How to generate a product feed for Google Shopping?
The visibility of your online store in the Google search engine is a very important issue that translates into the achieved sales results. Constant optimisation of the website is very important. However, it is also worth using the potential of Google Shopping.
Google Shopping – what is it?
Google Shopping is a product catalogue that shows products from the online store to your potential clients that match their queries.
For example, if a user types the keyword thermal cups in the search engine, he will receive a link directing him to the product card instead of to the main page of your online store. Using this functionality definitely shortens the shopping path.
How should you prepare a product file for a Google Shopping campaign?
A product feed is a collection of information about products and their attributes. It must meet a number of requirements imposed by Google. When generating data, remember that:
- Product ID – must have a unique value. Use the units used to mark stock levels to designate products. The ID must be the same for the product, regardless of language and country.
- Title – the product title is 150 characters. It must match the product description on the landing page. Avoid slogans like free delivery, capital letters and using special characters.
- Description – cannot be longer than 5000 characters. It must accurately represent the features of the product. You can’t post links in it, refer to competition or inform about other products that are in your online store. The description should also have appropriate formatting – division into paragraphs, bullets.
- Link – you can only use URLs encoded in accordance with RFC 2396 or RFC 173 standards in the HTTP or HTTPS version.
- Image link – it must lead to the main picture of the product in your e-shop. The URL must start with HTTP or HTTPS and be coded in accordance with RFC 2396 or RFC 173. The allowed file formats are .gif without animation, .jpg, .png, .bmp, .tif. The maximum file size is 16 MB. Preferred size of photos for non-clothing products is 100×100 px, for clothing 250×250 px. Also, make sure that image files don’t contain frames, promotional texts, and watermarks.
- Availability – specify product availability by selecting the field in stock, unavailable, preorder.
- Price – enter the price of the product in accordance with the price shown in the online store in the currency of the country of sale.
- Product category – select only one, the most adequate product category and provide the full path name.
- Brand – specify the brand of the product. If you are a producer of goods offered in the e-store, then you can indicate your own brand.
- Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) – if your product has a GTIN number assigned by the manufacturer, enter it. Remember not to enter strokes or spaces.
- Product Catalogue Number (MPN) – please provide only for new products that do not have GTINs assigned.
There are also a number of other additional attributes that can be included in the product feed. You can learn more about them on the Google Merchant Center website.
You can submit your product feed to Google Merchant Center by:
- Direct transmission
- FTP
- SFTP
- Scheduled downloads,
- Content API.
When sending a product feed for the first time on Google Shopping, remember that it can take up to 3 business days to verify. After submitting the data, you can also verify their correctness. Google allows you to download a CSV report that informs you of all processing errors and warnings.
