How to Get Products on Google Shopping: Step-by-Step Guide

To get your products on Google Shopping, you need four things. First, a free Google Merchant Center account. Second, a verified and claimed website. Third, a product feed (a structured list of your products with prices, images and identifiers). Fourth, products that pass Google's review. Once your products are approved, they can appear in free listings on the Shopping tab straight away. If you want them in the paid Shopping ads at the top of search results, you link Merchant Center to Google Ads and run a Shopping or Performance Max campaign.

That is the short version. In practice, most of the work goes into getting the feed right and keeping your account in good standing. Shops rarely get stuck on the setup screens. They get stuck on disapproved products, price mismatches and account suspensions. This guide walks through every step in order and flags the common traps. It also explains honestly where it makes sense to do it yourself and where an agency earns its fee.

How Google Shopping actually works

Before you start, it helps to understand the moving parts. Google does not crawl your shop and invent listings for you. Instead, you send Google structured product data, and Google decides when to show each product based on how well your data matches what someone is searching for.

There are two separate tools involved:

• Google Merchant Center is where your product data lives. You upload your products, set shipping and returns, and see any errors Google finds.
• Google Ads is where you pay to promote those products. It reads your products from Merchant Center and turns them into Shopping ads.

Your products can appear in two kinds of placement:

• Free listings appear on the Shopping tab, in Google Images and on other Google surfaces. You pay nothing, but you have little control over when or where they show.
• Shopping ads are the sponsored product boxes with images and prices, usually at the top of search results. You pay per click, and you control budgets, bids and which products get pushed.

Both run on the same product data. That is why getting Merchant Center right is the foundation for everything else.

Step 1: Check your website is ready

This is the step most people skip, and it is the one that causes the most pain later. Google reviews your website as well as your products. If your site does not look like a trustworthy shop, your account can be suspended for "misrepresentation" before a single product goes live.

Before you open a Merchant Center account, make sure your site has:

• A secure checkout. Your site should run on HTTPS throughout, especially the basket and checkout.
• Clear contact details. Have at least one proper way to reach you, such as a phone number, email address or physical business address. Ideally show more than one. A contact form on its own is weaker.
• A visible returns and refund policy. Explain how returns work, the timescale and who pays for return postage.
• Delivery information. Say what delivery costs and roughly how long it takes.
• Terms and a privacy policy. These are standard pages, and leaving them out looks careless.
• Accurate prices in pounds, including VAT. For UK shoppers, the price you send to Google must match the price a customer pays on the product page. That includes VAT.
• Working product pages. Every product should have its own page that loads properly, shows the price, and lets someone buy without being forced to create an account first.

It sounds basic, but suspensions often come down to missing pieces like these. Fixing them before you apply is far easier than appealing afterwards.

Step 2: Create your Google Merchant Center account

Go to the Google Merchant Center website and sign in with the Google account you want to own the business account. Use a company account rather than a personal one if you can, and make sure more than one person in the business has admin access. Losing access because the only admin has left is more common than you would think.

During setup, Google will ask for:

1. Your business name. Use the trading name customers recognise, the same one shown on your website.
2. Your business address and country. Pick the United Kingdom if that is where you are based and selling.
3. Your website URL.
4. Customer service contact details. Make these match what is on your site.
5. Where customers can buy. For most shops, this means checkout on your own website.

Google has moved most new accounts onto a simplified version of Merchant Center, sometimes called Merchant Center Next. The screens may look a little different from older guides, but the principles are the same.

Step 3: Verify and claim your website

Google needs proof that you own the website you are listing products from. There are two parts. Verifying proves you control the site. Claiming links that site to your Merchant Center account, so nobody else can list products from it.

The common ways to verify are:

• Adding an HTML tag to your site's header
• Uploading an HTML file to your site
• Using an existing Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account on the same Google login
• Connecting through your ecommerce platform's Google app, which often handles verification for you

If you are on Shopify, the Google and YouTube app usually verifies and claims the site as part of setup. WooCommerce has Google's own plugin for the same job. Other platforms such as BigCommerce, Wix and Squarespace have their own integrations.

If verification fails, the usual causes are a caching plugin serving an old version of the page, the tag sitting in the wrong place, or your site having both www and non-www versions without one redirecting to the other.

Step 4: Set up delivery and returns

Google shows delivery costs and return information to shoppers, so it needs this information from you. You can set it at account level in Merchant Center, or send it product by product in your feed.

For most small shops, account-level settings are easiest. Create a delivery service for the UK and set:

• Your delivery cost (flat rate, free over a threshold, or based on weight or order value)
• Your handling time (how long before you dispatch)
• Your transit time (how long the courier takes)

Then add your return policy: the return window, whether returns are free, and how customers return items. Keep this consistent with the policy page on your website. If Merchant Center says free returns within 30 days and your site says 14 days with the customer paying postage, that is the kind of mismatch that gets flagged.

If you sell large or heavy items with very different delivery costs, you can use shipping labels in your feed to group products. You can then set different rates for each group.

Step 5: Add your products

This is the heart of it. There are several ways to get product data into Merchant Center, and the right one depends on your platform and how many products you sell.

Method	Best for	Watch out for
Platform app or plugin (Shopify, WooCommerce and similar)	Most small shops on a mainstream platform	Limited control over titles and attributes. Errors in your shop data carry straight across.
Automatic discovery from your website	Very simple shops with good product structured data	Only as good as your site's markup. Little control over what Google picks up.
Google Sheets	Small catalogues you manage by hand	Easy to forget to update prices and stock.
Scheduled file fetch (CSV, TSV or XML)	Larger catalogues or custom-built sites	The file must be updated and reachable at a fixed URL.
Content API	Big or fast-changing catalogues with developer support	Needs technical setup and ongoing maintenance.
Third-party feed management tool	Shops that want full control over feed optimisation	An extra subscription, and someone needs to know how to use it.

For most of the small businesses we speak to, the platform integration is the right starting point. It keeps prices and stock in sync automatically. You can then add a supplemental feed on top to improve titles or fill gaps without touching your shop.

The attributes your products need

Each product in your feed is described by attributes. Some are required, some are required only for certain product types, and some are optional but worth adding. The core ones are:

• ID: a unique code for each product, usually your SKU. Keep it stable. Changing IDs resets a product's history.
• Title: the product name as shoppers will see it.
• Description: an accurate description of the product.
• Link: the product page URL.
• Image link: the main product image.
• Availability: in stock, out of stock, pre-order or back order.
• Price: in GBP, including VAT for UK shoppers.
• Brand: required for most new products.
• GTIN: the barcode number, required where the manufacturer has assigned one.
• MPN: the manufacturer part number, used where there is no GTIN.
• Condition: new, used or refurbished.

If you sell clothing and accessories in the UK, you also need colour, size, age group and gender. If you sell variants, such as one shirt in five sizes, each variant should be its own item, linked by a shared item group ID.

GTINs cause more confusion than anything else. If you sell branded goods, you should send the real barcode. If you make your own products and have never registered barcodes, you can usually tell Google no identifier exists. We cover this in detail in our guide on whether you need a GTIN for Google Shopping.

Product images

Images get a lot of products disapproved. Google wants a clear image of the actual product being sold. Avoid:

• Watermarks, logos or promotional text over the image ("SALE", "Free delivery")
• Placeholder images or "image coming soon" graphics
• Images that are too small or blurry
• Borders or collages, unless you are selling a set

A plain or light background works best. Lifestyle shots can go in the additional image fields.

Step 6: Wait for review and fix what Google flags

Once your products are in, Google reviews them. Google says this usually takes a few working days, though it can be quicker. During this time, keep an eye on the diagnostics or "needs attention" area in Merchant Center. That is where Google tells you what is wrong.

Issues fall into three levels:

• Account issues: the serious ones, such as misrepresentation or website problems. These can stop every product from showing.
• Disapprovals: a specific product cannot show until it is fixed.
• Warnings: the product can still show, but its performance may suffer, or it may become a disapproval later.

The most common problems and how to fix them

Problem	Usual cause	Fix
Price mismatch	Feed price differs from the product page, often after a sale or because VAT was left off	Sync more often, include VAT, and check your structured data shows the same price
Availability mismatch	Feed says in stock but the page says sold out	Sync stock more often and turn on automatic item updates
Missing or invalid GTIN	Barcode left blank or entered incorrectly	Add the correct barcode, or mark no identifier where that is genuinely true
Image issues	Promotional overlays, watermarks or placeholders	Replace with clean product images
Landing page not working	Broken links, redirects to the homepage, or Google being blocked	Fix the URL, and check your robots settings allow Google's crawlers
Misrepresentation	Missing contact details, unclear returns, or claims Google cannot verify	Fix the trust signals on your site, then request a review

Misrepresentation deserves a special warning. Google is often vague about the exact reason. Each failed review request can also mean a longer wait before you can try again. Do not just click "request review" and hope. Go through your site properly first: contact details, policies, honest product claims, no hidden costs, and a business identity that matches across your site and Merchant Center. Only then ask for a review.

Step 7: Turn on free listings

Once products are approved, make sure free listings are switched on in Merchant Center. For most new accounts this happens by default. From then on, your products are eligible to appear on the Shopping tab and other Google surfaces at no cost.

Free listings are a sensible starting point. They let you check your feed is working without spending anything. Be realistic, though. You have no control over when they show, and competitive searches are usually dominated by paid ads. For most shops, free listings are a bonus, not a strategy.

Step 8: Link Google Ads and launch Shopping ads

To get products into the paid placements, link your Merchant Center account to a Google Ads account. You do this from the linked accounts section in Merchant Center, then accept the request inside Google Ads.

Before you spend a penny, set up conversion tracking. Without it, Google cannot see which clicks led to sales. Then you are guessing, and so are Google's automated bidding systems. At minimum, track purchases with the actual order value. Most platforms make this fairly straightforward through their Google integration, but it is worth testing a real order to be sure it records properly.

You then have two main campaign types to choose from:

	Standard Shopping	Performance Max
Where ads show	Shopping placements on Google Search and the Shopping tab	Shopping placements plus YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover and Maps
Control	High. You can add negative keywords, set product-level bids and see search terms clearly	Lower. Google automates most decisions
Needs	More hands-on management	Good conversion data and solid creative assets
Good fit for	Smaller budgets, tight margins, or when you want to learn what sells	Accounts with steady conversion history and a wider product range

There is no single right answer. Many small shops do well starting with Standard Shopping to learn which products and searches convert. They then test Performance Max once there is enough sales data for the automation to work with. Launching Performance Max with a small budget and little conversion history can mean spending money while Google is still learning.

Setting a starting budget

Set a daily budget you are comfortable losing while you learn. The first few weeks are about gathering data, not hitting targets. Do not change bids and budgets every day. Give a campaign time to collect enough clicks and sales before making judgements, then adjust based on what the numbers show.

Step 9: Optimise your feed (this is where results come from)

Getting products approved is the start, not the finish. With Shopping, there are no keywords to bid on in the usual sense. Google matches searches against your product data. A better feed means your products show for more relevant searches, and that usually means better clicks.

The changes that tend to matter most are:

• Titles. Put the words people actually search for near the front: brand, product type, and the key attributes such as size, material or colour. "Oak Dining Table 6 Seater 180cm" tells Google far more than "The Hampton". Our guide to optimising Google Shopping feed titles for search intent goes into this properly.
• Product type and Google product category. Accurate categories help Google understand what you sell, and they make campaigns easier to organise.
• Complete attributes. Fill in optional fields such as material, pattern and product highlights where they apply. More accurate detail gives Google more to match against.
• Custom labels. These are your own tags, for example "best seller", "high margin" or "seasonal". They let you split campaigns and bid harder on the products that make you money.
• Regular hygiene. Remove discontinued items, fix warnings before they become disapprovals, and keep prices and stock in sync.

If you are on Shopify, much of this can be done at source in your product listings.

Worked example: a small homeware shop getting started

To make this concrete, here is how a typical setup might go for a small UK shop selling around 150 homeware products on Shopify. This is an illustration, not a client story.

1. The owner checks the website first and finds there is no phone number or address, only a contact form. They add both, and tidy up the returns page so it states a clear return window and who pays postage.
2. They create a Merchant Center account under a shared business Google login and give admin access to two people.
3. They install the Google and YouTube app in Shopify, which verifies and claims the site and starts syncing products.
4. They set up UK delivery (free over a set order value, a flat rate below it) and a matching return policy in Merchant Center.
5. After a couple of days, the diagnostics show a batch of products disapproved for missing GTINs and some image warnings. The branded items get their barcodes added. The shop's own-made candles are marked as having no identifier. Three images with "NEW" stickers are replaced.
6. Products go live in free listings. The owner links Google Ads, sets up purchase conversion tracking and tests it with a real order.
7. They launch a Standard Shopping campaign with a modest daily budget. Custom labels split best sellers from the rest so they can be bid on separately.
8. After a few weeks, they review the search terms report. They add negative keywords for irrelevant searches and rewrite titles on the products getting impressions but few clicks.

Nothing here is complicated on its own. The challenge is the number of small things that can go wrong, and knowing which ones actually matter.

Do it yourself or use an agency?

Plenty of small shop owners set up Merchant Center themselves, and for a simple catalogue on a mainstream platform, that is perfectly reasonable. The steps above will get you there.

Where an agency tends to earn its fee is after setup. That means the ongoing management, troubleshooting and optimisation that turn approved products into profitable ones. Here is where we see the most value added:

Shopping sits inside Google Ads, so it often makes sense to manage it alongside your search campaigns rather than in isolation. That way, Shopping and text ads are not competing for the same clicks. If you already run search ads, our Google Ads management covers both together.

What to look for in a Google Shopping agency

• Fixed, transparent pricing. You should know exactly what you pay each month. Be wary of fees that grow as a percentage of your ad spend with no extra work behind them.
• No guarantees. Nobody can guarantee sales, positions or a return on ad spend. Anyone promising those is not being straight with you.
• You own the accounts. Your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts should be in your name, so you keep everything if you leave.
• Google Partner status. It is not everything, but it shows the agency meets Google's standards for managing accounts.
• Clear reporting. You should be able to see what is being spent and what it is bringing in, without needing a translator.

At DPOM, we are a Google Partner and have worked with small businesses for 15 years. Our Google Ads management starts from £145/month, and you can see what is included on our Google Ads pricing page. Every package includes DPOM Mission Control, our iPhone app, which gives you reports and live results on demand and puts your account manager in your pocket (Android is coming soon). If you are already running Shopping ads and want a second opinion, our free Google Ads audit is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Shopping free?

Listing your products is free through free listings. Shopping ads, the sponsored product placements, are paid per click through Google Ads.

How long does it take to get products on Google Shopping?

Setting up Merchant Center can be done in an afternoon if your site is ready. Google then reviews products, which it says usually takes a few working days. Fixing disapprovals or an account issue can add time.

Do I need a Google Ads account?

Not for free listings. You only need Google Ads if you want to run paid Shopping ads or Performance Max campaigns.

Can I sell on Google Shopping without barcodes?

Yes, if your products genuinely do not have a manufacturer-assigned GTIN, such as handmade or own-brand items. If a product does have a barcode, you should provide it.

Why are my products approved but not getting impressions?

Approval only means a product is eligible to show. Low impressions usually come down to weak titles, a missing or wrong category, a small budget, or uncompetitive prices. Feed optimisation and campaign structure are where to look first.

Should my prices include VAT?

Yes. For UK shoppers, the price in your feed should include VAT and match exactly what the customer sees on your product page.