Important announcement for Google Shopping merchants Picture

Important announcement for Google Shopping merchants

Google have recently announced large changes to the way merchant's list their products on the Google Merchant Centre by enforcing that every product submitted requires a unique identifier, fits into Google's 'Taxonomy' and has clear shipping details. This change is likely to have a significant affect on any company that currently trade online and use Google Shopping as a way to list their products.Google have announced large changes to the way merchants add their products to Google Shopping. Failure to adhere to the new guidelines will result in your products not being visible to potential purchasers.

 

Google recently blogged that they will roll out these new requirements on 03/05/2011 and the full effect of this rule enforcement will be in place by 20/06/2011. If your products are listed on Google Product Search then you need to ensure that you comply with these new rules or risk you products not being visible when searched for. In the blog itself Google confirms:

 

'Please note that in the weeks after June 20th, we will begin disapproving the feeds of merchants who have a significant percentage of items that do not include the correct unique identifiers.'

 

What exactly do you need to do?

 

Input Unique Product identifiers

 

Add UNI (unique product identifiers) to every product where possible; custom / homemade products are the only products that are exempt from this rule. If you are listing custom / home made products then you must contact Google and request an exemption rather than presuming it is exempt - failing to request an exemption may cause your products not to be listed.

 

The current unique identifiers are brand/mpn/isbn/upi/eun, which you need to add to every product you list on the merchant centre. You need to have it in its own column and it needs to be the proper standard format, which you can check using these links:

 

 

Categorising your products according to Google's 'Taxonomy'

 

Google have created clearly defined categories that all products have to fit into; products can be listed in more than one category. The categories work like a breadcrumb menu e.g. Electronics > Audio > Audio Accessories > MP3 Player Accessories.

 

The current Google Taxonomy can be found here along with information and guidelines to assist in categorising your products.

 

Shipping Details

 

From June 6th, your products will need shipping information. You can add more than one shipping option for each product and give each a name like "Standard Royal Mail Delivery From £2.99" etc – this is to give any customers a guideline on delivery times.

 

Let PJ Web Solutions take care of it

 

If you do not currently have the time or in-house resource PJ Web can link your products database to the Google Shopping listings as well as altering a selection of products in order to provide some good examples of how optimise your listing to get it found by as many people as possible. New products that you add will automatically update and be added to Google Shopping listings and adhere to all the above changes that Google have made. Any change you make to existing products such as price changes etc will also automatically update, leaving you with no worries.

 

Simply contact PJ Web on 0161 799 8555 for more information. If you think that Google Shopping is for you, then we can set up your account and get you up and running within a matter of days.
 




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