Integrate Reviews with Google Shopping Product Listing

Google Requires

Google has strict guidelines regarding integrating reviews into Google Shopping. The requirements are:

You must keep your reviews updated monthly and share all reviews with Google；
Your product ratings feed must have at least 50 reviews;
Your comments must not contain copyright infringement, offensive or spam content (must comply with Google's content policies);
All reviews must be synced (including reviews with low ratings);
Reviews should be high quality text and images (text content is required);
The reviewer’s identity information (including personal information such as full name, email address, phone number, etc.) shall not be publicly displayed.

As required by Google, you will approve the ratings feed to include all pending and hidden reviews, and add a public reply to address any negative feedback.

Note: Google manually reviews your submissions and may decline integration in its sole discretion. You can read Google's full policy here.

What is Google Shopping

Google Shopping allows merchants to sell their products directly in a way that is more desirable than standard search or display web advertising. Users can browse products from multiple brands at the same time without switching back and forth in the search results.

When you search Google for sneakers, Google may generate some ad-based search results in the form of Search Network Ads, such as:

However, if the merchant uses Google Shopping, when the user also searches for the product, the results are as follows:

Advantages of Google Shopping

Highly attractive and highly interactive advertising format

Shopping ads grab the attention of shoppers by showing them relevant information and images of the products they're looking for.

High order rate traffic

Before consumers click on the ad, they notice some important product information, such as price, picture and retailer's name.

Easy management

There is no need to manually create ads and keywords. When consumers search, Google will automatically choose to display the most relevant products.

Better visibility

When the search demand arises, the shopping advertisement can be displayed together with the text search advertisement, and the advertiser can double the brand exposure effect at no extra cost.

Google Shopping Operation Process

1.Get Google Product Reviews Approval;

2.Submit product information data feed to Google;

3.Set up Google Shopping to generate XML;

4.Wait for Google to crawl and display ratings and reviews;

1.Fill in the Product Rating Interest Form

Step 1: Sign in to your Google Merchant Center account or sign up for one;

In case you don't have an account, create one here

Step 2: Fill out Google's Product Rating Interest Form (Rating Interest Form);

Step 3: Select "No" in "Are you working with an approved third-party review aggregator?", answer other questions that arise, and finally submit the form;

Step 4: . Upon receiving product ratings feed integration form, Google will notify you about your request via email. In case of an affirmative response, the Product reviews section in Google Merchant Center will be available for you to set up.

The status will automatically change from inactive to live

In the event of a negative/no response/unchanged status, you can either reapply the form or contact the Google support team to learn about the obstruction.

2.Submit Product Information Data Feed to Google

1. Create the main feed, which is the main data source for the product catalog you want to submit (you can manually add products or upload the feed).

Manually add items

Upload feed

2.Feed (required attributes: ID (product ID) and region ID; optional attributes: price, promotional price, promotional price validity period, inventory status);

3.Multiple feeds can be created, but there must be only one main feed, and the others are feeds that supplement data for it. Google recommends uploading all product catalogs to one main feed

4.Upload the feed and wait for Google's review and approval (Google takes about 10 working days to approve the submitted product). Products that are successfully approved will appear in the "Active Items".

3.Set up Google Shopping (commodity identification, product prefix)

Once approved, you can upload product ratings and reviews to your Google Merchant Center, and review settings are available within the app.

Step 1: Step 1: Find settings > Integration > Google Shopping;

Step 2: Product Identification

Find the GTIN or MPN identifier you want to fill in for your product in your Google Product Feed. It is important to ensure that the information in the app matches the product identifiers reported by the Google Merchant Feed.

Common unique product identifiers include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs), and brand names. Not all products have unique product identifiers; about unique product identifiers.
Provide correct product identifiers (GTIN, MPN, and brand) whenever possible. Do not make up, guess or include values for similar items. If you provide an incorrect identifier, your item may be disapproved by Google. (The GTIN or MPN provided must be officially recognized and approved by Google)

Without a GTIN, Google may pass other information such as

SKU,
Brand + MPN pairs,
and product URLs.

These identifiers do not provide as good matches as GTINs:

GTIN

Don't include；Include from "Barcode"；Include from "SKU"。

MPN

Don't include；Include from "Barcode"；Include from "SKU"；Include from "product ID"。

Product Prefix

Add a product prefix within the app (Product Prefix), the Product Prefix may vary depending on which country you are selling to with Google Shopping

item_ID format: shopify_{country code}_{product_ID}_{Variant_ID}

The item_ID is prefixed with shopify_US, and the MPN is taken from the product's SKU

Step 2: Generate XML

After the content is filled in, an XML file link will be generated, which can be directly filled in when adding manually.

Go to Marketing > Product reviews. Click on “Product reviews feeds”；
Click the plus button on the “Product reviews feeds” page；
Name your feed and choose “Scheduled fetch" upload method；
Select your fetch frequency/date/time as you want.

Paste the copied XML file link into the "File URL" box.

Now, copy the feed file link and perform these actions to paste it appropriately

Go to your Merchant Center account and then navigate to the Marketing tab

Choose the second option Product reviews

Click on the Product reviews feeds in the upper-right hand to open the Feeds page

Tap on the plus (+) icon and complete two easy steps:

Step 1: Give your feed a name and tap on the radio button given for the Schedule fetch > Click on Continue

Step 2: Enter details like File name, Fetch frequency, Fetch time, and Time zone and then paste the copied URL in the File URL field > Click on Create feed to finish the process

Note: It takes around 2 to 4 weeks for your reviews to go live. If nothing happens after this period, please contact the Google support team to discuss what went wrong.

4.Wait for Google to crawl and display ratings and comments

It may take up to several weeks for Google to process the new ratings feed and display ratings and reviews. please wait patiently

In case of any confusion, please get clarity from our chat support team.

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