Optimise Product Titles
As with organic search engine optimization techniques your product titles in Google Shopping are vital. Titles can be up to a maximum of 70 characters. Make the best use of every single character. If your titles fall short of the character range, always try and find ways of appending your title to include additional attributes.
Always undertake research as to what may be influencing existing Google Shopping rankings, in respect of titles, before submitting your product. As a guideline, take a look at the top three ranking competitors and look for similarities between competitor product titles and the title listed in Google shopping. Try to match your title with that of high ranking competitors, but look for areas of opportunity to include terms or words that your competitors may not be using. If you’re using dynamic titles that are fed directly from a database to both your product page and Google Shopping feed you will have to seriously consider the way in which your titles will affect both your organic SEO campaign and Google Shopping simultaneously.
In terms of editorial guidelines, never use block capitals within your title or promotional copy.
Optimise Product Descriptions
Google Shopping descriptions can be anywhere up to 10,000 characters long though Google recommends writing a unique description, somewhere between 500 and 1000 characters long. This means no copying and pasting manufacturer descriptions!
Taking a similar approach to forming product titles, you should always have a look at competitor’s descriptions before formulating your own. Note down the key terms used within descriptions of the top three competitors and be sure to include these in your own description.
Undertake keyword research to look for additional terms associated with that product, such as alternative or abbreviated names and use these variants within your description.
Again, never Google may refuse your feed if you include promotional copy or unnecessary capitalisation within your description.
Mandatory and Optional Attributes
The following are mandatory attributes and MUST be included for each product.
Failure to provide information for any of the above may see your feed rejected by Google.
The key thing about this section is making the most of the optional attributes. These attributes are as follows:
We won’t go into the specifics of each attribute, for that information it’s probably best visiting the Google Merchant centre. However the important thing to note here is that optional tributes must be used as frequently as possible. It can only enhance your feed. Some of the easiest ones to use are the attributes relating to the colour, height, length, width and size of the product. Just a few additional attributes to each product should see your feed positively rewarded. The term ‘optional’ is a bit misleading; I like to call them additionally essential!
Pricing
Google’s lovely little crawler absolutely LOVES identifying aspects of your product page that do not match your feed. It feeds off being able to deliver your error messages to your merchant account. Let it starve. Do this by triple checking the price listed on your product page against the product price you’re putting within your feed. If your product page prices do not match those submitted within your Google Shopping feed, Google may choose to not list your product and possibly your entire feed.
Regularity of Feed
This obviously depends on the size of your product range but generally; update your XML feed as often as possible. At very least once every two weeks. If you have certain products which aren’t ranking positively and you know their attributes won’t change, feel free to experiment in updating the descriptions or attributes and re-submit the product when you re-submit your feed. Experiment in updating and submitting your feed alongside any product page changes as this is also reported to have positive ranking effects.
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