5 Easy Steps to Optimize your Google Shopping Product Feed in 2020

optimizing google shopping feed

85% of product searches start on Google. Is that enough to convince you to start selling your products on this platform that is getting bigger by the day? 

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic, online shopping has reached new heights. In fact, a lot of E-commerce businesses have managed to take full advantage of the limitations set by the physical world and switched to all digital platforms to make themselves discoverable. 

Google Shopping ads drive 76% of retail search ads spend and generate over 80% of all clicks on Google Ads.

However, simply listing your products on Google Shopping does not guarantee immediate sales.

Here are some tips that can help you optimize your Google Shopping product feed listing in 2020.

1. Search-friendly product titles

A general rule-of-thumb while creating compelling product titles is placing the keyword as close to the start as possible. 

Avoid stuffing keywords in hopes that they will boost your listing – in fact it’ll do the opposite.

Make sure you include the brand, color, size, dimensions, gender and any relevant aspects of your listing so that a customer can figure out exactly what you’re selling without having to read the description.

2. Refine product categories

The better you select your product category, the more chance of it showing up on your potential customer’s search results.

For instance, here’s an example of a store that might sell colorful thermoses: 

Home & Garden -> Kitchen & Dining -> Food & Beverage Carriers -> Thermoses

You might be surprised by the level of filtering that comes with Google Shopping’s categories. It might seem arduous but it’s well worth your time.

3. Use clean but compelling product images

The combination of a great title with an equally great product image can work wonders for your Google Shopping listing.

You do not have to have a fancy set up to get great pictures.

Simply use a clean, plain, preferably white background and make sure your products are centrally aligned to the frame. 

Avoid using watermarks, logos, or any text on your images.

4. Make full use of product description

No one’s interested in reading the history of your thermos and the wonders it does to keep the family together during winter. 

Google prioritizes the keywords used in your product description. 

Just like the title, avoid stuffing keywords here as well. 

What you can do instead, is include a secondary keyword that compliments the primary keyword. 

Use short sentences that describe the basic usability/functionality of your product. 

5. Spice up listings with merchant promotions

Merchant Promotions is a free feature that allows you to distribute online promotions with Shopping ads on Google.com. 

When you add promotions to products that you sell on Google, shoppers see a “special offer” link (e.g. 15% off, free shipping, etc.). This link can increase the appeal of your Shopping ads and encourage shoppers to buy. 

Here are the types of promotions that Google lets you use: 

Discounts: Percent off, cashback, buy one get one free, or buy one get 2nd percent off

Free gifts: Free item or free gift card for a specified value

Shipping: Free or discounted shipping 

Automate your Google Shopping listings

Creating Google Shopping product feed can take anywhere from a few minutes to hours depending on the number of products you have.

You can use a feed management solution like ExportFeed to make sure your listings are free of errors and more importantly, sync seamlessly with your online store without having to manually update them every so often.

List Shopify & BigCommerce products under multiple Google categories in one go

Shopify BigCommerce products under different Google categories

Within the comfort of your own Shopify and BigCommerce store, you don’t need to stick to selling products under one category. You could sell products under men and subcategorize products like summer wear, winter wear and so on.

But how would you map that category when exporting your products to Google Merchant center? For this, you need to map multiple categories of your shop to multiple categories of Google merchant.

Shopify Google Shopping Integration – how to start and how to prepare for success?

https://www.godatafeed.com/blog/google-shift-to-shopping-actions

The best part about Google Shopping is that it takes your product attributes as the keywords. This alone increases your possibility of reaching more potential customers. This is so huge that you can’t miss implementing. That is one but there are more reasons why you should start your Shopify Google Shopping Integration.

Think about the number of products that you have in your Shopify store. Now, think about their attributes. Any combination of product attributes such as product size and category can be the keyword used to display your products.

Someone searches for a large t-shirt and Google Shopping may display your products, or the same product may be shown for a cotton t-shirt. The size and category were taken at the first ad display and at second, the material and category were taken as the keyword combination.