What is Google Merchant Center?
Google Merchant Center (GMC) is a free tool. It houses all of your website’s product information (in a feed), and translates it so that Google’s other services can understand what you’re selling.
When setup correctly, the product information in GMC updates automatically, pulling through product’s latest availability, pricing, images, etc.
Who needs Google Merchant Center?
If you’re selling physical products, (even if you’re not running Google Ads), Google Merchant Center (GMC) is strongly advised as it will help your SEO. And better SEO = more free traffic to your site.
GMC is necessary for:
Google’s free/organic shopping listings
Google Ads, for running shopping ads (which are used in Shopping and Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns, YouTube video ads, display ads, and more).
Automatically pulling through up-to-date product to your Google Business Profile