Have you ever wondered how the Shopping tab of Google search result pages (SERPs) works? If you’re selling products online, you should! Especially if you use WordPress and WooCommerce, as it’s really easy to connect your WooCommerce shop to Google’s shopping search results.
In this article, we’ll explore how and why to add your own WooCommerce products to Google Shopping by using a WordPress plugin. It’s a really simple process so let’s get started!
Why should you care about Google Shopping? According to Smart Insights, Google Shopping Ads now make up 76.4% of retail search ad spend. They also win 85.3% of clicks. This means that Google Shopping Ads (and product listings) have a very high potential of selling your products.
What Are WooCommerce Google Shopping Plugins?
WooCommerce Google Shopping plugins are WordPress plugins that let you connect your WooCommerce products to Google Shopping. That way, when someone searches for keywords relating to your products, they will see them on the Shopping tab.
If you’re new to Google Shopping, you can read about it here on Google’s website. Here are also some impressive stats about Google Shopping to get you motivated!
Google Shopping has particular attributes that your products must include in order to be displayed. These include, among other things, the product ID, the product title, an image, price and product description.
As you probably know from your own searches, the Google Shopping interface is very easy to use and understand, which helps drive sales. Prices and other features are prominently displayed and purchasing the product is a single click away.
Every merchant should want their products displayed in Google Shopping results!
There are many WooCommerce Google Shopping plugins available for WordPress, each with different features. Some will only link to Google Shopping, while others will link to multiple marketplaces such as Amazon or Zalando.
Most have a free version with a paid option available, although a few only have paid versions. A handful of free plugins allow you to add an unlimited number of products, but most have limitations.
The Benefits of Using a WooCommerce Google Shopping Plugin
Why bother using a WooCommerce Google Shopping plugin? Well, there are many reasons…
Better Visibility for Your Store
All visibility is good visibility. When you don’t list your products on Google Shopping or other marketplaces, the only place potential customers can see your products is directly on your site. This is not good.
The more places you list your products, the better. Google Shopping especially is an important channel, making up over 36% of product discovery searches. By using one of the plugins below, your products will have significantly more visibility in these searches.
More Qualified Leads and Better Conversion Rates
When users click on the Shopping tab in Google, they have essentially only one user intent, which is to purchase something.
This is different from the regular search results page where users may be looking for information, advice, or any number of other things.
For example, when someone searches for “hats”, they’re likely to want to purchase a hat rather than merely wanting to know how they are made. Learn more about qualified leads on Google Shopping.
This makes these users highly qualified leads and ideal for marketing to: according to a survey by Clutch, a research firm, 31% of users are likely to click on Shopping ads. That’s a really high percentage, especially considering that they are advertisements.
So, by listing your products on Google Shopping or using Google Shopping Ads, you can dramatically increase your conversion rate and avoid wasting your marketing budget.
Expand Your Audience Base
Some people like discovering products via YouTube. Others prefer Instagram. And still others prefer using large marketplace search engines like Amazon and Google.
By adding your products to Google Shopping, you’ll help expand your audience base to those individuals who discover new products via Google searches — which is a large audience indeed!
More Informative Than Text Ads
Visual ads are significantly more effective than text-only ones. People are visual animals and respond well to imagery, videos, and other exciting visual content. This is especially true if you sell a visually-oriented product, like shoes, clothing, art prints, or WordPress themes.
In the “normal” Google search results, only text is displayed. By adding your products to Google Shopping, you also get the opportunity to use images to advertise them.
Easier to Manage
While you can manually add your products to Google Shopping, this is a tedious and time-consuming process. If you’ve done it before, you know how slow it can be!
Plus, you’ll have to individually keep them up-to-date, which can be a real nuisance if you have a large inventory in your shop.
By using a WordPress plugin, you can both manage all of your Google Shopping listings on your WordPress site and automatically keep them current with new product details.
The 6 Best Plugins for Displaying WooCommerce Products in Google Shopping Results
1. ELEX WooCommerce Google Product Feed
Elex is a free plugin that lets you add your WooCommerce products directly to Google Shopping. The preview will display the product title, product image, price, availability, color, and other attributes.
The plugin allows you to generate a Google Shopping Feed file in numerous formats (XML, CSV, and TSV), which you can then use to connect it to your WooCommerce site. Using cron jobs, you can schedule how often the file will be updated with your new products. You can also save time by mapping WooCommerce product categories to Google categories.
Elex is a simple, free way to display your WooCommerce on Google Shopping and search results.
Key Features
- Display WooCommerce Products on Google Shopping Ads and search results
- Show product attributes like product name, size, color, and more
- Using tags, create filters that only display certain product types
- Unlimited feeds, feed templates, and filters
- Support for WPML, multiple countries and languages. Currently supports English, Russian, Spanish, German and French
- Support for multiple feed file formats (XML, CSV, and TSV)
- Update the product feed automatically
- Easily map WooCommerce product categories and attributes to Google’s categories
- Dashboard to manage everything
Costs
- Free version available
- Paid version is $69 for a single site, $99 for five sites, and $199 for 25 sites
Pros
- Free version
- Extensive customization options available
Cons
- Paid version is expensive for multiple sites
- Some features are covered by other, cheaper options
2. Product Feed PRO for WooCommerce
Product Feed PRO is a very powerful plugin that has over 50,000 active installations. It has dozens of features, but the main highlight is that it displays your products on multiple marketplaces, including Google Shopping (Merchant Center), Facebook Remarketing, Bing Ads, Billiger.de, Pricerunner, and Vergelijk.nl.
There are both free and paid versions. The paid version includes extra features like WPML support for translating your plugin into other languages, Facebook Pixel to connect your shop to Facebook, a currency switcher for international payments, and extra support from the developers.
View the full comparison on the developer’s website.
The plugin also has extensive filtering options, which allow you to include or exclude products based on numerous criteria. These include low on stock, low margin, on sale, and more. The filters can be also applied only to certain channels.
This is an awesome way to only display your absolute best products in Google Shopping results!
Product Feed PRO is one of the most popular plugins available for connecting WooCommerce to Google Shopping and it shows. Its rich feature set makes it an excellent choice for any WooCommerce shop.
Key Features
- Display your WooCommerce products on Google Shopping (Merchant Center), Facebook Remarketing, Bing Ads, Billiger.de, Pricerunner, and Vergelijk.nl
- Unlimited number of products
- Unlimited number of product feeds
- Category and field mapping to marketplaces
- Advanced filtering features to choose which products will be displayed
- Automatically change your WooCommerce attributes to work on Google Shopping
- Google Analytics support
- Set shipping zone and shipping cost
- Product variables support
- Facebook Pixel
- WPML support
- Field and attribute selection to choose which appear on the marketplace. Includes Custom Attributes, Dynamic Attributes, and Product Attributes
Costs
- Free version with many features
- Elite version starts at $110
Pros
- Free version available
- Access to multiple marketplaces, not only Google Shopping
- Extensive feature-set
Cons
- Elite version may be expensive for some users
3. WooCommerce Product Feed Manager
WooCommerce Product Feed is a freemium plugin that allows you to connect your WooCommerce shop to a wide variety of marketplaces – 168, in fact. These include Google Shopping, Zalando, Walmart, and Pinterest.
That makes it a really convenient solution for users that want to manage multiple marketplaces in a single app.
There is a free plugin available, but it is limited to 50 products and lacks certain features. The paid version allows for unlimited products and also comes with other features, including detailed product attributes and extra pre-built templates.
While the free version of the plugin is limited to 50 products, it still contains many useful features. As such, WooCommerce Product Feed Manager is a great choice for those with a small number of products and want to display them on over a hundred different marketplaces.
Key Features
- Display your products on over 168 merchant shops, including Google Shopping, Amazon, and Zalando
- Auto-sync with Google Shopping
- Category mapping to match your WooCommerce products to Google Shopping
- Extensive filtering options. Filter by categories, tags, or create custom filters from attributes
- Schedule how often the product feed will be automatically updated
- Supports Google Analytics
- Advanced custom fields
- Track products with the Facebook Pixel
- Generate a feed in XML, CSV, or Text file formats
Costs
- Free version with many features
- Paid version for a single site is $59.99/year
- Paid version for five sites is $149.99/year
Pros
- 168 merchant shop connections
- Free version includes many essential features
Cons
- Free plan is limited to 50 products
4. WooCommerce Product Feed Export
WooCommerce Product Feed Export allows you to quickly create export files that connect your WooCommerce shop to over 40 marketplaces, including Snapchat, Amazon, Etsy, Bing, and Google.
It has many features, including filtering, custom feeds, automatic syncing, and support for product variations. The company also offers a demo walkthrough for new customers, which is really helpful.
WooCommerce Product Feed Export is a good choice for users that need some assistance setting up. However, it is rather expensive compared to some competitors, so if you’re on a budget, you may want to look at other options.
Key Features
- Create product feeds of your WooCommerce shop for Amazon, Google, and 40+ other marketplaces
- Create feeds from individual products or from categories
- Create custom feeds
- Automatically sync the listings at specific times
- Support for product variations (colors, sizes, etc.)
- Extensive filtering options, including SKU, brand, category, keyword, and price
- Map WooCommerce product categories to local merchant categories automatically
Costs
- Free version available
- Paid plans start at $29/month or $239/year
Pros
- Well-designed and easy to use
- Company offers demonstration walkthroughs for new customers
- Support for 40+ marketplaces
Cons
- Significantly more expensive than other options
5. WooCommerce Google Feed Manager
With the plugin, you can connect your WooCommerce products to Google Shopping. You can easily create feeds, filter by category, select target country, and choose when to update the listings.
The free version only allows you to connect 100 products in XML format. The paid version, which costs $84, allows you to connect to dozens of other marketplaces like Amazon, Bing, and PriceGrabber.
WooCommerce Google Feed Manager is a simple plugin that has quite a few features, even in the free version. It’s a solid choice for those with small inventories that don’t need any complex customizations or filtering options.
Key Features
- Add up to 100 products to Google Shopping
- Export in XML
- Create feeds
- Filter by category
- Select target country
- Schedule the update time and frequency
Costs
- Basic free version
- Paid version is $84 (€69)
Pros
- Simple and easy to use, without many distractions or confusing setup options
- Extensive feature set
- Free version allows more products than some other free competitors
Cons
- Free plugin limited to 100 products, so it’s not ideal if you have a large inventory
- Free version only links to Google Shopping, not other marketplaces
6. YITH Google Product Feed for WooCommerce
YITH is an independent seller of WooCommerce plugins. One of their many plugins is Google Product Feed for WooCommerce, which allows you to add all of your WooCommerce products automatically to Google Shopping.
While there is no free version of the plugin, YITH does offer a live demo for you to explore. The plugin is easy to set up and use, with only a few clicks required. And since YITH specializes in WooCommerce, you can be sure that their support team is top-notch.
YITH is an excellent choice for those that want WooCommerce expertise at hand and don’t mind paying for it.
Key Features
- Connect your WooCommerce products to Google Shopping
- Unlimited feeds and products
- Choose which products to include by category or tag
- Create custom templates to choose which attributes will be included
- Support for custom fields
- WPML support
- Generate feeds as .xml and/or .txt files
- Easy installation and setup
- Integrations with other YITH plugins (not included in standard package)
Costs
- Single site: $97/year
- 6 sites: $292/year
- 30 sites: $606/year
Pros
- Company is specifically focused on WooCommerce, so it can provide expert support
- Feature set can do anything you’ll need
Cons
- No free version available
- Quite expensive, especially for multiple sites
Conclusion
Connecting your WooCommerce products is an easy, but often overlooked, aspect of eCommerce. By using one of the plugins above, you can increase your revenue, grow your audience, and expand your business. And who doesn’t want that?
How do you connect your WooCommerce store to Google Shopping? Did we miss any great plugins? Tell us in the comments!
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