Google Shopping Feed Not Working?
Many online retailers make use of the amazing Google Shopping service which, as part of Google’s Universal Search, provides a critical short-cut to having products appear high within the organic search results without the need for on page SEO or link building. For my clients the revenue generated from a well optimised Google Shopping feed can be up to 25% of the total revenue generated by an online shop.
Around 4 months ago Google announced that they intended to change the schema of the Google Shopping feed. This change was under review and over the following months with the specification changing again to include further customisations.
In short the changes have been designed to group the same products together, offering better price comparison within the Google Shopping results. In addition options have been added to cover product variations including size, colour and a host of extra fields that are mandatory.
If your Google Shopping feed has stopped working and your sales are down then speak to your SEO or web development company and ask them to implement the changes urgently. More information on the changes to the Shopping feed can be found in Google’s official guide.
A quick reference sheet follows:
Attributes Required for:
- All countries [R]
- By country [US, UK, DE, FR, JP]
- Recommended [+]
It is recommended that you provide all attributes for feeds targeting all other countries.
| Variant Products | Clothing Products (Non-variant) | Custom-Made Goods | Media, Video game software | Books | All Other Products | |||
| Non-Clothing | Clothing | |||||||
| id | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| title | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| description | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| google product category | + | US, UK, DE, FR, JP | US, UK, DE, FR, JP | + | US, UK, DE, FR, JP | US, UK, DE, FR, JP | + | |
| product type | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| link | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| image link* | R** | R** | R | R | R | R | R | |
| additional image link | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| condition | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| *This attribute is required for all countries except Japan.**Please remember that if you provide variant item data, the image provided in ‘image link’ must match the item variant. | ||||||||
| Prices and Availability | ||||||||
| availability | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| price* | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
| sale price* | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| sale price effective date | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| *Please remember that our policies state that you should provide the price which is displayed on your website at all times. If you have products which go on sale, you may consider using the ‘sale price attribute’ to accurately provide price data about your products. | ||||||||
| Unique Product Identifiers | ||||||||
| brand | 2 of 3 are required(US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | Clothing:You are required to provide ‘brand’ for all clothing products. ‘GTIN’ and ‘MPN’ are recommended. (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | Custom-Made: Recommended | Media, Software:You are required to provide UPC, but we recommend that you also provide Brand and MPN. (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | ISBN is required (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | 2 of 3 are required(US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | ||
| gtin | ||||||||
| mpn | ||||||||
| Clothing Products | ||||||||
| gender | + | US | US | + | + | + | + | |
| age group | + | US | US | + | + | + | + | |
| Shared by Clothing and Variants | ||||||||
| colour | Required, if applicable (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | US | US | + | + | + | + | + |
| size | Required, if applicable (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | (Clothing and Shoes) US | (Clothing and Shoes) US | + | + | + | + | + |
| Variant Products | ||||||||
| material | Required, if applicable (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | Required, if applicable (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | + | + | + | + | + | |
| pattern | Required, if applicable (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | Required, if applicable (US, UK, DE, FR, JP) | + | + | + | + | + | |
| item group id | Required if item is a variant. | Required for US or if item is a variant. | + | + | + | + | + | |
| Tax and Delivery | ||||||||
| tax | For the US, you are required to provide tax information for all items, either by specifying default tax values in your Google Merchant Center account settings or by providing this attribute. For non-US countries, yo are required to include tax or VAT in the total price. | |||||||
| delivery | You are required to provide delivery information in the US, UK, DE and FR for all items, either by specifying default delivery values in your Google Merchant Center account settings or by providing this attribute. | |||||||
| delivery weight | You are required to provide this attribute if you have specified a global delivery rule in Settings that is dependent on delivery weight. | |||||||
| Shops Nearby (US & UK only) | ||||||||
| online only | Required only if you are participating in Shops Nearby and if the item is not available for purchase in your physical shop. | |||||||
| Additional attributes | ||||||||
| excluded destination | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| expiry date | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |
| Loyalty Points (Japan Only) | ||||||||
| loyalty points | Only applicable to feeds targeting Japan. This is an optional attribute. | |||||||
| Retired Attributes | ||||||||
| quantity, feature, manufacturer, genre, featured product, year, author, edition | ||||||||
Via http://www.google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?answer=1344057
“Mark, thanks for the the information regarding Google Shopping feed changes. Your audience might also be interested in this conundrum…http://www.cpcstrategy.com/blog/2011/10/googles-lack-of-enforcement-puts-data-feed-experts-in-a-tight-spot/
“