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Unique Google Shopping Feed Optimization Tips To Drive More Sales [2024]

Unique Google Shopping Feed Optimization Tips To Drive More Sales [2024]

Google Shopping is currently the best option to promote products online. Since Google is the number one search engine today, its shopping campaigns always bring the best results.

According to The Media Campaign, 46% of all product searches are made via Google.

So most startup eCommerce businesses leverage this to their avantage by promoting their products via Google Shopping.

If you own a WooCommerce store, then promoting your products on the Google Merchant Center can be a game-changer to drive more sales. However, you have to make sure the product data you submit is properly optimized for conversion.

In this article, you will learn a few important Google Shopping Feed optimization tactics that you should embrace if you want successful results. After reading this article you will learn

  • Why it is important to optimize Google product feed
  • Which product data should be optimized for the best results
  • How you can optimize these data to convert more buyers

And in the long run, you will be able to get more sales from Google Shopping campaigns and grow your business. So let’s begin.

Challenges Of Promoting Products via Google Shopping

As much as Google Shopping drives sales, there are a few challenges that you need to overcome to be able to get the best outcome.

  1. Your product feed data must meet Google’s feed structure
    Google shopping has its own defined feed structure which you need to follow if you want to list products there. What most store finds difficult to do is to make sure they have met all the criteria explained in their product data specification. So you should create a product feed that meets all requirements.
  1. Rejection of product feed by Google
    The biggest issue people face is that the data people submit are rejected by Google due to one or more reasons. The most common reasons Google rejects are
    • mismatched data between the website’s schema, feed, and frontend view
    • missing required product data
    • dynamic pricing issue
    • wrong currency, and
    • variation product data mismatch.
  1. Products listed on Google Shopping but not getting results
    This is a blind spot for many online shops that sell via Google Shopping. Many believe just listing products there should bring results. But the fact here is, that you need to optimize some of your product data to get better results. This may include the product title, images, category, offer prices, and even your website’s design.

    **Submitting basic product data will not trigger potential buyers to purchase, you have to make sure to optimize the data so that the product Ads and listings will convince the prospect to make a buying decision.

Throughout this article, you will learn all the possible ways to improve your product feed data that will make your Google Shopping campaign successful.

6 Proven Google Shopping Feed Optimization Tips That Can Trigger More Sales

Following are some of the best tactics you can follow to expect the best results when promoting your products via Google Shopping.

1. Optimized Product Title To Match Search Queries

The product title is a vital element that you can use to drive the right traffic. It is a crucial element that is not only necessary to optimize for SEO, but all to increase conversion rate.

When a buyer is looking for a product, the Title is one of the first things the prospects will judge your product by.

You have to make the title meaningful in a way so that just by reading it, the buyer feels like this is what he/she was looking for. This will help to trigger more potential buyers to click on the Google Shopping Ads for your products that appear above the search results.

The best way to optimize a product title is to add some extra elements to the title that will highlight its specialty or features.

For example, let’s say you are selling a cream in France called ‘Avène Tolérance Extrême Cream.’

Now, if you leave the name as is, only the buyers that are familiar with Avène or have researched the brand will recognize this product. Others may not click on the Shopping Ad with that title.

But, let’s consider naming it ‘Avène Tolérance Extrême – Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin, 50ml.’

This title specifies that

  • this cream is by Avène (i.e. the product brand)
  • it’s a Moisturizer (not a beauty cream)
  • it’s for Sensitive Skin (i.e. skin type), and
  • it is the ’50ml’ pack.

As you can see, this title will clearly tell a buyer, who has zero knowledge about this product, if it is for her, i.e., a higher chance of a conversion.

Just like that, you can optimize the product title for any product by adding elements such as the product brand, color, size, capacity, quantity, special feature, model, who it’s for, or even it’s use case.

Here are a few more examples for different product types:

  • Books or Novels – Book Name + Genre + Author Name
    Example: The Da Vinci Code – Mystery Thriller by Dan Brown
  • Electronics – Product Brand + Product Name + Model + Special feature
    Example: OnePlus Nord N20 5G – 13 + 3 + 3 MP Camera, 64GB RAM
  • Clothing Products – Brand + Product Name + Color + Size + Material
    Example: Gant The Original T-Shirt – Red, XL, 100% Cotton

This approach is a proven tactic and easy to embrace.

Things to avoid when optimizing product title:

  • Avoid Promotional terms on the title.
  • Don’t stuff keywords if it doesn’t fit
  • Don’t use all capital letters in a title.
  • Avoid special symbols.

2. Unique Image Optimization Tricks To Connect With Buyers

Once you list on Google Shopping, the product image plays a huge part in convincing buyers to choose your product among others.

So you must make sure you are using images that clearly show what the product actually is. This is especially important for products such as clothing and accessories, decoratives, tech products, toys, etc.

The most common advice photographers will give you is to take product images with a white background (or a contrasting background if your product is White). This is definitely the best approach if you want to clearly keep your buyers focused on your product.

However, when people search for products on Google, a lot of products are suggested in a single row. So the idea of a distraction-free view of the product doesn’t really apply there unless the product has a catchy color combination.

Here are a couple of unique tactics you can follow that may help you stand out.

  • Use a shaded-white background
    The concept here is to use a gradient background with a mix of white and light grey to give a shaded feel at the back. This creates an unexpected classy impression of the product in the center.
  • Find the most uncommon color for your niche
    If you have competition in the market, you can do a quick search on Google with your product title and look at the suggested product Ads. See which background colors are commonly used. Then you can decide on an uncommon background color that may make your Ad stand out among most other product Ads.
    *It’s best to consult with a professional UX designer for this as they will be more expert in suggesting backgrounds that stand out.
  • Use contrast backgrounds
    Large brands such as Zara have embraced the concept of solid contrast background colors and it delivered great results. So it’s a proven approach you can choose to embrace as well.
  • Choose an angle that highlights the best feature(s)
    Often you have to be creative about how you take the picture. You will see that in modern-day eCommerce, most shoe brands take the approach of placing two shoes in two ways – one is laid on the ground and the other is kept upright. This is to try and show all views of the shoes. Likewise, you can look for ideas that will help to highlight your products in a way that looks more appealing.
  • If Possible, Use Square Images
    Since all Google Shopping Ads are displayed with square images, it’s best if you too could provide images in that size. In most shops, people tend to keep a longer height for the product images. What this will do is either Google will fit the image via the longest dimension, in this case, the height, making the image smaller in the process. A square image will maintain the right dimension ratio and view your product in the best possible size.

    **If you use square images, you can also try using an image border to make your product stand out.

It’s best you make these changes in your WooCommerce store and then use those image links in the product feed data for Google for the best results.

For Product variations, make sure to have specific images for each variation rather than just a single image for all variants.

Things to avoid when optimizing product images:

  • Do not use unclear or blurry images
  • Avoid including product price in the images
  • Avoid using promotional words in the images (e.g. Special offer, 10% discount, etc)
  • Do not cluster the product background with unnecessary elements

Here are a few image guidelines suggested by Google.

3. Follow Google’s Category Hierarchy In Your Store

The product category is important to help buyers navigate and find a certain type of product they are looking for. At the same time, Google also maintains a categorization of products to display your shopping ads to the right audience.

Google doesn’t make it mandatory for you to submit a product category field, but it does look for the category in your store in order to place a product under its right search intent category. So it’s necessary for you to maintain proper categorization in your store.

It’s best to maintain your product category structure as per Google as most other marketplaces also follow the same category hierarchy.

You can take help from Google’s taxonomy list to optimize the categories on your website.

However, just maintaining the categories is not the only optimization. You have to ensure you are assigning your product to the most relevant possible product category.

For example, if are selling a Baby Bathtub, then do not just assign it under the category ‘Baby & Toddler’ or the ‘Baby & Toddler > Baby Bathing’. It should rather go under the further child category ‘Baby & Toddler > Baby Bathing > Baby Bathtubs & Bath Seats.’

This will help you keep track of your products more efficiently and help Google display your products to the right audience.

Tips To Optimize Product Category

  • In WooCommerce, when choosing a child category, make sure to mark the parent category as well.
  • Even if you do not follow Google’s taxonomy, make sure to keep the categories meaningful. Google can relate via the meanings of your set categories.
  • Avoid using special characters in category names.

4. Try To Maintain Consistent Product Data Everywhere

It is important to make sure your buyers do not get confused with your products.

For example, if you have one title in your WooCommerce store, and another title in your Google Shopping listings, it may cause some confusion – the buyer may initially get baffled and start looking for the description, or often, if they are in a hurry, they will simply close the tab and look for other options.

The same can be the same if you have a different meta title and schema which will alter your traditional search result Title and the title Google bot will find in the schema.

So the best practice is to try to keep all your product data same whereever it is listed.

What to do if you have already added a lot of products without optimized data?

Yes, it can be hectic to change the titles, descriptions, images, or other product data for optimization for all the products that you have already added to your WooCommerce store.

If you have fewer products in-store, then it’s best to take the time and make the changes.

In case you have a lot of products, you can leave them as-is and start optimizing the data for all the new products that you will add in the future.

This will ensure that you will get the best sales results for your new products. Over time, the old products will eventually be sold out and there will be a time when your store will have all products with optimized data.

Should you not optimize the product feed data for the old products?

One of the questions that may arise is if you keep the old product data unchanged, should you simply submit those data without optimizing them?

The answer is no. Even if you can’t take the time to optimize the product data in your store, you should at least optimize some elements of the product when adding them to the Google product feed – seemingly the product title and category.

This may not solve the confusion issue due to different content, it will still trigger more buyers to at least visit your store.

  • Google normally does not reject your feed due to Title as long as the main Title keywords are included in your product title in the feed.
  • The category is important as it helps Google to properly display your products to the right audience.

Apart from this, you should also consider making sure all the required product data by Google is consistent in both your product schema and your product page. This is important because Google will crawl your website before approving your product feed and may reject products if a mismatch exists for required attributes.

5. Include All Required Product Data In WooCommerce

The required product attributes that Google recommends are more than just for product feed. If you make sure to include those data for your products properly, then it will also help you rank in terms of SEO.

Following are the recommended attributes by Google that you should include for products in your WooCommerce store as well:

  • Produkt-ID
  • Produkt-Titel
  • Produktbeschreibung
  • Produkt-Link/URL
  • Produkt-Kategorie
  • Produkt-Bild-URL
  • Verfügbarkeit der Bestände
  • Regulärer Preis
  • Produkt-Zustand
  • Hersteller/Markenname
  • GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)
  • MPN (Hersteller-Teilenummer)
  • Specific product attributes
    • Material
    • Altersgruppe
    • Farbe
    • Geschlecht
    • Größe

Some of these are important for proper product Ads distribution, for example, the GTIN can help identify your product’s legitimacy and help Google to choose a more appropriate category.

Some of these data can also be used to trigger conversion on the product page. For example, the specific product attributes are things buyers look at when considering buying something for personal use, such as a Jacket. Plus, these attributes can also be used to create variations of the same product.

Now, some of the data here cannot be included in the default WooCommerce.

For example, there is no default product field for GTIN, MPN, or Brand. In this case, you may use different plugins to get the custom fields.

Note that, just using a custom field is not enough. The data saved there should be part of the product structured data or Schema Markup. Plus, in the case of variable products, these attributes have to be specific for each variant.

Following are a couple of tools you can consider looking at:

6. Use A Feed Generation Plugin For Accuracy

Now, despite you putting enough effort to make your product data optimized for conversion, it is also important to generate the product feed in the right format and with the right product data.

As per Google’s product data specification, you have to maintain a set XML format with all the required attributes as tags.

In this regard, you can either partner up with a feed management SAAS tool such as Feed Army or, you can rather consider going with a much more affordable WordPress plugin, Product Feed Manager for WooCommerce.

Produkt-Feed-Manager für WooCommerce (PFM)

Product Feed Manager is a simple and easy-to-use plugin that helps to generate product feed for several marketplaces (including Google Shopping) in the right format in just a few clicks. The specialty of this plugin is its pre-built feed template, which you can set up in just a few minutes, even without any prior knowledge on Google product feed.

If you want to avoid getting your feed rejected due to a human error, you should consider using this plugin to list your products on Google Shopping easily.

PFM has all the tools required for Google product feed optimization.

  • The plugin comes with the combined field feature which can help with optimizing product titles for the Google feed.
  • Its category mapping feature will help to optimize the category in the feed data without changing your store’s original categories.
  • This plugin also comes with custom fields for GTIN, MPN, and Product Brand to help you set up your products in an optimized way before generating the feed.
  • Plus, its one-click JSON-LD structured data ensures so data mismatch in the schema.

Following is a glimpse of how you can generate a Google product feed using PFM:

On your PFM dashboard –

  1. Click on Add New Feed.
  2. Enter A feed title.
  3. Select Google from the merchant list.
Google shopping feed optimization tool and feed generator, PFM
Beschriftung (optional)

Once you map all the attributes with the correct product data, click on the publish button. And, your feed will be ready to upload in the Google Merchant Centre.

Learn More.

Anmerkung des Autors

Since WooCommerce is your source of earning money, it’s important you invest some time in optimizing your product data and then go for promotions.

And when it comes to product promoting your products, listing products on Google Shopping is a must.

The tactics mentioned above are just 6 among many ways you can optimize your product feed for more sales via Google Shopping.

If you haven’t already, start optimizing your product data and make your marketing efforts fruitful.

Start using Product Feed Manager now to generate the most optimized Google product feed easily.

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Über den Autor

Sajarun Sadia

Sajarun Sadia

Ein IT-Absolvent mit einer Leidenschaft für digitales Marketing. Sie liebt es, WordPress-Unternehmen dabei zu helfen, ihre Geschichten zu kuratieren. Das Schreiben von Inhalten ist das Herzstück von allem, was sie tut!

2 Kommentare

  • Thanks for this article!! very useful content. My name is Olivia. I also work with a SAAS feed management tool like Feed Army, or better consider using a much more affordable WordPress plugin, Product Feed Manager for WooCommerce.

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