Is your business ready for Google's new policy? Google's updated misrepresentation policy sheds new light on the importance of building trust and how it can affect your company's visibility on Google. Whether you're a small local business just starting out online, or an established brand looking to expand its digital footprint, this policy is crucial for you.
Google has updated the criteria for brands to display their listings and products in search results. This update will be especially helpful for brands struggling with a suspension or warning for misrepresentation. Google highlights four key focus areas to build trust and meet the new requirements: corporate identity, transparency, online reputation, and professional design.
Corporate identity includes consistent company and domain names, a clear "About Us" page, and links to social media profiles. Transparency requires clear information about the brand's shipping, return and privacy policies, and business model.
Online reputation includes displaying genuine reviews, mentions of badges or seals of approval, and clear communication options. Professional design includes a secure website with an SSL certificate, easy navigation, and no unnecessary redirects or broken links.
In addition, Google suggests that brands take several steps to help Google understand their business faster and more accurately. These steps include creating and verifying a Google business profile, sharing current information in the Merchant Center, linking relevant third-party platforms, following Google's SEO guidelines, signing up for review services, and synchronizing product data on the website and in the product feed.
In a statement from the Merchant Center, Google emphasized that it wants Google to be a safe and trusted place for both customers and shoppers. Building trust is an ongoing process, and Google uses multiple signals from across the Web to assess a company's credibility.
source: Google