Looking to get your small business’s products to appear in Google’s AI overview or products page? Then this week’s episode of the S.O.B. (small owned business) Marketing podcast, is a MUST LISTEN.
This week, Vivian and I are sharing everything we know about Google Merchant Center, what it is, how it works, and how it can help your small business get in front of potential customers.
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Chapters:
0:00 Welcome to the SOB Marketing Podcast
01:10 Exploring Google Merchant Center
14:50 Setting Up Your Merchant Center
18:00 Integrating AI with Google Merchant Center
27:20 Compliance and Best Practices for Google Merchant Center
34:00 Real-Life Experiences and Lessons Learned
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*Vivian & Chelsea gasp*
*Intro*
Chelsea: Hey everyone and welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing podcast. Where we celebrate to S.O.B. you are, and if you haven't figured it out yet - we mean Small Owned Business, we don't mean S.O.B...
Vivian: Listen, we know that as a small business owner you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you, if we're being honest with each other I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything.
Chelsea: Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is to give you the real talk, what works when it comes to advertising, marketing, and promoting your business. And then what doesn't really work.
Vivian: And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real.
*Beginning of Episode*
Chelsea: Okay, Vivian, today we are discussing our overlords once again.
Vivian: Well Chelsea, you're going to have to be a little more specific because we have quite a few overlords. Which ones are we talking about?
Chelsea: Isn't that the truth. Today we are once again talking about Google.
Vivian: Yeah, we have been on this Google kick for sure lately.
Chelsea: Well Google's been kicking it recently.
Vivian: I mean you ain't lying.
Chelsea: They want to remind all of us that they are very much still relevant.
Vivian: I'm super excited to be talking about this particular topic today because we actually had an SOB community member that specifically requested this topic. This conversation.
Chelsea: Yeah, today we are talking about Google's Merchant Center. So it is a free tool that they offer for businesses and it relates to your products.
Vivian: Yep, so if you hear us say GMC, that stands for Google Merchant Center. The way we're going to structure this conversation is first we're going to talk about just kind of like what it is, what you could do within the Google Merchant Center, and then also some of the things that we picked up on from their descriptor video that we think are important. Then, also just kind of talking about whether it's worth your time or not, because you know, we certainly don't want to be recommending everything under the sun to you.
Chelsea: Absolutely. Everything that we recommend we actually wholeheartedly want you to do. It's for good reason we're bringing this up. We're not going to waste your time.
Vivian: To grow your business, right? At the end of the day, whatever we recommend marketing wise, we want you to spend your efforts to actually, you know, into something that's going to grow and make you more sales.
Chelsea: Recently guys I've been trying to be less spicy and be nice and kind. So I don't have a hot take. But Vivian I think has a hot take.
Vivian: I do have a hot take. However, I do want to say can we please poll the people in your life to see if you've actually been less spicy lately or not?
Chelsea: Well, I don't think that's necessary.
Vivian: Because I don't get the feeling that the poll would not reflect your true efforts.
Chelsea: I mean, let's poll you right now. Have I been less spicy?
Vivian: No, you've been more spicy.
Chelsea: Oh my god. You know what? What does Vivian know?
Vivian: I mean, everything.
Chelsea: True big sister fashion.
Vivian: That's right. so my hot take for this particular episode is going to be, why do these platforms make it so dang hard for business owners to make more sales? Okay. It's centered around, it touches on what we're going to be discussing today because: TikTok shop. I don't know how many of you are actually doing TikTok shop. If you've tried it, it seems very bulky, very cumbersome. You have to upload all the product information. Listen, I understand that that's how you appropriately track product and your sales and the SKU numbers and all of that. However, it takes a lot of time, right? I just wish that these platforms would find a way to make it a little easier for people to upload their product details so that way they can make more sales.
Chelsea: I'm actually going to defend these platforms. I know, I can't believe it. Here's the thing. I don't know tech wise if we're to a point where they know how to like do that. You know, 'cause the problem is you need to input all this information so that the algorithms can figure out what your product is. That's the problem. It's that they need all the information for it to run smoothly. Now the problem is that's cumbersome because now you have to manually put in all that information. There are probably ways that you can, what's the word I'm looking for?
Vivian: Like mass upload.
Chelsea: I'm thinking when you when you connect something to your shop-
Vivian: Integrate.
Chelsea: Integrate. There are probably integrations that they could do, but that also takes a lot as well. I just think the back end is not there yet. But it's still cumbersome. It's still annoying. I get it.
Vivian: Yeah. Okay, so you are correct. They need it. What are they going to do? They can't sell something on their platform that they don't know about. Right? So they need to have all the details.
Chelsea: Look at me, defending businesses too. Well no, not businesses, platforms.
Vivian: Well let's go ahead and start just talking about Google Merchant Center. If somebody has never heard of Google Merchant Center, Chelsea, explain it to them, what is it?
Chelsea: Okay, so Google Merchant Center is a free tool. It's kind of like a database or a space where you can input all of your product information. The way that it works is it's going to connect to your Google business profile, it's going to connect to your Google profile, it's going to connect to your Google ads if you decide to run some product ads and stuff like that. It's the place where you put all of your products.
Vivian: Yeah, so this is interesting because if you have not subscribed to our podcast yet, what are you doing? But you may know if you are subscribed, the last couple of episodes that we've done, we actually went through and we were discussing Google and what Google has come out and said about the advice they want us to follow and the advice they don't want us to follow in regards to how to get our business in that AI overview at the top of Google search results nowadays. Now, this kind of leans into that because remember in all of that, we were talking about how Google's using this AI overview thing and it's pulling a lot of the information from your website. From your online store and stuff. This is another touch point for it to have. If you are uploading your product information into GMC, Google Merchant Center, you're giving it all of the product description and information that it needs to be able to better answer somebody in that overview. Especially, and I do want to make one key distinction here. I'm sorry if you offer a service. This is specifically for products. If you're wondering why, it's because it basically is what Chelsea said, which was a product hub. Where it has all of the details in there. They can't do that for services. So if you're a service based business, we still want you to know how this works though, because there may be something down the road that they roll out specifically for service based businesses.
Chelsea: A lot of service based businesses still have products as well.
Vivian: Yes. Okay, good point. I like that. The one thing we're also going to point you to is if you want any more detailed information, if you want to go check this out on your own, the website you're going to go to is www.merchants.google.com. Okay. So if after this discussion you're like, hey, this is something I should be doing, head over there and then start your whole process of signing up your account. It's relatively easy to get your account, and we do have a couple things that we're going to recommend when you are setting it up, a little nuances that you want to look out for. But let's talk about the explainer video and things that stood out in this video. Explainer videos, you guys know they're very short and simple.
Chelsea: Very short and simple.
Vivian: They do tell you a lot about, certain things to look out for and it's almost like what they say and what they don't say is super important in these short overviews.
The first thing is we did notice that they are specifically talking about how Google aims to show people the most comprehensive search results for products both online and in store. If you don't sell products online, but you sell products in store, you have a retail storefront, this is perfect for you.
Chelsea: Yeah, Vivian, and they do a great job of making it clear that whether you sell online or in store, no matter what, they're going to push people to make a purchase. So if you sell online, they'll send them, they'll send the consumer to your online store. Or if you only sell in store, they'll show them your product and then they'll send you to Google Maps or just your website to get more information about you, so then they can go make a purchase.
Vivian: Yeah. What we're going to recommend here is because they specifically did point out, hey, we'll send them to your physical location, your Google business profile is really important. Be sure that your hours are up to date, that you have your website loaded, that you have all of that information on there. Because if they're telling you, hey, by the way, if there's a product match and if our whole goal is to be sure that we're recommending the right product to someone who's searching for it. You want to be sure that all of your details are correct. That way they're not pointing someone to your storefront on a day that you're closed or something like that.
The other thing that stood out is yes, they told us it was free, but they're like, it's free to show your products on Google and to reach new customers, which the new customers part is really important because what does that kind of make you think. If you're going to show my stuff to new customers, how are you going to do that? Typically through...
Chelsea: Ads?
Vivian: Yeah. Then the other part they said that really stood out was when, you're ready, you can then buy ads and increase traffic to your website or to your store. So basically what they're saying is we have this free tool okay that you can use that's backed by Google and it is going to help serve your ads even better. So if it has this information, this data about your products, it just means that when you go to run a Google ad campaign, it's going to be able to better match your ads to people who are actually looking for that specific product.
Chelsea: That at the core of it, I think I need everyone to remember the more information you give a platform, the better. Even if you decide that you're not going to do Google ads, if you provide thorough, detailed information about your products, it could be that your product is the best fit.
Google does not, they don't, I mean they would prefer if you were running ads. But at the end of the day, they don't care if you're running ads or not. They care if your product is the best product for the consumer. Absolutely. That's what they care about. Even if you're not going to purchase ads, Google ads, you still need to fill out as much information as you can when it comes to GMC.
Vivian: Yeah, so let me give you two other reasons if you're not sold on it and you're like, "Chels, I ain't looking to spend money on no ad campaigns on Google. Honestly, it seems like a lot of effort just to be sure that Google's matching me to someone that wants to buy my product". It also tells you that within GMC, it allows you to manage the product inventory across Google. So what they're saying is let this be your hub and then maintain your inventory correctly on GMC. So then everything else that Google ever does gets populated correctly. The other thing is it does also say that you get personalized reports and insight. The other thing is for product performance and trends and for your competitors. Shocking.
Chelsea: Oh my god, they're going to give you information about your competitors?
Vivian: Yeah, competitor benchmarks. So I think what they're saying is, hey, because we have the data available, we're able to show you how you're stacking up against other people that are selling the same thing.
Chelsea: Okay, Vivian, I think we've convinced everybody. They're willing to give it a shot. They're going to sh set up their merchant center. Where do we start? How do you set up your merchant center?
Vivian: Yeah, well there were a couple of things that you do want to know before you start sending up. The first thing is a lot of times when it asks you when you go in there, you set up your account, it's going to ask you for your business name. They made it a point, and they probably come across this a lot, where people will actually put their LLC name. They tell you, they want you to do use whatever business name it is that you're doing business as. So if people know you by a different type of brand name. If you have an LLC but it varies from what sure you know you show up as, be sure you use the one that people are most going to know you by.
Chelsea: Yes, so if we set up a GMC it would be under The Seasoned Marketer and not like the Mojica sisters or something like that. That's definitely what our LLC is.
Vivian: Right. I mean the fake LLC for sure. But they did just want to bring that up, like hey, it doesn't have to be the legal name of it.
Chelsea: Yes, that's a great point. Distinction.
*S.O.B. Community Ad*
Vivian: This episode of the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is brought to you by the S.O.B. Community. If you are a small business owner that is neglecting your marketing and you feel like you've wasted time and money on marketing help that didn't deliver. Or if you're just craving support from people who actually get what it's like to run and promote a small business, then our membership community is for you. Visit skool.com/sob to sign up today to get instant access and weekly support. That's S-K-O-O-L dot com slash sob.
*End of S.O.B. Community Ad*
Chelsea: You can also, once you've hashed out your name, you can sync your selling platforms. So, if you're using WooCommerce, if you're using Shopify, all of these online commerce platforms, you can sync it with your Google Merchant Center so that the Merchant Center holds all of the information and you can update everything there specifically. Wherever else you're selling, like Shopify or maybe even YouTube, you don't have to go in and manually change any of that on the other platforms. You only have to do it once in Merchant Center.
Vivian: Yeah, we love anything that makes your life easier and integration is key. What the Google Merchant Center promises is that as long as you keep the inventory current on their merchant center and you've synced up the other stuff, then you're not having to duplicate it or to go in and manually do it. You do it once here and as long as it's integrated with all your other stuff, you push it out. Be sure that you're following the prompts that Google Merchant Center has for you to be able to integrate WooCommerce, Shopify, all that stuff. The other thing is they did want to make a note. They recommend that people turn on the smart automations. For two reasons. Number one, it helps with your images. If you upload a product photo and it's got any kind of text or anything on there, it'll clean it up for you. It's like, hey, we'll do our job and make sure that that product photo looks great. Then the other thing is it has to do with shipping updates and stuff. They just want to be sure that like everything is going to match correctly. So turning on that smart automations toggle is going to help tremendously when it comes to those two things. So those are just three things that they recommend you do. Obviously the prompts will help.
Chelsea: Yes. The prompts will help. Just walk through the process. Again, I'm going to link the website that Vivian mentioned earlier. I can't remember it off the top of my head. But everything will be in the show notes for you guys.
Vivian, let's talk about AI. Yay.
Vivian: Again. Google and AI. I feel like we've been on this mountain for like...
Chelsea: I feel like all we talk about at this point is Google and AI. But you know what? We're doing it because it's relevant.
Vivian: Yeah, can we take a little segue here? Let's go down a little dirt road. Chelsea and I almost got in a fight earlier before we started recording over AI. You guys, I think she was about to deck me. It was not cute.
Chelsea: I'm not violent.
Vivian: No, my little sister wants to beat me up every chance she gets, and it was over AI. AI breaking up families.
Chelsea: It really is. It's breaking up families. I would never hit Vivian.
Vivian: I mean, kick me maybe.
Chelsea: I didn't say that. I plead the fifth.
Vivian: All right.
Chelsea: Let's talk about AI. Here's the thing. We spent two episodes talking about Google's recommendations for their AI search. We have more recommendations from Google about showing up in their AI search specifically when it comes to GMC. So that's what we're going to talk about. Vivian, before we get started can I just say: sum up everything all the best practices that we're going to go through. I think we have three. I can sum them up right now.
Vivian: Do it.
Chelsea: Give Google information. Give them detailed information. That's what they want. They want as much information as possible.
Vivian: Do you guys remember a couple episodes ago, I was ragging on Chelsea because she did not read the introduction paragraphs to any of these blogs or articles. She just skims and she admitted that she just skims, okay?
Chelsea: I skimp until I find the information I'm looking for.
Vivian: It's funny that now she is doing an introduction paragraph of one sentence and it's literally "Give Google information".
Chelsea: No. What I'm doing is for all the people who also skim, I'm saying here's the one sentence you need to hear, which is give them information.
Vivian: Alright, so that's the umbrella. Yes. The umbrella is give Google information. There were three things specifically they recommend that you give them information on. The first one is going to be, let's just start with the titles. They're like, don't be cheeky. This is not the part for you to show off your, you're so clever. Your cool names, your originality and creativity. No no no. No, give them legit descriptive titles on the products. That's it. That's all they want.
Chelsea: Absolutely. So great example, Vivian. Well, not a real life example. I'm making this up on the spot. Do you know how like shoe companies will have names for their shoes? Like the Chelsea boot and stuff like that. Okay, don't put the Chelsea boot. That's not helpful. Say knee high, laced, black, high heeled boots. Describe the product in the title. Don't just say Chelsea boots.
Vivian: Yeah, I mean I was going to say something mean, but-
Chelsea: No, go ahead.
Vivian: Maybe the Chelsea boot has Army Swiss knife in it. Like it comes out when you go to kick someone.
Chelsea: Like one of those spy boots? Like you kick it and the knife comes out. Okay, yeah. I think a Chelsea boot is an actual type of boot and I think it's nowhere close to what we're saying right now.
Vivian: No, I think it's a low cut bootie. Yeah. It's a low cut bootie. No, but to your point, they just want you to give it actual descriptive names of what the product is or what it looks like so that way it can match it. The clever names that you put in there is not going to help it any. It's just going to confuse the system or it's just not going to, it's going to have nothing to pull on.
Chelsea: It's not helpful. I don't think it would necessarily hurt.
Vivian: Well it's just means it's not going to consider you.
Chelsea: It's not going to consider it.
Vivian: So this other one is specific to AI shopping assistance. So Google basically says, hey, listen, people are actually bypassing websites. Chelsea has mentioned this before when it comes to zero click searches. Because people are less likely to click on a website and instead just stick to whatever is said in that descriptor or whatever AI shopping agent recommends. Like, "hey, find me a black boot with a Swiss Army knife that ejects from the boot". Because they're not going to go through every single one of the websites to look for this, but they're going to go straight to wherever the AI assistant recommends they start. They're saying if you don't fill out your profile, if you don't fill out the product details, we're just going to recommend a competitor.
Chelsea: Yeah, this is so important because if you're not giving Google enough information, there's someone else who's giving them the right amount of information.
Vivian: That's right.
Chelsea: So you need to give them all the details. Like you said, this goes for the entire profile too. Don't skip parts of the profile and not fill it out. Fill out everything. Give as much information as you can.
Vivian: Also, can I say, you don't have to go full blown. If you want to see how cumbersome this is going to be to start off with, I would start with uploading maybe one product. See what details they're asking you for, see how quick and easy it is for you to do this. The other part of it is, you may have all of this detailed out in a spreadsheet or if you're connecting it to Shopify, it likely can pull all of that data over from Shopify.
I don't want to discourage you into thinking that you have to upload all of your products in one sitting. Go in there, upload one product, see what it's like, and then make a determination for yourself to say, hey, I think this is actually going to be super beneficial because I'll be able to appear in way more search results.
Chelsea: This is something you should keep track of. All your products and then descriptions for it and all that stuff. Again, merchant center is a great place to hold all this information. If you don't want to do that, just having like a spreadsheet is very important.
Vivian: Yeah. For a lot of you out there, if that's just not how you roll, I think part of being a good business owner is really maybe seventy percent being organized in the stuff we do. It's not super helpful, but it is in the sense that I think it gives you a really good- also if it's telling you we can help you with reporting and stuff, what this likely looks like is "by the way, this is your most popular product. Also, you don't really sell any of this". I think it's just good business to be able to look at that stuff. The only way you can make those decisions about products you want to keep and products you want to do away with or products where that you have more opportunity to maybe tweak to something that people would buy more of is to actually have a pulse on all this stuff. So if anything this could help you in that area because it's a hub, a nice little hub for you to be able to do all that.
Chelsea: There is one more thing that Google does recommend. They want you to place product identifiers if you have them. Specifically Google has global trade item numbers. So a GTIN. If you have those, include it in your product descriptions. Or wherever they ask you to include it in the merchant center. But again, this is one of those things where you're just giving them as much information as you can.
Vivian: Absolutely. All right. So the other thing that we can't possibly have this discussion without talking about. The big thing I noticed in every single Reddit, blog, forum, everything. When people are talking about Google Merchant Center, compliance is huge.
Chelsea: I think real quick, sorry Vivian. I think compliance is becoming a big deal across the board with Google. I mean they're cracking down with their reviews. They literally came out and said-
Vivian: If you were like, "what the heck is she talking about with reviews", go listen to our episode.
Chelsea: Listen to the episode, okay. You need to hear this. They are getting serious about Google reviews, how you ask for them, all of that good stuff. I mean, they literally came out and said these are the things that you shouldn't be doing when it comes to being seen in our AI overview. Like they are being very clear about what they want from their users.
Vivian: Which I do appreciate that they are spelling it out for us. It makes it a little harder, I think, or different. It's just different than what we were used to doing before. But kind of like you said, it was the wild, wild west of advice on what to do with Google. I think they're just coming back and they're reining everything in.
Chelsea: I do still think it is kind of the wild west, but I think that's going to slowly change.
Vivian: Yeah. So one of the reasons if you're wondering, well, why is compliance so important? Google actually got fined not too long ago with just a lot of stuff. I think it was the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission or something. But so now they're doing what they need to do to not be fined in the future. So they're wanting to make sure they do everything correctly and therefore they're asking their small business owners who are using the Google Merchant Center to just abide by a few things. One thing to note is the way they do this is they will actually give you a risk meter.
Chelsea: You know what? Thank you. Honestly, thank you. I want to know if what I'm doing is making me become a problem. I want that visual.
Vivian: That's right. You are a problem. I mean I want to-
Chelsea: Okay?
Vivian: Can we drop a risk meter right here of Chelsea being a problem? I do think you're right. So it just kinda tells you, "are you kind of on the brink of being out of alignment with what they're wanting or are you in the clear? Do you got a green light?
Chelsea: Vivian, what happens if you're too risky? If you, is there an edge that you can go over?
Vivian: It is and they'll pull your products. They won't show you. So it is important. That's what I kept reading on the forums is they were saying, "I'm having trouble getting one hundred percent compliant". Now this is the interesting part. Okay. In the forums people are like, does anybody have a perfect score on this? People were like, no, absolutely not. You don't have a perfect score but what you do have is you just try to get it as best as you can to show up positively on that. So people will say if you're in that ninety percent range, that's fine, but you rarely get a hundred percent, "you've done everything perfectly". Yeah. Just be aware of that. If that kind of weird you out, then maybe Google Merchant Center isn't for you. It was something that kept coming up in conversation.
Chelsea: No, you should you should worry once you're at like forty percent or something. No, probably sooner than that too.
Vivian: So here's the thing, you may be thinking, my gosh, this is very cumbersome. their top recommendations for you to staying quote unquote compliant are rather easy. There are four key things.
Chelsea: Returns and refunds, giving people the information. Actually tell people like what your return and refund policy are.
Vivian: Yeah, so don't you be out there trying to like loosey goosey not put stuff out there.
Chelsea: You need to be very clear, how many days do they have? What's the refund process? Are they going to have to pay for shipping to ship it back?
Vivian: Like that. So if you have that outlined, check. Good job.
Chelsea: Yes. Also, if you don't have a refund policy, add that too. Say no refunds. You just need to give people the information. You gotta make it very clear.
Vivian: Alright, that one is simple enough. This one is even simpler. You guys, they want to make sure that you have a contact us page with legit information on it.
Chelsea: If you're a scam business, if you're not a legitimate small business, that's going to be really hard.
Vivian" First of all, why are you listening to this podcast?
Chelsea: First off, how dare you? well, Vivian, I bring this up. I said that because I want you guys to think about why they care. They want to make sure you have a contact us page because if you don't, it's probably 'cause you're not a legitimate business.
Vivian: Yeah, and to add to that, I'm glad you pointed that out. Cause here's the thing. What to us as a small business owner may seem like a nuisance. This risk meter is kind of annoying and I hate it and why is this important? They're doing it to help the purchaser. As a consumer, the co purchaser, the consumer.
Chelsea: I mean purchaser works too, it's just that was funny. Sorry.
Vivian: I'm going to kick you with my Chelsea Swiss Army knife boot.
Chelsea: Honestly, how often do I threaten Vivian with violence, huh?
Vivia: The waits until the mics are out. One day I'm going to hot mic it. I'm going to keep the mic rolling and then they're going to see the true true Chelsea.
Chelsea: Let us know in the comments, do you think I'm the violent one or is it Vivian?
Vivian: Okay, so going back to this though, they're doing it and I think as a consumer we can appreciate that. Thank you Google for actually trying to crack down on people that are scammers and can take my money and not send me a product.
Chelsea: I got scammed recently, guys. I did. well, in my defense, I was using the shop, shop is kind of like a Shopify or something, it's something like that. So a lot of businesses use it, and I have made many purchases on Shop that were legitimate and I felt good about it. I was looking for a birthday present for Maya and I found something that I was like, she'll love this. I thought I did my due diligence and I look through the the profile and everything and it seemed legit so I made the purchase and I have a tracking number but every time I click it it says not found. It's shipping from China.
So I don't know if it's just like cause you know sometimes when you order something and it's like coming from China, they lose it. Yeah, yeah. And then they find it again. So I don't know if they've lost it and the product's just taking a really long time to get here, or if it isn't legit. So later on, after I had made the purchase, a week later, the name of the store changed.
Vivian: Was this on Instagram?
Chelsea: No, this was on shop. I just wanted to give my best friend a good present for her birthday.
Vivian: Well, and now you've given China all of your contact information and someone has assumed your identity in China.
Chelsea: That would explain why I have so many spam calls now. I'm sorry, go ahead.
Vivian: No, so they're trying to- thank you, Google, because you're trying to decrease...
Chelsea: Exactly. See if I was on Google and not on Shop.
Vivian: That's right. This business wouldn't have even been able to like sell its product.
Chelsea: Exactly I will say, shop. This is the first time this has happened and I've used it for a long time.
Vivian: Let's talk about the what else goes into that contact page. Okay, so what they want is they don't want a P.O. box on there, they want a physical address. They also want you to have a working phone number on there and also a domain branded email. Okay. Okay. So put that in there instead of just a generic Gmail account.
Chelsea: Don't put and if you only have a Gmail account for your business, stop that. You need a domain branded-
Vivian: You hear the rage?
Chelsea: I didn't say it mean, I'm just like, hey, don't do that. Legitimize your business by having a domain branded email.
Vivian: Yes. The other part is it did throw in there to add in a built in contact form. So what they're saying is if you have a website that literally has one of those contact us and then you have form that people can fill out and send in to you. They love that. If you have that, then great. You're going to be good on the risk meter if you're including all that stuff on your contact us page. The next one, Chels.
Chelsea: Shipping policy.
Vivian: Yeah, you're the policy girl. Apparently you brought the refund policy, you brought up the shipping policy.
Chelsea: All they're trying to do, Vivian, is make sure that you're not like you don't have hidden shipping fees. Mm-hmm. But instead you're being very clear to your consumer about what they're going to be paying for shipping.
Vivian: All right. The other thing they recommend is the footer. So they just want to be sure that in the footer you have text that is obviously your physical address and then also the policies that Chelsea just referenced, that you're able to link to them on there. So, you know, if you have those four things, that criteria is pretty simple, you guys. Almost every small business owner out there, almost every single one of you probably has all this stuff in there.
Chelsea: Because this is all stuff that you need to have if you're a legitimate business.
Vivian: Yes. The one thing we do want to just remind you is if you do have any issues with the Google Merchant Center, they have an entire hub of where you could go in there and find information that are typical issues that may arise. Certainly, you know, go check that out. Literally you just type in Google Merchant Center help and it will pop up so that you can go check it out and kind of peruse and see if they can help you with anything that you're having trouble with.
Chelsea: I'll link the Google Merchant Center website, I'll link the help website as well. So make sure that you check out the show notes. You know what? Go be the best legitimate SOB you can be.