Google Product Search: Mandatory feed update required

Google Product Search is changing; as of 15/08/2011 a new feed specification will start to come into effect. Merchants who fail to comply will find their products removed from Google Product Search.

What is Google Product search?

If you’re not familiar with the name, Google Product Search gives online businesses the opportunity to have a presence in Google’s shopping results. Earlier this year we ran a blog piece talking about this service, if you missed it you can read it here.

So what is the new specification?

Google will be shortly issuing warnings to many Google Shopping feed owners that do not supply the following information alongside their existing feeds:

• Brand
• Gtin – EAN or barcode number
• Mpn – manufacturer product number

Any two of these three product identifiers must be displayed for the feed to stay live. If this information is not supplied then your feed will be suspended and if not corrected, deactivated.

As of 22^nd September 2011, further information will need to be displayed including:

• Availability – you must display whether the item is in stock or not.

This is required for all Google shopping feeds.

Other product identifiers such as Google category may also be needed depending on the nature of your business.

A full list of the other variations, depending on what items are being sold can be viewed here: Google’s summary of attribute requirements.

For your Google shopping feed to continue to run without a hitch, please contact us to discuss the options available. We can upgrade your website to incorporate new functionality, so that you can populate the new data into your feed.

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