Key takeaways
Google has added six optional "conversational" attributes to the Merchant Center to help its AIs (AI Mode, Gemini) better understand your product listings.
These fields do not affect the approval of your products or the display of your standard Shopping ads: testing them carries no risk.
With more complete data, a more likely citation: AIs favour products whose listings truly answer the question posed.
They are transmitted via an additional feed (Google Sheets, TSV, XML) or the Merchant Center API, without affecting your main feed.
As long as the majority of e-commerce merchants have not adopted these fields, filling them out provides a concrete competitive advantage.
Why Google is adding "conversational" attributes
At the last Google Marketing Live in May 2026, Google quietly enriched the Merchant Center with six new so-called "conversational" attributes. Their goal is clear: to enable Google's artificial intelligences, starting with AI Mode in Search and Gemini, to better interpret your product listings.
This change responds to a fundamental transformation in the way internet users shop. A traditional search consisted of two or three keywords. A query posed to an AI is on average much longer and much more precise: "neutral running shoe with good cushioning for heavy runners under 150 euros." A product title and a short description are no longer sufficient to meet this level of detail. Google therefore needs richer structured data to match your products to questions it may have never encountered before. The official specifications for these fields are detailed in the Merchant Center documentation.
For an e-commerce merchant, the principle to remember is simple: faced with several comparable products, an AI will naturally cite the one whose listing best answers the user's question. Therefore, it is the richness and relevance of your feed that determine whether your products appear in its responses.
The six new attributes in detail
Each of these fields complements your existing feed without replacing it. Here is what they cover and their level of priority.
Attribute | What it is for | Priority |
Question and Answer | Product FAQ in question/answer pairs | Very high |
Popularity Rank | Popularity score from 0 to 100 of the product in your catalogue | High |
Variant Option | Characteristics of a variant (size, storage capacity, colour) | High |
Item Group Title | Generic title grouping several variants of the same product | Medium |
Related Product | Accessories, parts or complementary products | Medium |
Document Link | Manuals, warranties, technical sheets in PDF format | Variable |
The Question and Answer attribute is by far the most strategic. It follows the logic of FAQs: a question phrased in natural language, followed by a clear answer ("Does this model have Bluetooth?" → "Yes, it includes Bluetooth 6.0"). These are precisely the constraint questions (compatibility, materials, dimensions, warranty, included accessories) that buyers ask AI assistants. If your site already has product FAQs, you hold the essence of this data.
The Popularity Rank, on the other hand, is inexpensive to calculate and difficult for an AI to deduce without your help. It feeds queries like "best" or "most popular". As for Variant Option and Item Group Title, they become essential as soon as your catalogue has many variations: without them, AI surfaces must guess the structure of your variants.
How to transmit them to Google
These six attributes are optional and testing them carries no risk: in case of a format error, Google simply ignores the relevant field, without penalising the product or questioning its approval. However, reducing these fields to a "safe" option would be missing the point. Today, the majority of e-commerce merchants do not yet fill them in. Completing them therefore places you mechanically ahead of the competition on conversational queries, where the field is still largely unoccupied.
There are two methods to transmit them. The first, recommended for getting started, involves an additional data feed in Google Sheets, TSV, or XML format, added alongside your main feed without modifying it. The second, via the Merchant Center API, is more suitable for catalogues that change frequently or whose data is already centralised in a product management tool.
Where to start concretely
There is no need to process your entire catalogue at once. The most cost-effective approach is to focus your efforts on your top 100 items, those that generate the majority of your sales or advertising spend.
On this foundation, two attributes offer the best effort/impact ratio: Question and Answer, often retrievable directly from the FAQs on your site or your support tickets, and Popularity Rank, which you can deduce from your own sales data. This provides an initial signal that can be leveraged by AI in just a few hours of work, before gradually expanding to your variants and related products.
What this changes for your e-commerce strategy
These fields are not just another technical option. They represent a lasting shift: your product feed becomes the knowledge base that AIs consult to compare, recommend, and respond. As conversational searches gain momentum, the completeness of this data will weigh increasingly heavily on your visibility, and the lead gained today will be all the more difficult for your competitors to catch up on.
One point is worth keeping in mind: optimising solely for Google field names remains an endless game, as each platform will sooner or later impose its own format. The strongest reflex is not to chase after every new attribute, but to structure your product data (FAQ, popularity, variants, complements) once and for all in a clean and up-to-date state. This data will then travel from one AI surface to another. The true differentiator is not the trick of the moment, but the consistency of the data maintained over time.
FAQ
Are these new attributes mandatory?
No. They are entirely optional and complement your existing feed. However, providing them significantly increases your chances of being cited by AIs compared to competitors who do not yet do so.
Will they disrupt my current Shopping ads?
No. They do not affect the approval of your products or the distribution of your standard ads. In case of a format error, Google ignores the relevant field.
Which attribute should I start with?
With Question and Answer, the most strategic, followed by Popularity Rank, on your top 100 references.
Should I modify my main feed?
No. This data goes through an additional feed or the Merchant Center API, without touching your existing feed.