What actually happened
In July 2026 the European Commission fined Google 460 million euros. The basis was the Digital Markets Act (DMA): Google had distorted competition by systematically promoting its own shopping services at the expense of specialized search services.
The ruling did not stop at the fine. Google was also forced to rebuild the search results page itself in Europe, give more room to independent comparison and search services, and scale back its own product surfaces. The rollout began on 8 September 2026, and that is what you are now feeling in Search Console.
How quickly Popular Products emptied out
The Popular Products format, the product boxes at the top of broad commercial queries, did not vanish overnight. It happened in two distinct steps:
- 9 September: clicks dropped to roughly three quarters of the previous level.
- 15 to 17 September: a much sharper fall, down to about a quarter.
Measured from the baseline, that means clicks are down 72 percent and impressions down 53 percent. Compared with the same period a year ago, the format now sits at index 20, a fifth of last year's level.
The format is not entirely gone. In my own tests it still appears for some users, particularly those signed in to a Google account, but in a variant that draws far fewer clicks.
The counterintuitive part: your total traffic is going up
This is where it gets interesting. As Popular Products shrinks, total organic traffic to retailers is increasing. That sounds backwards, but the logic is simple: when Google offers fewer ready-made answers directly in the SERP, users have to click through to sites to compare, read, and decide.
Fewer answers in the search box means more clicks out of it. In the short term, that is straight good news for e-commerce, measured in traffic.
But "measured in traffic" is an important caveat. Which pages capture that traffic determines whether any of it turns into sales.
The winners in the redistribution
Category and brand pages are the big winners. They are the ones inheriting the space Popular Products is vacating on the broad, commercial queries.
Product pages are winning the niche, long-tail queries, where an individual product matches the search intent better than a broad category page.
Two new elements are worth watching:
- Image blocks. Where the product boxes used to sit, Google is now often inserting rows of product images. That makes image optimization (cropping, filenames, alt text) a direct traffic question, not just an accessibility detail.
- Local map packs. Physical store chains benefit, because Google is showing map results more often, even on queries without an explicit local intent.
What I recommend you do now
- Separate the formats in Search Console. Use the Search Appearance filter and track Merchant listings and Product snippets independently, so you can see exactly where the drop and the lift are happening.
- Strengthen category and brand pages. Better content, clearer structure, deliberate internal linking. This is where the broad traffic is landing now.
- Optimize product pages for the long tail. Write for specific search intents, not just the product name.
- Take image optimization seriously. Correct cropping, descriptive filenames, and alt text decide whether you show up in the new image blocks.
- Review your Google Business Profile if you have physical stores. The map packs carry more weight now.
- Keep your Merchant Center feed clean. It remains central to Shopping ads, even if it carries less organic weight.
What comes next
I expect more adjustments through the autumn. The rollout follows a 60-day deadline from the European Commission, and the fact that Popular Products survives for signed-in users suggests Google is still looking for a variant that holds up at scale.
And to be honest: I still think Popular Products is one of the best formats out there for anyone actually looking to buy. I hope Google finds a version that works at scale in Sweden and the EU too, but until then, this is the playing field we have to work with.
The bigger lesson is worth repeating. When Google constrains information in the search box, traffic flows back to the sites. The only question is whether your category, brand, and product pages are ready to receive it.