free product listings

Google opened free listings in April 2020, first on the Shopping tab and then in main Search, moving Shopping off a pay-only model. The same Merchant Center feed can now surface products organically on Search, the Shopping tab, Images, Lens, YouTube, Maps, and Gemini. Placement is unpaid, but it is not automatic.

What Google needs from your feed

Eligibility runs entirely on your feed data. New Merchant Center accounts are opted into free listings by default, yet permission is not placement. Google matches feed data to a shopper’s query, so weak titles, missing attributes, or broken shipping data quietly drop products from every surface. Attributes required for every product are id, title, description, link, image_link, price, and availability; apparel adds color, size, age group, and gender, and used or refurbished items must set condition. In supported countries you also configure shipping settings, and Google needs a return policy on your site to display return information.

Example: two stores sell the same shoe. The one whose title reads Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 41 Men's Running Shoe, Black, Size 10 earns more free impressions than one titled Pegasus 41, because Google has more text to match against.

The load-bearing line from Google’s own docs: the free-listings status “controls permission to show products for free across Google, but doesn’t guarantee that your products will be shown to customers.” Google relies on the data you provide to match products to searches. Feed quality, not the on/off toggle, is the real lever.