Google has updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge.

Google posted “We’re updating the “Trusted Store” badge, so now when you score an excellent rating on your Shopping experience scorecard, the badge will say “Top Quality Store” instead.”

No impact. Google said this is just a name and title change and this won’t have any impact on anything else. “There’s no action you need to take, and the update will not affect your performance metrics at all,” Google added.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot showing this badge:

More history. Google had the trusted store badge for years now, and now has decided to rename it slightly. We don’t know why Google renamed it, you or I can speculate if we want. Earlier we reported about the Google Shopping experience scorecard where Google said it would reward merchants that provide an “excellent customer experience” with “a boost in rankings,” “a badge” and “other benefits that will help consumers find your business,” within the Google Shopping tab in Google Search.

The badge increases engagement. Google said the trusted store badge, “based on our early testing,” drive more clicks to the merchants listings, Google said they are “more likely to receive clicks.” Google also said the search company is “seeing stronger traffic to lesser-known merchants.”

How to earn the badge. Merchants receive a Trusted Store badge based on their performance across metrics relative to other merchants, including but not limited to shipping speeds, shipping and return costs, and return windows. We documented a lot of these metrics over here in our earlier coverage, but here is Google’s help document as well.

Rings a bell. Does this trusted store badge ring a bell to you? Well, yes, a decade or so ago, Google had a free trusted store badge for merchants as well. This was more on the search ad side of the coin, whereas this new badge is for free product listings.

Why we care. Badges can help you generate more clicks on your listings, so it is worth looking into and gaining a badge if possible. Will the slight change in the name of this badge impact click-through rates? I doubt it but you should be aware of this change.

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