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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 6:45:42 GMT -6
New article on eCommerceByte www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y14/m07/i01/s02
Online merchants who advertise their products through Google must yet again adjust their product feeds to comply with new requirements. There are several changes, but one that may break the bank for some sellers is Google's new "image quality recommendations."
Google Shopping now states on its products feed specs page: "The main image should be taken on a solid white, gray or light colored background. It should not include borders."
Some online sellers object to such requirements - particularly for all-white products, for example. Others object simply because it will be costly for them to take new photographs for all of their inventory. Note that merchants cannot submit products that have no images.
Will Google reject product ads that don't comply with these new requirements once they take effect in September? A Google spokesperson told EcommerceBytes the image quality tips, including use of background colors, are recommendations to help improve the quality of images shown on Google Shopping, and are not mandatory.
Other Google Shopping requirements around images include the following:
•Submit the largest, highest resolution, full-size image you have for the product, up to 4MB file size.
•We recommend images at least 800 pixels in height and width.
•Do not scale up images or submit thumbnails. We recommend the product to take no less than 75%, but not more than 90%, of the full image.
•For apparel products we require images of at least 250 x 250 pixels.
The full details about image requirements is available on this page - expand "image link - URL of an image of the item" under "Basic Product Information" to view the details.
Other Google Shopping Feed Requirements
While it may feel like an endless chore to keep up with rules from ecommerce platforms, shopper expectations have come a long way since the days when online sellers used scanners to upload product photographs to auction sites and input homey descriptions to go along with their listings. And like many other ecommerce services these days, Google Shopping is trying to optimize for mobile shoppers. Sellers can now provide a separate mobile landing page via the "mobile link" attribute, "to ensure online shopping via all mobile phones works well."
Among the other changes to Google Shopping feed requirements are the following:
•Expanded support for merchant-defined bundles. Many consumer products are sold in custom bundles, such as a camera with a lens and a bag. The feed specification now includes the "is bundle" attribute, which should be used when submitting merchant-defined bundles.
•Simplification of the Availability attribute (by merging "in stock" with "available for order" and removing "available for order").
•More examples and clearer guidance on all things apparel, and the addition of new values to "age group" and two new size attributes ("size system" and "size type").
Google also has a new landing page content policy. Landing page refers to the initial webpage rendered when a user clicks on a product listing, after passing through any redirects, and before the user takes any manual action.
"Google Shopping requires that after clicking a product listing, a user should end up on a landing page that works properly and displays a product offer that is essentially identical to the product listing you submitted to Google in your product data, regardless of the user's device, browser, location, cookies, your ad targeting choices, or any other consideration. After reaching your landing page, users must be able to return to the previous page where they clicked your product listing by clicking once their browser's back button." More information is available on this Google page
Some of the updates require sellers to change their current product data - Google Shopping is giving merchants until September 30, 2014, to implement the changes. See more information on this page.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 8:38:36 GMT -6
Sounds like the majority will be up to the site itself to take care of thankfully.
I've got some black photos that I need to take care of.....not a whole lot but some. I'll miss having the option of black backgrounds though.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 18:44:01 GMT -6
Google also has a new landing page content policy. Landing page refers to the initial webpage rendered when a user clicks on a product listing, after passing through any redirects, and before the user takes any manual action.
"Google Shopping requires that after clicking a product listing, a user should end up on a landing page that works properly and displays a product offer that is essentially identical to the product listing you submitted to Google in your product data, regardless of the user's device, browser, location, cookies, your ad targeting choices, or any other consideration. After reaching your landing page, users must be able to return to the previous page where they clicked your product listing by clicking once their browser's back button."
Hmm, so does this mean that Bonanza has to change it's feed so our items don't show up as part of "Like" other items in queries on Organic search pages? AND does Google have to stop showing us grouped together and each listing individually instead? That's what I'd like to know.
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Post by PickyChicky on Jul 1, 2014 19:47:18 GMT -6
So glad I don't have to worry about Google Shopping anymore. While I understand some of the changes as they're intended to improve the quality of the images being shown and there are a TON of images out there that simply should never have been used. As for the rest, or expecting a one-size fits all for mobile and non-mobile users, it's ridiculous.
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Post by kenoticket on Jul 1, 2014 22:08:10 GMT -6
Hmm, so does this mean that Bonanza has to change it's feed so our items don't show up as part of "Like" other items in queries on Organic search pages? AND does Google have to stop showing us grouped together and each listing individually instead? That's what I'd like to know. I was wondering the same thing.
The whole time I was reading about this, I kept wondering how is Bonanza going to try to get around this.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 22:17:31 GMT -6
Hmm, so does this mean that Bonanza has to change it's feed so our items don't show up as part of "Like" other items in queries on Organic search pages? Well, I don't think so. The new requirements are for Google Shopping, not organic. It would be nice, though. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2014 22:47:57 GMT -6
I was just thinking.........I imagine that it would only have to be the first image, the one that shows up in Google shopping, to have to have a white or light background color.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2014 7:38:32 GMT -6
@toysandtreasures,
I have this theory...
Since everything on Google organic comes by way of them actually crawling our pages, the only way Google can lump us together is if they are pulling info from the GPS feeds.
If this is true, then Bonanza would have to stop providing what ever info they are providing that lumps us all together like that.
That's the only thing I can figure. It should not be permitted. Unless Google is doing it on their own in order to show many more spots in it's queries. They should then have to abide by their own rules.
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Post by PickyChicky on Jul 2, 2014 8:04:14 GMT -6
That's something that Bonz is doing for it to show up like that in organic. I have never seen any other marketplace present its sellers' results lumped together like that in organic -- nor any department store for that matter. Larger retailers might have the various link options for the site showing in their organic listing (ie, Products, Contact, Store Locations, etc.), but not actual products.
The way it appears in Shopping is Google's doing because they're listing similar products from a variety of stores/ marketplaces. You don't see any products lumped together in Shopping that are just from one site, unless it's the only site where it's available and/or that has product feeds that are in compliance.
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Post by cindybear on Jul 2, 2014 13:12:36 GMT -6
That's something that Bonz is doing for it to show up like that in organic. I have never seen any other marketplace present its sellers' results lumped together like that in organic -- nor any department store for that matter. Larger retailers might have the various link options for the site showing in their organic listing (ie, Products, Contact, Store Locations, etc.), but not actual products. The way it appears in Shopping is Google's doing because they're listing similar products from a variety of stores/ marketplaces. You don't see any products lumped together in Shopping that are just from one site, unless it's the only site where it's available and/or that has product feeds that are in compliance. I have actually seen it for ebay (if they cannot match the search phrase, they give 'like items') amazon, nextag and sears...bonz is not the only place that is doing this now...even google shopping does it |
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Post by kenoticket on Jul 2, 2014 13:44:40 GMT -6
Yes, I've seen it at other places also. But I hope this puts a stop to that!
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Post by PickyChicky on Jul 2, 2014 14:24:39 GMT -6
Are you talking about in Google organic search results? I just tried searching for several items in Google organic that nobody had a match for and didn't see any list of like items -- not even from Bonz when I added "Bonanza" to the search terms. I know they all do it in Google Shopping, though.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2014 21:35:43 GMT -6
I've seen where eBay does it, but they're sneaky. You don't know you're going to a "Like" page until you get there, and often, the item you're searching for is not even available anymore. And yes, this is in Google Organic.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2014 21:36:37 GMT -6
OMG! Gonna try to delete two of those three triplicate posts above.
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Post by kenoticket on Jul 5, 2014 21:36:44 GMT -6
There's an echo in here.
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