eBay has issued guidelines to help sellers get their products picked up by Google Product Search.

While Google earlier this year said that it would begin charging for American firms' and individuals' items to be listed among its shopping results, so far it has not said anything about plans to replicate this in the UK.

It has reinforced advice to merchants about what their listings need to contain to comply with Product Search, and stressed the importance of each listing including unique product identification codes.

Even if eBay believes Google will drop free listings in the UK, it may be counting on it happening after the 2012 holiday shopping season in that country.

Google told merchants in its SellerSphere newsletter: "As Google is a key source of traffic to your listings, you can easily increase your visibility on Google Product Search if you now include unique product identifiers in all new and existing listings."

Ina Steiner of eCommerceBytes.com commented that American eBay sellers can only dream of having the luxury of free exposure in Google Product Search, even if it means "they had to jump through Google's hoops" to get it.