Google Product Feeds go Commercial
by Andy Carroll, 16 Jul 2011
Google has been expanding its search results with a mixture of organic natural web pages, sponsored adverts, images, video, news and product listings. This has become standard in Australia, UK and US with additional search tools and filters for each type of media. Google announced recently that its merchant facility which drives Google Shopping is to become a commercial only channel in the US. I dont think it will be long before this continues to other locations such as Australia and the UK.
So what are Google Product Feeds?
Google Shopping provides product comparison and search tools for e-commerce merchant products. Until recently this was done for freel. Merchants upload a special format "Product Feed" file to Google which lists each product, its price and stock level etc. This was formerly known as Google Base and its usage has been steadily growing as merchants start to take advantage of the additional sales opportunities. Product feeds also power product ads in Google AdWords campaigns, merchants who advertise can choose to usilise their product feed for specific PPC ads.
How do I use Google Product Feeds?
First you need to register for a Google Merchant account. Once you have been verified you can start to upload product inventory data. Many shopping carts have product feed capabilities but unless you choose the very latest software the feeds they produce can become obsolete. For example Google recently started to enforce feed quality and made a number of fields compulsory. A web developer should be able to modify your shopping cart to generate a compatible feed as long as your store has the necessary data fields. If you are selling in the US you will need to start using Google AdWords to credit a campaign for Google Shopping listings.
For help with product feeds for Google or other selling channels please contact me.
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