All about Google Merchant Center

Ask Me Anything Q&A Google Shopping and Product Ranking
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My store sells natural gemstone jewelry and spiritual decor. Since these are unique/handcrafted items, I use the ‘identifier_exists=false’ (Custom Product) attribute instead of GTINs. How does Google’s algorithm rank products without GTINs in Free Listings compared to those with them? What other attributes should I heavily optimize to compensate for the lack of a GTIN and still win top organic spots?"

When optimizing product titles strictly for organic Free Listings in the jewelry and natural stone niche, what hierarchy works best for Google’s semantic understanding? (e.g., [Stone] + [Material] + [Product Type] vs. [Benefit] + [Stone] + [Product Type]). Does placing the primary keyword at the very beginning significantly impact organic impression share?

I know clean white backgrounds are standard, but for lifestyle niches like spiritual crystals and jewelry, does Google’s Vision AI penalize lifestyle main images in organic Free Listings? Can a high-CTR lifestyle image outrank a standard white-background image organically?

Beyond the mandatory attributes (Category, Age, Gender), what are the top 2-3 optional GMC attributes that most merchants ignore, but actually provide a massive boost to organic visibility in Free Listings for apparel/jewelry?

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Hello Lifepath, thank you for great question and welcome to the Shopify AMA. I’m your host Emmanuel from FeedArmy.

If other merchants sell the same exact product, and they do have barcodes, then they will have a higher ranking compared to you. However if the products are not the same, meaning they can not have the same barcodes, then there is no difference in ranking, for this specific topic.

What other attributes, simply, all of them if applicable, the more you add the better.

Here is a video I made about a case study demonstrating the results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqFCRer5K4Y

Here is a list of attributes you should focus on: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en

What to include, focus on material, brand (if applicable), gem type, style, size, occasion, product type.

The order, depends on how consumers search, have a look at your google search console how and what your users are searching for, then order it based on what they are searching for.

Yes placing the most important keywords at the front is key to getting more ranking.

While yes, Google favors solid white backgrounds. However now with Google Merchant Center product studio, they are suggesting to add backgrounds to products.

Do a test, with products sets. Some with backgrounds some without and see how and which are performing better. Compare 3 weeks with the change, against 3 weeks without the change.

Most merchants ignore all attributes. Because it’s a lot of work. There are no top attributes, but the least impactful is the description. For the rest, add them all, don’t skip any attribute. Check the list I shared above.