As an ecommerce seller, it's important to make sure your Google Shopping listings are optimized in order to sell more products. By following a few simple tips, you can ensure that your listings stand out and attract potential buyers.
First, make sure your product titles are clear and concise. Buyers should be able to quickly and easily understand what your product is and what it does.
Include high-quality product photos in your listings. Photos should be clear and show your product in use, if possible.
Finally, include helpful and informative product descriptions. Describe your product's features and benefits, and be sure to include any relevant keywords that buyers might use when searching for your product.
By following these tips, you can optimize your Google Shopping listings and sell more products on ecommerce.
Use Fera To Show Your Ratings On Google Shopping
If you need more details, keep reading and we will get into the nitty-gritty explaining what Google Shopping is, how to get your products listed, and how to optimize them.
How to Get Reviews To Show In Google Shopping
History of Google Shopping
Realizing that most users searching on Google had shopping intentions, Google created Google Shopping in late 2002.
It was first known as Google Products Search and Froogle, and was used to direct users with the products that they were searching for.
Studies have shown that new customers using Google Shopping actions are 14% more valuable than those who do not use them.
In 2012, Google Shopping introduced a new payment model.
This platform combined Google Merchant Center and Google Product Ads as a way to advertise your product listings and control the inventory levels.
What Is a Google Shopping Feed?
Google Shopping Feed is a spreadsheet that contains all of your product data, which Google uses to construct product listings.
Every bit of information presented in your listings is extracted from your shopping feed.
Your product feed must include all the Required Information suggested from Google, such as product titles, image links, availability, descriptions, prices, and more.
This is the necessary information that all product listings must include; you can see the full list on the following link.
Without putting this information, Google can't create your product listings!
Your Google Shopping Feeds can also include various optional data, such as additional image links, clothes size, shipping costs, delivery lengths, and dozens of other information.
These will allow you to present more information for buyers to help them make the buying decision and allow Google to deliver related listings for specific searches.
E.g., "men's leather coat" or "women's sandals size 10".
Why a Google Shopping Feed is Essential to e-Commerce Success
If you are (or you are considering to be) an online store or eCommerce owner, you should consider including Google Shopping in your marketing strategies.
The most significant benefit of Google Shopping is the increased exposure for eCommerce business owners.
Those who use Google Shopping to find particular products will now see your products in the feed, which helps them as well as you.
There are two major reasons to use Google Shopping:
- You will be providing Google with the data it needs to create and deliver your product listings.
- Users will be able to find the perfect product they are looking for and make a better purchasing decision.
As a general rule, the more data you provide to Google, the more accurately Google will be able to show your product listings to appropriate users, meaning they're more likely to buy from you.
This is why product feed optimization is crucial, so be sure to read until the end to know how to properly optimize your product listings!
Google Shopping has some significant differences if you compare it to normal text ads of Google Ads campaigns.
Shopping campaigns utilize great pictures to promote your products and show them (including the price too, which is a great advantage) to those searching for them on Google.
Back in 2019, half of all US online buyers claimed that they went to Amazon when searching for a product, while about 22% started searching for the product on Google.
For marketers looking to expand the inbound eCommerce strategy, getting on Shopping will offer strong opportunities for exploiting a new Google Shopping organic ranking system.
Creating a Product Feed
Before placing any product listings, businesses will need to make sure they meet the requirements.
If you already possess a Merchant Center account, then you've likely already opted in to all the essential Surfaces Across Google program.
If you are new to the Merchant Center, you will be required to create a free account and a product feed containing all of the products you want to sell within Google's listings.
A product feed is a document file that contains a list of all the products you want to advertise through the Merchant Center.
Here is how you attach the feed file of your products:
- Go to the Google Merchant Center and then click the tools icon located at the top right corner of your screen.
- Under the section that is labeled "Setup," click Business data.
- From the Page menu that is positioned on the left, click data feeds.
- Then click the little plus button. and select Choose files
- Then attach your feed file and click on Apply.
- The more relevant details you include in the product feed, the more likely you are to appear in customers' searches and to grab their attention. So let’s talk about what are the best ways that you will be able to optimize your product feed.
How You Can Optimize Your Google Shopping Listings
Product Title
The very first thing you need to optimize your Google Shopping Listing is focusing on the product title.
Pick a target keyword and get it as close to the front of your title as possible.
They need to be specific and descriptive with minimal spam. A well-optimized title boosts your CTR up to 10x, so it's worth spending some time improving this process.
Product Description
Google gives us over 5,000(!) characters to use in this description.
This is really a lot of words, so you need to make sure that you are highlighting all the important product details and have the keyword from the product title.
Also, make sure that your description is precise and engaging to the reader!
Product Category
Be sure that you select the correct product category on the back end.
This is a required part of the feed, meaning you must pick a category from Google's Taxonomy listing.
There are over 7,000 categories and subcategories, so it's crucial you choose the category that fits your product the best.
For example, let's say that you are selling Bandanas.
You could use:
Apparel & Accessories > Clothing Accessories > Bandanas & Headties
But, you should use:
Apparel & Accessories > Clothing Accessories > Bandanas & Headties > Bandanas
This way, your product doesn’t get lost among the plethora of a category like Banadas & Headties, and it is now categorized among only bandanas.
Product Pictures
According to a Salsify survey, nearly 68% of e-commerce shoppers want to see at least three product pictures — quality brand shots, not user-generated ones — when they're reading product listings.
Buyers are looking for value for the money, and they want to be able to make a fast decision; that is why poor-quality pictures will turn them off.
When picking out pictures for your product feed, here are a couple of things that you can keep in mind:
- Size: Utilize high-quality pictures with a max of 32 megapixels and 13 MB. The main images must be at least 200×200 pixels, and all other photos should be at least 100×100 pixels.
- Selection: Your main picture should properly display the whole product on a white background.
- Excluded: Google will decline your product listing if you apply logos, generic graphics, or placeholder images.
Product Ratings
Product ratings are important because buyers need to know more about the product.
It's also an excellent way to advocate your good ratings and increase your odds of selling online.
Before you can even optimize your Google Seller Ratings, you need to make sure they're showing up in your store listing.
According to Google Shopping's documentation, your business requires at least 100 unique seller reviews from the past 12 months.
Fera tools include several features that will make it easier to get to 100 ratings faster; if you are interested in boosting your click-through rates and sales conversions, then social proof or seller ratings are the most important thing.
BONUS: Don't Exclude out-of-stock products
On most shopping channels, once the product runs out of stock, you simply exclude it.
However, this isn't the case with Google Shopping, Google automatically adjusts product stock for your product through the availability field.
By making some of the products out of stock on Google Shopping, it will take a while for Google to reprocess everything once your products are back in stock.
This can lead to a negative impact on the performance of your Google Shopping Feed experience.
Conclusion
Research. Work. Try new markets and new techniques.
If something isn't quite working for you, then look at the lessons you've learned and let them inform your next decision.
Using our mentioned strategies, you'll be well on your way to an optimized product feed and Google Shopping success.
Good luck! 🚀
