Do Google dangerous goods restrictions affect search results?

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Do Google dangerous goods restrictions affect search results?

squarebracket

5:54 pm on Apr 4, 2023 (gmt 0)

I have a couple of clients who sell guns and ammunition on their web stores.

I just received email from Google about changes to their policies for advertising dangerous goods. They specifically talk about Google Ads and Google Merchant Center, and it's clear that the restrictions apply to those services.

The restrictions apparently include all guns and ammo.

My clients don't use Google Ads or Google Merchant Center, so they're probably fine, right?

But since Googlebot crawls the two web stores, and indexes product listings for guns and ammo (as can be verified using Google search), I'm wondering if these restrictions apply (or ever will apply) to Google Search results.

Any ideas?

mhansen

1:30 pm on Apr 5, 2023 (gmt 0)

I manage the website/ecom for a company that sells a wide range of extended mags, custom grips and a slew of patented firearm accessories. We rank very well in organic search and since there are few to no ads, organic pays off well.

squarebracket

4:02 pm on Apr 5, 2023 (gmt 0)

My clients also currently do fine in terms of search results. But I was wondering whether the Google Ads and Google Merchant Center product restrictions are likely to have any effect on Google Search results in the future.

To put it another way: Google clearly has product restrictions in place for Google Ads and Google Merchant Center; wouldn't it also make sense (from their perspective) to also remove such products from search results? I mean, I sure hope not, but it seems logical. I don't think the issue is whether the advertiser is paying Google, because Google Merchant Center is a free service.

mhansen

6:24 pm on Apr 5, 2023 (gmt 0)

Ahh - I understand better. I honestly don't know if they'd pull sites from the organic results or not, but I don't recall any precedent of them removing sites selling legal products. There would be huge backlash, I imagine.

squarebracket

7:26 pm on Apr 5, 2023 (gmt 0)

Well, I'm not suggesting that they would pull entire sites, just links to product pages for restricted products. That's how it works in Google Merchant Center, apparently; they flag specific product links.

tangor

2:17 am on Apr 6, 2023 (gmt 0)

That may be the end goal down the line, but at present it does not seem to be a hard and fast rule. All one can do it plan for and prepare for the worst, as g is unlikely to change their mind regarding LEGAL "dangerous products".

Coming soon: deprecation of antifreeze for internal combustion engines. :(