Search Engine Optimization - New Google Merchant Center Requirements

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New Google Merchant Center Requirements - Shoes

Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Search Engine Optimization
Forum Description: Talk about ways to optimize your ProductCart store for search engines
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4705
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Topic: New Google Merchant Center Requirements - Shoes

Posted By: eeversole
Subject: New Google Merchant Center Requirements - Shoes
Date Posted: 03-September-2011 at 12:33am

Hi,

I am in the process of updating my store database to meet the needs of the new Google Merchant Center requirements for shoes and apparel which Google will begin to enforce later this month. Specifically, the feeds will now require attributes for Size, Age Group, Color, Availability, Gender and Google Product Category (based on their taxonomy). My main question is how do I add these fields to the ProductCart Google Base Feed Generator so that they will be included in the export file?

Any help would be appreciated.

Replies:

Posted By: steverguy
Date Posted: 20-September-2011 at 3:18pm

There is a Google Update in EI's blog that addresses this: http://blog.earlyimpact.com/2011_06_01_archive.html" rel="nofollow - http://blog.earlyimpact.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

That being said, it doesn't address the Google Product Category. We're working through that right now. I wonder if 4.5 will be more compatible with Google.

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"Remember, 72.5% of all statistics are made up."

Posted By: eeversole
Date Posted: 20-September-2011 at 3:36pm

Yes, the update address the issue with the new requirements for MPN/UPC but there are also requirements for condition, availability, gender, age group, size and the Google Product Category (as you mentioned). On top of that if the item is apparel (shoes or clothing), there must be a separate listing for each size. It is a bit of a nightmare but we have been using the Custom Search Fields and have modified the Advanced Product Export file to export all of the sub-products and create the feed.

Posted By: rosamatsas
Date Posted: 03-November-2011 at 1:15pm

I came upon your post and i am in the same predicament where i have an apparel store (shoes and clothing) and i want to be able to create a feed for Google.

Were you able find a way to assign a UPC for your apparel products from within the cart? or do you use the Advance Product Export and then amend that with UPC?

Posted By: eeversole
Date Posted: 03-November-2011 at 2:26pm

Yes, we were able to find a work around but it did require a fair bit of manual work and some help with Greg with Greybeard. In short, I modified the Advanced Product Export process (the ReverseImport.asp files) to produce a cvs file which now contains the new requirements. One thing I had to do was to convert every product into an Apparel product to allow for the new requirement of submitting every size/color for each product.

To answer your specifc question regarding the MPN/UPC, what I did was setup a new Customer Serach Field called "mpn" and then exported all of our products (parent products only) with just the SKU field. I was fortunate in that our SKU and MPN match so I simply then created an import file of only the SKU and MPN fields and then imported that into ProductCart

I'd be willing to document out all the steps I took and send them to you but I did pay Greg for some of his code work and so I'll need to check with him before I provide you anything he did. I also spent about 6 hours of my own time getting it to work so I might ask for a little bit of compensation. Not much, just the time it takes for me to write everything out.