Online shopping was becoming the norm for most shoppers. COVID-19 accelerated the pace of that with 52% of shoppers avoiding retail stores and 36% plan to avoid retail stores until there’s a vaccine for COVID-19.
Ecommerce sales are going to increase exponentially over the next few years, and it’s up to you to adapt to the changing times.
About 33% of shoppers start shopping on Google, which means you need to be front and center to get these customers. Google recently rolled out a way to reach these shoppers through Google shopping categories.
Keep reading to learn what these categories are and how you can make sure your product is listed correctly in Google.
What Are Google Shopping Categories?
Google is a search engine that crawls the internet for information and indexes it according to the information you provide. When people search for information, the algorithm refers to the index to pull the most relevant information from the search.
Google shopping categories tell the search engine how to index your products. They’re important to get right because the product category gets matched up with relevant searches.
Someone searching for soccer balls doesn’t want to see baseballs or footballs. If you don’t categorize your product correctly, your products won’t appear in front of customers who are ready to buy.
Finding Your Correct Category
How can you ensure your product categories are correct? You can start by looking through Google’s product taxonomy, which lists every product category available.
You want to have a product category that’s too broad. If you do sell soccer balls, you could have a taxonomy of Sporting Goods > Athletics > Soccer.
That can be for anything related to soccer – shin guards, goalkeeper equipment, apparel, or goals. Your listing could appear in any of those searches.
Get specific by using Sporting Goods > Athletics > Soccer > Soccer Balls.
If you’re not sure about your product category, take a look, and get a second opinion.
Take Advantage of Google Shopping Listings
Google recognized that more businesses are struggling because of COVID-19 and the massive shift to online shopping. The company launched Google Shopping Listings, a free listing that appears in searches under the Shopping tab.
Google Ads still appear at the top of standard searches, but it’s still good news for businesses with a limited ad budget.
To set up your listing, create an account in the Google Merchant Center. You can then use the platform to create ads for approved products.
Adding Your Google Shopping Category
Some webmasters will use this structure to create product categories using the Schema.org structured data on a website.
Google shopping categories are used only on Google shopping listings and shopping ads, which you set up in the Merchant Center.
Get More Online Sales
How can you get your shopping listings in front of customers at the right time? Getting them on Google will do the trick.
You need to get your Google shopping categories right in your listing. You can then use Google Ads and Shopping Listings to showcase your products.
For more tips to market your business, head over to the Business section of this site.
