping results are crucial.

Our learnings from 5 years of organic shopping

Despite the great potential of organic shopping, many online shops fail to make their products visible. The reasons range from technical SEO shortcomings to strategic misjudgements. Here are our learnings from mistakes and how you can avoid them:

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Learning #1: Use organic shopping

Especially in smaller companies or in the B2B sector, the potential of free product ads is often underestimated.

Reasons include:

• Lack of experience with feed-based product marketing
• Uncertainty about the fact that organic shopping does not incur ongoing advertising costs
• Profitability problems with paid shopping ads lead to complete avoidance of the channel
• Manufacturers leave the topic to retailers – and are therefore not findable themselves

Here’s how it works:

• Set up a merchant center account: You can’t do anything without an account in Merchant Centre. It is important to activate the ‘Enable free listings’ option in the Growth > Manage product listings section. The first step to success.
• Provide high-quality product data feed: The product feed is equally important, because without it there is no product data. To optimize your visibility, the feed should be up to date, complete and structured – with as many attributes as possible, such as product name, price, description, availability, GTIN/EAN, etc. Make sure to provide strong product identifiers such as GTIN, MPN, and brand, as these help Google accurately display your products. The more information Google has, the better your product will be displayed. You can provide this via ‘Settings > Data Sources’.
• Tip: We recommend using a feed management tool such as Channable to ensure maximum control over the quality of the data.‍
• Use interfaces: Many shop systems (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware) offer integrated tools or plugins for feed creation – so even beginners can get started quickly.

Learning #2: All products should be included in the product data feed

A common mistake: Only selected products end up in the product data feed – often those with high margins, strong sales or high inventory levels. This practice originates from the paid sector, where advertising budgets are targeted at top sellers. But in organic shopping, budget is irrelevant: every click is free – and even products with low margins or low inventory can bring valuable traffic. To maximize visibility, ensure your feed includes detailed information for each product, covering all relevant attributes.

Typical causes:

• Historically grown focus on performance marketing
• Technical limitations in feed tools or ERP systems
• Fear of selling out products with low stock availability
• Lack of awareness of the separation between paid and free listings

How it works:

Targeted exclusion with excluded_destination: Use this attribute in the feed to specifically exclude products from paid campaigns (Shopping Ads) but still allow them for free listings. → Example: excluded_destination = Shopping_ads → Only organic display, no paid campaign. The attribute can be set directly in the main feed or added via a supplemental feed.

Structured data as an alternative or supplementary data source: Google can also receive product information without a feed via correctly maintained structured data (Schema.org: Product) on the website. Merchant Centre allows the website to be used as a source if the structured data is sufficiently complete. However, you should not replace the feed completely at this stage. → Best practice: Structured data and feed should be identical in content, and both should include strong product identifiers such as GTIN, MPN, and brand to ensure accurate product matching and optimal display. → Caution: Price or availability discrepancies between the feed and markup can lead to rejections.

Use the long tail: Products that are rarely advertised can generate additional traffic via free listings. Complete product coverage is therefore a clear advantage for any e-commerce company.

Learning #3: Proper tracking is key

Many retailers manually append UTM parameters to product URLs in the data feed to measure the performance of shopping ads. The problem: These tracking parameters then apply to all clicks on the product – including organic clicks from free listings. This means that sales from free listings are incorrectly attributed to the paid channel. Not only does this distort performance measurement, it can also influence the evaluation of campaign costs and return on ad spend (ROAS).

Here's how it works:

• No UTM parameters in the link attribute: The product URL in the feed (link) should not contain any manually set UTM parameters. Otherwise, it will lead to incorrect attributions in Google Analytics or other tracking systems.
• Enable automatic tagging in Merchant Centre: Google Merchant Centre has a setting for automatic tagging. When enabled, Google automatically attaches the appropriate tracking parameters – channel-dependent and correct. This allows, for example, a clear distinction to be made between free listings and shopping ads. → Setting path: Settings > Set up key events > Enable automatic tagging
• Ensure tracking consistency: The precise separation of paid and organic traffic helps with the correct evaluation of channel performance and strategic budget decisions, which can have a direct impact on sales.

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The product title is one of the most important ranking factors in organic shopping. It is the central element that determines which search queries the product will appear in – comparable to the title tag in organic search. A poorly worded or generic title will result in the item not appearing for relevant search queries or being severely disadvantaged in terms of visibility. Typical weaknesses:

• Titles that are too short or meaningless (‘white T-shirt’)
• No distinction between variants
• Keywords are missing or too far back
• Titles are tailored to website SEO, but not to Merchant Centre

How to do it:

• Formulate meaningful, clear titles: The title should immediately reveal what the product is about – without room for interpretation. Example: ‘Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 40 Men's Running Shoe – Black/Green – Size 43’.
• Integrate relevant keywords: Use actual user queries (e.g. from Google Search Console or common keyword tools) as a guide and incorporate them meaningfully into the title – without keyword stuffing.
• Integrate important attributes: Properties such as brand, model, gender, colour, size and material increase relevance and findability. This is a must, especially for fashion, furniture and technology.
• Arrange terms by priority: The most important part of the title should be at the beginning, as Google gives greater weight to the first part and usually cuts off the rest in the preview. The maximum length is 150 characters, with 70–100 characters being optimal.
• Adaptation to target markets: For different target regions (e.g. Germany, France, USA), you should formulate titles that are linguistically correct and culturally appropriate. This can be done on a country-specific basis in Merchant Centre.
• Separate optimisation for feed and website: The product title in the feed can – and should – differ from the page title on the website. While branding and UX are often the focus on the website, the feed is primarily about findability and relevance.

Learning #5: Optimising product images

Product images are the visual entry point for users – they play a decisive role in whether users click or scroll. High-quality images can also improve your product's visibility in image search on Google. Products compete directly with each other, especially in the visual environment of organic shopping results. Poor, blurry or non-compliant images not only lead to rejections in Merchant Center, but also to drastically lower click-through rates.

Typical weaknesses:

• Images too small or blurry
• Unclear product representation
• Non-compliant content (e.g. text overlays, watermarks)
• Only one image available, even though several are available

Here’s how:

• Provide at least one main image (image_link): Each product needs a clear, high-quality main image. Without an image, it cannot be displayed.
• Add additional images (additional_image_link): Use all available product views (e.g. rear view, detail shots, application) for better conversion optimisation.
• Use high image quality: Google recommends a resolution of at least 1,500 × 1,500 pixels (recommended: up to 2,000 × 2,000). Images must be clear and free of image noise.
• Show the product centrally, clearly and completely: Ideally, it should be isolated on a white or neutral background. The product must not be cropped or staged in such a way that details are missing.
• Observe compliance rules: Logos, advertising banners, discount texts, watermarks or frames are not permitted. Such images will be rejected or receive poorer placements.
• Image content = product: The image must accurately depict what is described in the feed – not a set if only a single item is being sold and no variations if only one version is available. Accurate images and product data also help your products appear in the shopping knowledge panel on Google, where information from multiple sellers is combined for better user experience.

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Learning #6: Segment performance data

Many retailers do not view the performance of their shopping feeds separately by channel. This often makes it unclear which products perform particularly well via free listings – and where unnecessary budget may be flowing into paid ads. Without clear segmentation, it is also difficult to assess how well the feed is optimised for organic shopping.

Here's how:

• Actively analyse channel separation: Use the filter functions in Google Merchant Centre and Google Analytics 4 (e.g. via the source/medium path) to distinguish between ‘Free Listings’ and ‘Shopping Ads’.
• Use Merchant Centre reports: The reports in Merchant Centre offer a separate column for ‘Free Listings’ that shows impressions, clicks and CTR.
• Prioritise feed optimisation based on data: Products with strong organic performance can be removed from paid campaigns – and vice versa.

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Successfully launch organic shopping: Set up your feed & think strategically

If you want to get started with free product listings on Google, there’s no way around Google Merchant Centre (GMC). It’s the central location where everything comes together: from feed management and display to performance evaluation. The start is crucial.

‍Setup overview:

• Set up Merchant Centre: After registering, you must provide basic business information such as company name, country, time zone and checkout options (e.g. via your own website or Google). If you have not already done so, your website should be linked to GMC and confirmed.
• It is also essential to comply with google's policies regarding prohibited content, practices, and site requirements to maintain eligibility for free listings.

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• Create a clean feed structure: Google requires a set of standardised product data for organic listings. Mandatory fields such as id, title, link, image_link, price and availability should be completed in full. If you want even more visibility, you can add optional fields such as brand, gtin/mpn, colour, size or additional images.

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• Additionally, ensure that your product landing pages are optimized and closely match the product data feed. This alignment improves user experience and increases visibility in both paid and organic search results.

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• Select data transfer: Depending on the technical equipment of your shop, there are various options available:
  
  • Google Sheets: for small shops with few products.
  • Scheduled Fetch: Google regularly retrieves a file from the server.
  • Upload via SFTP or Google Cloud: flexible and can be used manually or automatically.
  • Content API: ideal for daily updated stock or price data – but requires a little more technical setup.

• Supplemental Feeds: In addition to the main feed, Google Merchant Centre offers the option of importing additional data via so-called supplemental feeds. These feeds are not used for independent product creation, but rather supplement or overwrite existing information based on the product ID. Typical use cases:
  
  • Local inventory: Retailers with brick-and-mortar stores can use supplemental feeds to supplement local inventory – independently of the ERP system.
  • Fine-tuning visibility: Products can be specifically excluded from paid ads (e.g. with the excluded_destination attribute) but still listed for free listings.
  • Shipping information or labels: Shipping methods or labels that rarely need to be updated can be managed efficiently.

• Feed management: As soon as the product range grows or multiple systems such as shops, ERP or branch logistics are connected, simple feed solutions are often no longer sufficient. Professional feed management then becomes the key to working with Organic Shopping in a scalable and efficient manner. Typical areas of application for feed management tools:
  
  • Merging multiple data sources: e.g. shop system, PIM, merchandise management, repricing tools or branch data.
  • Optimisation of product titles and images: rule-based rewriting or targeted selection of relevant media.
  • Adjust shipping costs and rules: Dynamic price calculation based on region, weight or delivery method.
  • Flexible visibility control: Automatic exclusions for low stock levels or missing GTINs. ➡️ Feed tools such as Channable, Productsup or DataFeedWatch enable granular control and regular synchronisation, even if product data changes several times a day. For many larger online shops, the use of such tools has become indispensable.

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• Attribute rules – Automatic optimisations in Merchant Centre: Attribute rules allow feed content to be adjusted automatically without having to make changes directly to the feed itself. They used to be an integral part of Merchant Centre and can still be activated as an add-on in the new interface. What is possible with attribute rules?
  
  • Add missing values: e.g. brand or condition if they are not stored in the feed.
  • Combine attributes: for example, for complex titles (‘{brand} {product type} {size}’).
  • Calculations: e.g. shipping weight = item weight + packaging surcharge.
  • Pausing products: e.g. when stock levels are low. ➡️ Attribute rules help smaller teams in particular to provide consistent and more complete data without technical intervention – and thus significantly improve ranking opportunities.

Strategic optimisation in organic shopping: How to get more out of your product data

Once the basic feed infrastructure is in place, it’s time for fine-tuning: Strategic SEO optimisation determines how well products perform in organic shopping results. The goal is to maximise visibility for relevant search queries – and to target users with high purchase intent. Optimising your feed also increases the likelihood that your products will appear alongside similar products, making it easier for shoppers to compare options and discover your offerings.

Three key levers:

1. Data quality as a performance booster: The more consistent and complete the data feed, the more accurately Google can classify and display products. High-quality information on product type, attributes (e.g. colour, size, material), price and availability increase the chance of prominent placements. Particularly helpful: precise product categorisation according to Google’s taxonomy and continuous monitoring via Merchant Centre Insights.
2. Understanding search intent – and targeting it: Product data should not only be complete, but also formulated in a search-oriented manner. Titles and descriptions with keywords that users actually enter increase relevance for transactional search queries. At the same time, clear unique selling points (USPs) ensure differentiation in the grid. Example: ‘Organic cotton shirt for women – blue, Fairtrade, size M’ instead of ‘Shirt for women M’. Product reviews on the page are also very important.
3. Feed optimisation as an ongoing process: Top-performing products change. Google’s requirements are also evolving. Regular feed and SEO audits, A/B testing with images and titles, and targeted testing of new product types help to identify potential early on. Precisely because listings are free, it is also worth testing niche products or new variants.

Google Images and Product Visibility

Google Images has become a vital platform for product discovery, making it an essential part of your organic shopping strategy. When customers search for products on Google Images, free product listings can appear directly within the image results, showcasing your products with high quality images, prices, and key product details. This visual-first approach not only attracts attention but also drives qualified traffic to your product pages, as users are often looking for inspiration or ready to make a purchase.

To make the most of free listings in Google Images, it’s crucial to provide high quality images that accurately represent your products. Clear, detailed, and visually appealing images increase the chances of your listings being displayed and clicked. Alongside strong visuals, ensure your product data—such as titles, descriptions, and availability—is complete and optimized for relevant keywords. This combination of quality images and comprehensive product data helps your listings stand out in search results, making it easier for customers to find, compare, and purchase your products.

By focusing on image quality and data accuracy, you can boost your organic visibility in Google Images, attract more customers, and drive additional traffic to your online store—all without any advertising spend.

Google Maps and Local Search

For businesses with physical stores or local product offerings, Google Maps is a powerful platform for reaching customers through free product listings. When users search for products or services in their area, Google Maps can display your product listings alongside your store location, opening hours, and other essential business details. This integration helps customers find exactly what they’re looking for—whether it’s a specific product or a nearby store that carries it.

Accurate and up-to-date product information is key to maximizing your visibility in local search results. By keeping your business details, product availability, and inventory current in Google Merchant Center, you ensure that your listings are displayed to customers searching on Google Maps. This not only increases your chances of being discovered but also drives more foot traffic to your store and can lead to more sales.

Free product listings on Google Maps bridge the gap between online search and offline purchase, helping customers find your business and products when and where they need them. By leveraging this channel, you can attract more local customers, increase in-store visits, and grow your business through organic, cost-effective visibility.

Erfolgsmessung von Organic Shopping: Sichtbarkeit und Wirkung von Free Listings richtig analysieren

The optimisation of organic shopping does not end with feed creation – only through consistent monitoring can successes be proven, weaknesses identified and targeted adjustments made.

Several tools are available for this purpose:

1. Google Merchant Centre – the operational starting point: Here you can gain detailed insights into the performance of individual products: Clicks, impressions and potential errors in the feed can be tracked at the item level. Ideal for quick diagnosis and success monitoring.
2. Google Search Console – visibility in the organic grid: In the Search Console performance report, you can see how often your products appear in Google Search and which of them generate clicks. With the help of filters (e.g. ‘product’ as page type), free listings can be viewed in isolation.
3. Google Analytics 4 – Compare paid vs. organic: If GA4 is connected to Merchant Centre and correctly tagged, you can compare the performance of your free listings with paid shopping campaigns. This allows you to evaluate where paid listings are worthwhile – and where free listings are sufficient.
4. Strategic evaluation instead of just measurement: Pure numbers are not enough. It is important to derive measures from them:

• Which products generate many clicks organically but no conversions?
• Where are impressions lacking despite existing products?
• Which product categories benefit particularly strongly? The answers help to revise feeds, images or titles in a targeted manner – or to prioritise new products.

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Conclusion on organic shopping

The integration of free product listings via organic shopping is an effective addition to classic SEO and performance marketing measures. Especially for online shops with an existing product range and structured product data, this opens up a previously often underestimated potential: visible placements in Google search – without any media budget.

Smaller and medium-sized companies with limited advertising budgets in particular can benefit from additional, purchase-ready traffic and increase their sales. But even for larger shops with a wide range of products, the strategic integration of organic shopping is worthwhile, for example through dedicated feed management, targeted title optimisation or supplemental feeds for branch inventories. The effort involved is manageable – especially if a Google Merchant Centre is already being used for paid shopping. In many cases, optimisation can be carried out by a single person, ideally with a basic technical understanding and experience in SEO or product data maintenance.

For larger organisations, it is advisable to have a collaboration between the SEO team, data/feed specialist and, if necessary, performance marketing in order to leverage synergies from organic and paid channels. The functions of the GMC are essential in this regard.

Conclusion for decision-makers: Those who focus on optimising free product placements at an early stage will create a solid foundation for future-proof visibility – regardless of rising CPCs in the paid sector. Given the increasing integration of product elements into Google's organic search, organic shopping is no longer a nice-to-have, but an essential component of modern e-commerce strategies in today's market. Every e-commerce company should put this into practice, preferably with an experienced partner.

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Frequently asked questions about organic shopping

What is the difference between organic shopping and Google Shopping?

The main difference between organic shopping (free listings) and Google Shopping (paid ads) is the cost and labelling. Organic shopping is free. Retailers pay nothing for clicks or impressions. These listings are not labelled as advertising and appear in Google search results and in the Shopping tab. Visibility here depends heavily on data quality.

Google Shopping, on the other hand, consists of paid ads. Retailers bid on clicks and pay per click. These ads are clearly labelled as ‘Ad’ or ‘Sponsored’ and require a Google Ads account and an advertising budget.

Are there certain products or industries for which Organic Shopping is particularly well suited or less well suited?

Organic shopping is generally suitable for most products sold online. It works particularly well for visual products such as fashion, furniture or jewellery, where the product image plays a decisive role. Standardised products with GTINs (EANs), MPNs or ISBNs are also easier for Google to identify and assign. It is also ideal for high-demand or niche products, as the potential for free traffic is particularly high here. Organic Shopping is less suitable for pure services without a physical product or highly customised products that do not have standard attributes. A good content marketing strategy can be helpful here.

Is there an upper limit to the number of products I can display via Organic Shopping?

Theoretically, there is no fixed upper limit to the number of products you can display via Organic Shopping; your Google Merchant Centre account can manage millions of items. The practical limitation is more a question of the ability to continuously maintain and optimise a high-quality feed for a very large number of products. For very extensive product ranges, professional feed management tools and the Content API are essential for automation. Efficient management of the product menu is essential in order to keep an eye on the competition.