How to track Google Shopping results

Why track Google Shopping at all?

Google Shopping is where many shoppers first see your products, and your competitors' products beside them. Whether you appear, how high, and at what price compared with everyone else decides a large share of the clicks.

Sales reports tell you what happened on your own site. They don't tell you how often you were shown, who took the slots you didn't, or which rival cut their prices last Tuesday. Tracking the results themselves fills that gap.

Step 1: choose the searches to track

Start with a fixed list of searches (keywords) and keep it stable, so one week can be compared with the next.

• Cover your range. Include the searches that map to each of your product categories, not just your best sellers.
• Mix broad and specific. "Bar stools" and "oak bar stools with backs" attract different shoppers and different competitors.
• Weight by demand. Note each search's monthly search volume, so a gain on a big search counts for more than one on a niche one.
• Group them. Organise searches by category, so you can see where you are strong and where you are weak.

Step 2: check them the same way every time

Google's results vary by location, device, language and the shopper's own history. To make results comparable:

1. Search from the same location (for UK retailers, the UK) and in the same language.
2. Use a clean session, signed out and without personal history, so you see what a typical shopper sees.
3. Check on a regular schedule, weekly at the least, and on the same day where you can.
4. Record the Shopping tab and the main results page separately. They show different sets of products.

Step 3: record every listing, not just your own

For every search, capture every product shown, not only yours:

• Position: where the listing sits, with 1 at the top.
• Retailer: who is selling it.
• Product: its title, and ideally a product identifier, so the same item can be matched across retailers.
• Price: the price shown, and the delivery cost if there is one.
• Promotion: whether it shows a sale price or a discount, and how deep.
• Rating: the star rating and number of reviews, where shown.

Recording competitors' listings is what turns a ranking report into market intelligence.

Step 4: turn listings into measures

A week of results is thousands of rows. These measures make it readable:

• Visibility: each listing weighted by how many clicks its position is likely to earn and how many people make that search, added up per retailer. The single best summary of who is winning.
• Share of voice: your visibility as a share of everyone's, for a category or the whole market.
• Keyword coverage: how many of the tracked searches you appear for at all. A search a rival appears for and you don't is a gap you can name.
• Top 3 placements: how often you hold the slots that take most of the clicks.
• Price position: for products several retailers sell, whether you are the cheapest, and by how much you are above or below the others.
• Share on sale: how much of the market, or of a competitor's range, is showing a promotion this week.

Step 5: compare week on week

The value is in the change. Each week, look for:

• Movers: which retailers gained or lost the most visibility, and on which searches.
• New competitors: retailers appearing on searches they weren't on before.
• Price moves: products where a rival undercut you, or where you are now the cheapest.
• Promotions: who has started a sale, in which categories, and how deep the discounts go.

Every one of those points to an action, whether in your product feed, your pricing or your promotional calendar.

Doing it by hand, and when to stop

Checking a dozen searches by hand is a useful way to get a feel for your market. Beyond that it becomes impractical: a few hundred searches, each with dozens of listings, every week, is far too much to record, let alone compare.

Merchant Visibility does every step above automatically. It records the full Google Shopping results and the product cards on the main results page for thousands of searches every week, across every retailer, with prices, promotions and ratings, and turns them into visibility, price position and promotion views you can explore by retailer, category or search.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I track Google Shopping results?

Weekly is enough to see trends, competitor moves and the effect of your own changes, and to compare like with like. Around big trading moments such as Black Friday, when prices and promotions change quickly, a closer look is worthwhile.

Can I track Google Shopping in Google Merchant Center or Google Ads?

They show how your own products perform: impressions, clicks and, for ads, some competitive metrics. They don't show the full results page, which retailers took the other slots, or what price your competitors were showing. Tracking the results themselves fills that gap.

Should I track the Shopping tab or the main results page?

Both, separately. The Shopping tab shows a long grid of products; the main results page shows a smaller set of product cards among other results. A retailer can lead one and be missing from the other.

Why do my rankings change from week to week?

Google Shopping results respond to prices, stock, promotions and product data, yours and your competitors'. Some movement is normal. A sustained fall across many searches usually points to a change: a feed problem, a price rise, or a competitor investing in that category.

What is a good Google Shopping visibility score?

There is no fixed benchmark: visibility is a relative measure. Compare your score with your direct competitors' in the same categories, and with your own score in previous weeks. A rising share of voice in the categories you care about is the goal.