The Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) program allows you to:
- Participate in dedicated ecosystem experiences
- Prominently show CSS product pages in results on Google
- Show products on behalf of merchants organically and in ads on Google
- Place Comparison Listing ads
Comparison Shopping Services (CSSs) can place Shopping ads and free product listings on Google on behalf of merchants in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Google offers CSS Center to help you manage your participation in the CSS program, and access and manage associated merchants.
On this page
- CSS program minimum requirements
- Dedicated ecosystem experiences
- Prominently show CSS product pages in results on Google
- Show products on behalf of merchants organically and in ads on Google
CSS program minimum requirements
These are the minimum requirements you need to satisfy to participate in the CSS program:
- Your business must have a registration in at least one country where the CSS program is available, and show a business address corresponding to your registration on your website.
- You must operate a comparison shopping service website meeting the following requirements:
- The site allows users to search and compare different products. It should also allow users to compare the price and selling conditions for the same product offered by different merchants.
- The site shows products offered by at least 50 distinct merchant domains for every country where you wish to participate. These must be merchants that ship products to the respective country, meaning consumers in the country can buy from them.
- The site shows products and leads users to a page where they can buy them.
- The site offers a search box for queries and provides search functionality based primarily on a dynamic and automated process, and that isn’t substantially based on search technology licensed or syndicated from Google.
- The site offers options to sort or filter product results by price and at least one other dimension relevant for consumers, for example, brand, merchant, or shipping time.
- The site is accessible to everyone without sign-up.
If your business is primarily a marketplace allowing transactions on your own domain, you can’t participate as a CSS, but you may participate as a marketplace through one or several CSSs of your choosing.
If you follow these requirements, you'll be eligible to participate in the CSS program and explore the following opportunities.
Dedicated ecosystem experiences
Dedicated ecosystem experiences allow potential customers to concentrate on CSS offering while searching for products on Google.
If your business and website are compliant with the CSS program minimum requirements and you have an active CSS Center account, your website is eligible to show in the dedicated ecosystem experiences.
Prominently show CSS product pages in results on Google
Note: CSS product pages opportunity is currently available in the following countries: Czechia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
These are the requirements you must meet in order for your CSS product pages to show prominently in the results for shopping-related customer queries on Google in countries where the CSS program is available:
- Your business and website are compliant with the CSS program minimum requirements and you have an active CSS Center account.
- CSS product pages submitted to Google must comply with any relevant CSS policies and CSS product data specifications.
- Links submitted for CSS product pages must lead to the domain associated with your CSS Center. You may not automatically redirect users to other domains.
- The site shows all CSS product pages you submit to Google where users can compare prices and selling conditions from multiple merchants for the same product.
- Each CSS product page submitted to Google must prominently show:
- A product description
- The price and selling conditions for the product offered by at least 2 independent merchant domains that have the product available for immediate purchase online. Make sure that information on your product pages matches what you have submitted to Google. Learn more about CSS product page requirements
- As a CSS, you must ensure that links from your CSS product page lead to merchant pages where consumers can directly buy the product being displayed.
- As a CSS, you must protect people from landing on pages that intend to gain unauthorized access to a computer device or network, use "phishing" techniques, unsafely collect and misuse users' personal information, or otherwise harm the user.
If you don’t follow these requirements, your CSS product pages won’t be eligible to show on Google, and Google may suspend your participation in this opportunity. You’ll be notified in CSS Center.
Show products on behalf of merchants organically and in ads on Google
These are the minimum requirements and best practices for placing ads and showing products on behalf of merchants organically on Google in the countries where the CSS program is available:
- Your business and website are compliant with CSS program minimum requirements and you have an active CSS Center account.
- Your CSS website allows users to find all merchant products that you submit to and show on Google on behalf of those merchants.
- Products shown organically and in ads must comply with product data specifications and any relevant Shopping policies.
- Promoted links need to lead users directly to a page that allows them to buy the product, unless expressly specified differently for a particular format. Learn more About landing page requirements.
- Submit product data for each merchant you represent in a separate Merchant Center. For example, if a newly created Merchant Center isn’t associated with your CSS yet, initiate a switch.
- If you’d like to represent a marketplace, request a separate marketplace multi-client account for products of that marketplace. Submit product data for each individual seller on the marketplace in a separate sub-account of that marketplace multi-client account. If you allow transactions on your own domain, request a separate marketplace multi-client account for those products and submit product data for each merchant in a separate sub-account of that marketplace multi-client account.
- You warrant that you have the necessary rights to permit Google to access, index, cache, or crawl the landing-page URLs of the seller’s site and the content available through such URLs, and to display the information associated with the product data you submit. Your service to third parties must clearly and conspicuously disclose to such third parties that this content of theirs will be provided to Google and may be made available to the general public.
If you don't follow these requirements, Google will disapprove your merchants’ products or suspend Merchant Center accounts. You will be notified in Merchant Center.