{"id":23703,"date":"2025-09-01T15:49:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polarisagency.com\/marketing-insights\/google-organic-product-listings-a-marketers-guide\/"},"modified":"2024-11-15T06:38:18","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T06:38:18","slug":"google-organic-product-listings-a-marketers-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polarisagency.com\/us\/marketing-insights\/google-organic-product-listings-a-marketers-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Organic Product Listings \u2013 A Marketer\u2019s Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent Google algorithm changes have quickly and dramatically altered SERPs over the last year.<\/p>\n

Merkle data shows that organic product listings make up 45% of SERPS as of Q1 2023.<\/p>\n

But what exactly are organic product listings? As you might expect these are product-based search results that are not paid ads. These are the results that Google deem most relevant to a user\u2019s search intent when they\u2019re searching for certain products.<\/p>\n

In this article, produced by our content team within the content marketing agency<\/a> POLARIS, we\u2019re going to use the example of men\u2019s winter jackets to keep things seasonal \u2013 we hope you\u2019re warm as you read this in the winter cold snap!<\/p>\n

As you can see these are often displayed in a grid format in the middle of a SERP sandwiched between other organic search results, which lead directly to a merchant\u2019s website. They include expandable content , so you can click to see the jackets from different angles, rich data is included too from a range of retailers. User ratings and prices are also featured.<\/p>\n

Clicking them expands the listing to a side panel where you can navigate to specific retailers, read reviews in detail and review different colour jackets.<\/p>\n

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Why is Google Introducing These?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In Q1 of 2023 Google made more changes to the make-up of SERPS than ever in its history. This was implemented by algorithm updates which gave more prominence to organic product listings in the SERPs architecture.<\/p>\n

These changes are helpful for users at the top or bottom of the funnel. Whether a user knows the item they want, but not where to buy it from, when they are exploring their options and when they want to research to compare available prices and jacket materials, or colours for instance.<\/p>\n

Google is constantly refining its approach to serving the most relevant shopping results, therefore further changes and development as they learn more is inevitable.<\/p>\n

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Competing with the Web\u2019s Biggest Marketplaces<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Google has long been trying to compete with the likes of Amazon. The world\u2019s preeminent search engine wants to be far more than that. It wants searchers to come to Google first, rather than going directly to marketplaces when searching for a new product. Google aims to become a one-stop shop for shoppers.<\/p>\n

By serving rich organic product listings, users can browse Google in the same way you would window shop on a high street, without having to enter the store (website) to preview the goods they have on offer.<\/p>\n

Therefore, you can think of rich search results as a window display to your website, your job is to make your window dressing appealing enough to get consumers off the street (SERPs) and clicking into your website.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, social media sites like TikTok are becoming shopping destinations, hence Google\u2019s worries. You only have to look at Elon Musk\u2019s intention to turn X (formerly Twitter) into an \u2018everything app’<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is following the model seen in South East Asia<\/a>, where everything apps act as a one-stop shop for messaging, shopping, payments, takeaways and rides. Most of these apps begun as one service-based app, e.g. a ride hailing service, and later added new features like the ability to male payments with other providers. WeChat in China is probably the primary example of an everything or super app and is one of the main reasons behind Google\u2019s drive to use product listing ads to make Google the \u2019shop window\u2019 of the internet.<\/p>\n

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The Changing Face of SERPs Since 2022<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are now over 17 different SERP features, gone are the days of simple blue links with little context to what appears on the page, save, page titles and meta descriptions. Rich snippets and people also ask were two SERP features to also rise last year.<\/p>\n

Google confirmed that grid-style product results are organic in June last year. John Muller<\/a> leads Google Search Relations efforts as a Search advocate, he\u2019s very active on X (formerly Twitter), he said of organic product listing grids: \u201cThey’re organic results too. This is one of the reasons it’s good to dig into our ecommerce site guidance if you sell products.”<\/p>\n

The opportunities for retailers are huge and organic product listings, also known as product grids, are one of the best ways to get rich SERP positions.<\/p>\n

It appears that Google is attempting to take the pain out of shopping online. Google\u2019s overriding purpose for any algorithm change is to create a better search experience for the user \u2013 these changes appear to be no different.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, as a result of the rise of organic product listings, organic products only appeared above the fold 18% of the time, this was a 6% decline year-on-year. So, Google may be trying to give more prominence to ads, with this new feature gives some compensatory options to ecommerce marketers without huge budgets.<\/p>\n

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April 2023 Google Search Console Updates<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In March 2023 Google added monitoring updates to Google Search Console performance reporting.<\/p>\n

This differentiated between the two main types of organic product results, \u2018product snippets\u2019 and \u2018merchant listings\u2019.<\/p>\n