Dear entrepreneur and marketer,
A recent development shows that Google Merchant Center (GMC) has become much more than just a tool for Shopping ads. It is now a fundamental part of your AI discoverability strategy, essential for online stores that want to remain visible in Google’s rapidly changing AI landscape. What is uploaded to Merchant Center today determines how AI systems such as Google Shopping, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and even Gemini find and present your products.
This news, which is only a few days old, highlights a crucial shift: your product data is the new SEO foundation.
Why Merchant Center is now Indispensable
The rise of AI-driven search functions, such as Google’s AI Overviews (to be introduced in the Netherlands in May 2025) and AI Mode (October 2025), has fundamentally changed the rules of the game for product visibility. These AI systems no longer primarily draw their information from traditional search results, but from the Shopping Graph – a gigantic Google product database with over 50 billion products that is updated hourly.
The Shopping Graph is fed from two important sources: your Merchant Center feeds and the Schema.org product markup on your product pages. If you do not use a Merchant Center feed, you provide Google with significantly less structured product data. This directly reduces your chances of being highly visible in the AI results driven by the Shopping Graph. It’s no longer just about achieving a high organic ranking; it’s about the AI understanding and trusting your product.
The Impact of Structured Product Data
AI looks for clear, unambiguous information to answer users’ product queries. Product titles that are rich in specifications and have a clear structure are picked up significantly better. Consider a title such as “ASICS Gel-Excite 11 | Distance Running Shoes | Men’s | Blue | Size: 44”, which explicitly names the brand, model, type, target audience, colour, and size. Technical specifications, such as for a car dashcam with “4K Ultra HD, dual camera, night vision, parking mode, WiFi, GPS, and wide-angle lens”, also help the AI to directly match the user’s search intent.
What does this mean for you?
This is not a future prediction; this is today’s reality. To make your online store AI-proof, these are your key action points:
- Optimise your Merchant Center feed: Ensure your feed is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. The more structured data you provide, the better AI will understand your products.
- Refine your product titles and descriptions: Use clear, detailed, and structured product titles and descriptions that include all relevant features. Consider how an AI would ‘read’ a product and what information is crucial.
- Implement or check Schema.org markup: Enhance your product information on your website with the correct Schema.org markup. This supplements the Merchant Center feed and provides AI with additional context.
By focusing now on an optimised Merchant Center and rich product data, you lay the foundation for sustainable AI discoverability and increase the chance that your products will be found in the new generation of search engines.
Source: AI.nl
