Managing your product feed can be a bit daunting – especially when one fails to get the guidance that they deserve – but it is something that can’t be overlooked. Your Product feed is of great importance because not only does it talk about your products, prices and services, it is the only link of communication between Google Shopping & your website/store. The following are the minutest things that are usually skipped, but are really important:
Website URL Verification is A Must
Verifying your store websites URL is one of the many initial things that you should prioritize. It is important because through your store’s URL, Google analyzes whether you are a legitimate merchant or not, and you will be allowed on Google Shopping only if you clear this condition. Here is a Google resource that provides instructions on how to get your online store’s website verified.
Now, the next question is ‘How to know if your website has already been verified?’! Your account setting will carry a ‘verified’ label under your Website URL field; as shown in the image given below:
Including Restricted Products
Asking Google to include restricted products in your Shopping feed can lead to a lot of trouble – Google can either ‘remove restricted products from your feed’ or can disqualify your entire feed. Here is a Google resource that lists the restricted items, so read and make sure that your feed is free from any of such items. Note that even your product titles and descriptions should be free from any keywords that associated with restricted items.
Product feed & Google Shopping Column
Before sending your product feed to Google shopping CSE it is better to check whether you have followed specification which are provided so merchants can make their feeds unique. Here are the Google resources that you can use to get familiarized with Google’s unique feed specifications:
- Google Shopping Data Feed Requirements
- Google Shopping Product Feed Example
- Google Shopping Data Feed File Format
- Google Shopping Attribute Requirements
After reading the resources, and making improvements to your product feed, upload and submit it into your GML account. After submission, you can visit the ‘Data feeds’ tab to check for any errors. Make it 100% sure that your feed is as per Google guidelines including the specified columns as well as formatting.
