Products on your Google Business Profile

This guide is built from Business Profile Help: About product editor, Showcase in-store products on Google Search & Maps, Understand how to use the Local Inventory app, Product approval policies, Answer questions about your inventory, the Guidelines for representing your business on Google and Manage your business category, plus Merchant Center Help's Benefits of free local listings. For setting up the profile itself, see our Google Business Profile guide.

Who products are for

Products are meant for local shops that sell physical goods. Google says the product editor suits "a local store which sells physical goods", especially if you don't have a website where customers can buy online, your products don't have barcodes, or you "don't have fresh data about stock availability."

If you sell something else, Google points to other editors: restaurants use the menu editor, service businesses use the services editor (see our guide to adding services to your Business Profile), and businesses that sell experiences add ticket and activity details.

Three ways to add products

• The product editor. You add items one at a time, with photos, from your profile on Google Search. This is the route for products without barcodes.
• The Local Inventory app. It syncs products from your point of sale (POS) system to Google. Google says it works with "many POS systems, like Clover, Square, and Lightspeed", and its app page lists the rest. The service used to be called Pointy, and the app may still carry that name on some POS systems.
• Delivery partners. Google can use product sources from partners "like Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats", and your in-store inventory from them then shows on Google.

There is a lighter fourth signal: Google may ask a local store simple yes or no questions about whether it sells an item. The answers appear in the "Products" section of the profile and help Google understand what you sell. Google warns that "misrepresentations of your inventory violate our policies." You find the questions under Edit products > Answer simple questions about your store on Search, or Business > Products in the Google Maps app.

Adding products with the product editor

Google's steps for adding a product on Google Search:

1. Sign in to the Google Account you use to manage your Business Profile.
2. Go to your Business Profile. If you manage several, choose the right one.
3. Click Edit products.
4. Fill out the fields in the form.
5. Click Publish.

To change a product, open Edit products, click the product, edit the fields and publish again. To remove it, open the product's menu and choose Delete.

Merchants in the US can also use Product Studio inside the product editor. Google describes it as "a generative AI tool" that removes the background from your product photo and generates a new scene from a theme you pick; you then add the image to the product and publish. Using it means agreeing to its terms of service.

Adding in-store products automatically

Automatic adding is free and Google creates the product feeds for you. According to the in-store products page, you are eligible if your business:

• is in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland or Australia;
• has a physical store that uses a wired barcode scanner or a compatible POS system and sells products with manufacturer (UPC/EAN) barcodes;
• has a verified Business Profile (our verification guide covers that step);
• is in an eligible vertical.

Barcodes matter because Google matches them against its database for images and descriptions. Labels you print yourself aren't in that database. If you use your own labels, Google says to put both the UPC/EAN barcode and your label on the product and scan both at the till.

One trap: "If you sign up to add products automatically, any products you manually uploaded will be replaced." Your manual items are kept only until more products have come in automatically.

Delivery partner sources can be linked to your profile without you adding them. You get a notification and can decline a pending source in Business Profile Manager under Product sources, or unlink an existing one there or through Edit products on Search. Google says inventory from an unlinked source "is removed from Google within 48 hours", and if you want it back later you have to link the profiles again and verify the data.

The Merchant Center link

Behind the scenes, in-store products run through Google Merchant Center. Google says that "to manage products for your Business Profile, you need access to the Google Merchant Center." If a Merchant Center account is already linked, Edit products takes you to an option to manage products there. If you don't have access, you can request it from the same screen and Google emails you when it is approved; you can check the status in Advanced settings.

Showing in-store products also gives you free local listings in Merchant Center. Merchant Center Help describes these as organic product listings on Search, Maps, the "Products" tab and the Business Profile, including the "See what's in store" unit, which makes a store's inventory browsable from its profile. Paid local inventory ads use the same data. Merchant Center can also enrol eligible online offers as in-store inventory automatically; Google emails you first and you have 14 days to opt out. If you also sell online, our Merchant Center guide explains accounts, feeds and free listings, so we don't repeat that here.

Approval rules and restricted products

Products are reviewed. Google says products from the product editor or added automatically "must adhere to the Shopping Ads Policy", and its profile guidelines add that it does not allow content about regulated products and services, "including alcohol, tobacco products, gambling, financial services, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, or health or medical devices." The penalty is wide: submitting products that break the policy "may result in removal of the entire product catalog, including products that aren't in violation."

For automatic in-store products, Google treats some store types, "such as guns and tobacco stores", as sensitive. Such a store can still sign up, but only items that aren't prohibited or restricted show. Google's example is a tobacco store whose candles and lighters show while tobacco products don't.

When a product is marked Not Approved, click it to see the reason and a link to the policy. Google says that after you fix and save the product, it "is automatically re-reviewed within 24 hours." If you fixed the issue or disagree, you can choose Request Review on the product, though Google may temporarily switch that option off if you request too many reviews for products that really do break the rules.

A profile suspension hits products too: all of them turn Not Approved. Once the profile is reinstated, Google says products are reprocessed and "become available within 5 days of reinstatement." Our guide to suspended Business Profiles covers reinstatement.

Products versus business categories

Products don't replace categories, and categories shouldn't list products. Google's category help says: "Do not select a category for every product or service." Its guidelines ask for categories that complete the statement "This business IS a" rather than "this business HAS a", describing the business as a whole rather than "a list of all the services it offers, products it sells, or amenities it features." So a hardware store stays "Hardware store", and the paint, tools and garden supplies go in as products.

Where products show

Google says in-store products "may show on Google Search, Google Maps, and the Shopping tab", in search results and on your Business Profile, and that customers can check whether a store near them stocks what they want. Products from the product editor "appear in Business Profiles on Google Search." As with most of the profile, "may" is the operative word: Google decides when a product appears for a search.

To see whether product searches are reaching your profile, use the searches list and interaction counts in our Business Profile performance guide.

Our view: keeping a product list honest

This part is our own practice, not Google guidance. For a shop without a POS sync, we add the lines people actually search for, not the whole stockroom: the products that bring customers in and the ones they phone to ask about. Each gets a clear photo of the real item and the name customers use. We remove items the store stops carrying straight away, because a profile that promises something the shelf doesn't have costs more goodwill than a short list. Before adding anything near a regulated category, we read the Shopping ads policy first, since one bad item can pull the whole catalog. Where a store has a compatible POS, we prefer the automatic route, because stock levels then stay current without anyone remembering to update them.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Merchant Center to add products to my Business Profile?

Not to start. You can add products one at a time with the product editor from your profile on Google Search. Google says that to manage products for your Business Profile through Merchant Center you need access to it, and if an account is already linked, Edit products sends you there.

Why did my products disappear after I connected my POS?

Google says that if you sign up to add products automatically, products you uploaded manually are replaced. They are stored only until more products have been added automatically.

How long does a fixed product take to be approved again?

Google says that after you edit and save a Not Approved product, it is automatically re-reviewed within 24 hours. You can also request a review if you think the decision is wrong.

Can I show products that have no barcode?

Yes, with the product editor, which Google recommends for products without barcodes. Automatic adding needs manufacturer UPC/EAN barcodes, because Google uses them to find product images and descriptions.

Can I remove products a delivery partner added to my profile?

Yes. Decline the pending source or unlink an existing one under Product sources in Business Profile Manager, or unlink it from Edit products on Search. Google says the inventory from that source is removed within 48 hours.

For more on local search, see our guides to Google Business Profile, Google Shopping campaigns, local business schema and small business SEO.