What is a product feed?
A product feed is what Google uses to understand and organise the products that you sell. Your product catalogue is on a spreadsheet that Google reads and decides whether your product fits the search term that the user is looking for. If you have thousands of stock lines then you can use a programme, which will crawl your website to help you upload your product catalogue, however, for most smaller e-commerce sites, it is recommended to enter the product lines manually into the spreadsheet. Google provides a template to use through the Merchant Center, which we advise you to use to avoid mistakes.
What does the product feed spreadsheet look like?
There are several columns of attributes for you to complete for each product line, some of which are required, and others are optional. The more you fill in, the higher the likelihood of Google matching your products with searches and thus an increase in website hits and hopefully conversions. Google will crawl this information and will show your business on the most relevant searches, a win for Google for customer satisfaction and a win for your business.
Unlike with Google Ads, you don’t get to choose the keywords which you want to appear for, the control stays with Google who triggers ads based on relevancy to the user’s search terms. Therefore, your Google Shopping Feed should be optimised for Google, it works similarly to SEO, making sure your feed is relevant and keywords are used in the right places. When creating your Google Shopping feed, fill in as much as you can, there is no such thing as too much information.
As mentioned, there are numerous attributes to fill in, some product lines and businesses will be able to fill in more than others, the next part of this article will look at the required attributes and how best to optimise them for Google.
Product Title
This is your flagship attribute, the one that should get most of your focus and be your priority. This holds a lot of weight with Google so you should name the product well, something that clearly states what the product is, with your preferred keyword as near the start as possible. The relevant title is also very prominent for users when they are searching. A relevant title shows both the customer and Google that this is the right product for what they have searched. It is important that the title makes sense and has not been keyword stuffed. Don’t believe me? Take a moment to read SearchEngineLand’s report on the importance of product titles!
Product Image
Alongside the product title, the image is just as prominent and eye-catching to the searcher. The image shows the user instantly what your product is and whether it is what they are looking for. It is recommended to show your product on a white background or in use (for example clothes on a model or a sofa being sat upon). Google provides details on how best to optimise your images and it’s worth looking at for more specific details on optimising your images.
Product Description
This is a chance for you to demonstrate what your product is, and why your product is right and what the customer is looking for. Google will crawl product descriptions for relevant keywords, to make sure again that your product is relevant to the user’s search. There is more room in the product description for more keywords to be used, increasing the chances of Google showing your advert. To optimise your feed, it should be comprehensive, and the extra keywords should be near the start but not overly repeated (keyword stuffing).
Google product type
Although not a required attribute it is an important one in terms of optimising and increasing your chance of appearing. This is a free entry, no drop-down in sight. That means it is an opportunity to use your main keywords again. It can have a significant impact on the search terms you appear for. The product type is only visible to Google and not to users.
Google Shopping Feed Advice
To be successful using Google Shopping, your product feed needs to be optimised and your Google Ads campaign needs to be managed well. If either of these two elements are not done well, you are unlikely to see sales increase. This is why we recommend seeking advice from experienced digital marketers and PPC experts. Sierra Six Media manages Google Shopping feeds and campaigns for clients from a wide spectrum of industries. Contact our team of SEO Experts for more info.
Rachel Downes, Content Creator, Sierra Six Media.
