Virtual Catalog: what it is, how to create it and how to promote it
If you have an e-commerce business, you may want to have Google list your product pages among the first search results, known as Google Shopping . Today we are going to analyze what product feed optimization for Google Shopping is , what it is for and how you should use it to get the most out of your product feed.
What does the term product feed optimization mean?
Product feed optimization refers to a method of optimizing the virtual catalog of products distributed by an e-commerce platform. It influences the web positioning of the aforementioned product sheets (sheets), so that they occupy the first positions when a customer searches for a product by keywords in Google Shopping .
When an online store optimizes the entries that make up said database, it is said to be optimizing its product feed . This optimization consists of correctly structuring the product sheets to facilitate Google’s crawling process .
What is a product feed for?
It is very likely that, on more than one occasion, you have resorted to Google Shopping< to check the price or availability of the products sold by the different online stores that operate on the Internet, instead of searching for them one by one on each e- commerce .
So, if you don’t know exactly what the product feed is , you should know that it is in front of you every time you make these queries. It is a database that collects information about the catalog of products that an online store offers for sale .
What a product feed should be like
Qualification
Google typically scans the first 50 characters of a product description to consider whether it matches the user’s search intent: the title should clearly reflect what you’re selling.
Description
In this section you should think in SEO terms , which means including keywords relevant to users’ Google search. They must be related keywords, including long tail keywords that help position your product among the main results.
Category
The category will be within Google’s product taxonomy . If you are able to place the product in the most relevant category, you will be helping your customers easily navigate to your product page.
Image
Your product sheet should always include a descriptive image , which will help not so much with Google positioning, but with the user’s reaction; After all, information always enters through the eyes first.
Price
This field contains the RRP of the product in your online store. Choosing the best price requires a trial and error method on many occasions, but never without losing sight of your competition’s prices and your structural costs.
GTIN
The acronym GTIN stands for Global Trade Item Number . It is a standard for identifying commercial items worldwide that consists of assigning a unique numbering to each product. Google takes this data, along with the supplier’s information, to display its product ads alongside those of other sellers who also market it.
Product feed optimization has a direct impact on the visibility of an e-commerce. If your customers are not able to find your products by searching for them on Google, they may not even know that you exist, so you will not have the option of reaching new customers massively.