FreeWebStore: Google Product Search Basics

Getting the best from Google Product Search: 12 Tips for Maximising your Product Listings
It's remarkably exciting having all our products listed on Google Product Search. Here are some tips to help you squeeze every last benefit from this new function.

April 2008, FreeWebStore.org

Welcome to Google Product Search! As from 10pm BST tonight, on the 3rd April 2008, you are now able to list all your items straight into Google Product Search.

What does this mean?
Basically, the hundreds of millions of users Google has will see your products, if they use Google Product Search (Formerly Froogle) or they make a search on Google's main page for a common product, should your product be relevant enough to the search. Your products now have a global reach of millions.

You can choose to upload them one at a time, or bulk upload everything. Each product can take up to 20 seconds to upload to Google Product Search, so if you have a very large inventory, you can submit all your products at once. If you submit all, we will process all products in our queue at midnight BST.

You also must ensure your items comply with Google's Terms of Service, naturally.

Also, please bear in mind the following:

     Products which belong to no category are not uploaded to Google Product Search
     Products with names less than three characters are not uploaded to Google Product Search
     Products with no image are not uploaded to Google Product Search

It can vary how long it takes to see your product on Froogle. Throughout our intensive testing period our results have shown this time can be anything from 2 minutes to 12 hours. Regardless of how huge an opportunity this is, please exercise patience when checking for your items.

And now, your starter for 12...

12 Top Tips for maximising Google Product Search's performance

1. People search, then sort by price. If you have free P&P, say so right at the start of your product description. This is a very strong lure for customers jaded with low-price-high-delivery-cost auction sites.

2. It's preferable to have your product names in this format: Brand | Model | Product Type.
      i.e. Motorola - F3 - Sim Free Mobile Phone

3. Leave marketing out of your product description - at the very least keep your first paragraph descriptive and concise. This helps search engines correctly identify your products, and therefore show it to people who are looking for it.

4. Don't start product descriptions with short bullet points. When put into one paragraph, it looks bad.

5. Try to use large, clear images on blank backgrounds. Nothing screams side-project more than items photographed on a chequered table-cloth.

6. Again - people sort by price! If you notice other people selling similar items for less on Google Product Search, reconsider your pricing strategy to increase your conversion rates.

7. DON'T USE ALL CAPS. don't use all lower case. Take some time, and get things correct. It looks so much better, and raised confidence immensely. If you're not too hot at typing, pay somebody to do it for you (What else are children for...?) The same applies to spelling - if your spelling lets you down, consider asking a friend very nicely to help.

8. Offer Google Checkout, and contact Google to get your Google Checkout logo added to your listings.

9. Consider a small advertising campaign with Google. You can do this for a few pounds – and in doing so you will get Google to examine your site more thoroughly. Once Google has assessed and ranked your site, your products should benefit from added rankings for relevant searches.

10. Get your site on its own domain name. This both looks more professional, and helps users find you. We provide domain names with some packages, or you can head to 123-reg.co.uk to buy your own. Either way, it's a cost-effective and easy way to maximise your store's selling potential.

11. Choose your product name carefully. Consider what people are likely to search for.

12. Remember that people are seeing your product and your product only. Use full product names, do not think because a "red" carpet tile is in a "carpet tiles" category, people will necessarily know it's a carpet tile.

Bonus tip number 13: If at all possible, please add a "brand" to your products; this will help Google get the best possible results for your searches.

In closing...

We have worked hard to make this happen, and we trust that you will enjoy the results; this is only the first stage of our plan to bolster your sales across the board. Please keep up-to-date with the news in your Control Panel to hear of some equally exicting developments which are imminent - all designed to help you sell more.