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What is Google Base/Merchant Center?

February 15, 2009 - 11:24 am | GoTo

Go To Great Panes, Kathryn Maloney ©2009

Update: Google Base is now: Google Merchant Center

Google Merchant Center: Trying to get your items uploaded, but still not sure what it is? Here’s a little info:

The main function is to get your items into the database that Google uses for its shopping search (also known as their “product” search). Getting your items in Google Base is not about getting your products in the regular Google search results, though occasionally you’ll see three items pulled from the Google Merchant Center listed under “Shopping results for Your-Search-Terms” on page 1 of regular Google search results.

When someone searches on Google then clicks the “shopping” link at the top of the page they are taken to a list of products with prices and photos for easier browsing. (And if you want to know if anyone uses that, I do. It’s the way I search first when I’m looking for something that I want to buy on the internet, has been for years.)

Google’s Shopping Search: http://www.google.com/products

Looking to upload your Etsy shop or website items?

Etsy is working on getting our items in there for us, as Google changed their rules last year saying that individual sellers on market places like Etsy could no longer upload their own goods–see these two posts:

Changes Coming for Google Base

FAQs about the new Etsy GM feed

If your independant website shopping cart isn’t set up for uploading to Google Merchant Center automaticaly, you can do a manual upload for it–see here for help with that:

Google Merchant Feed for Your Website

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Posted in Google Base/Checkout, Home
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27 Comments | Add your own

  • . sally eidson | March 5, 2009 at 3:17 am | Permalink

    Thanks Go to Great Panes, and wish me luck trying to figure out the google info. I like your pieces. I’ll pass your name around. Thanks so much.

  • . Viktoria Slutsky | June 4, 2009 at 3:33 pm | Permalink

    Thanks, finely I understand

  • . Sonnee McCabe | June 4, 2009 at 9:05 pm | Permalink

    I really appreciate knowing about this. Thank you for explaining it.

  • . George Hutchinson | June 4, 2009 at 10:36 pm | Permalink

    How soon should the uploaded products appear in a search?

  • . GoTo | June 4, 2009 at 11:26 pm | Permalink

    You’re welcome!

    The time varies–you can see if your items are published and searchable right in Google Base.

    Once your feed has processed successfully:

    Log in to Google Base and go to the active items tab. There it will tell you when your items are published and searchable.

    You will see what items showed up in search results (Imprs.) and what items were clicked on in the search results (Clicks).

  • . George Hutchinson | June 5, 2009 at 8:42 am | Permalink

    OK the uploaded feed took overnight to appear in a search but the items are there!

    Way cool.

  • . Red | June 9, 2009 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    Thanks so very much for the information. You were very detailed, enough that a novice like me could walk right thru them ;p If I could ask a quick question… I set the auto schedule for once weekly. They have an expiration date of 7/9. Will I need to go in and do anything prior to 7/9 to keep it active?
    Again, thanks sooo very much for your help,
    Red

  • . GoTo | June 9, 2009 at 12:28 pm | Permalink

    Hi Red! You’re welcome!

    That question and more answered here:

    Google Base FAQ 1:

    I’ve set up Google Base, now what?
    http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/06/05/google-base-faq-1

    Google Base FAQ 2:

    My feed uploaded and it says success!
    http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/06/06/google-base-faq-2

  • . CaTHY | June 17, 2009 at 12:41 pm | Permalink

    Hi, thanks for the info on the google base. I started to do this but can you simply refer to your etsy site for purchasing th item or do you have to go through the google payment. I am somewhat confused by this. thanks

  • . GoTo | June 17, 2009 at 1:12 pm | Permalink

    Using the Etsy RSS method your items will refer folks directly to your Etsy listing for purchasing, no need to sign up for Google Checkout.

    For more general info on Google Base see these FAQ posts:

    I’ve set up Google Base, now what?
    http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/06/05/google-base-faq-1

    My feed uploaded and it says items were inserted!
    http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/06/06/google-base-faq-2

  • . Donna | June 18, 2009 at 5:49 pm | Permalink

    I would really like to try this…sometimes I am not sure what I am doing though…sucks to be me! :)

  • . Barbara Ivy | June 29, 2009 at 11:38 am | Permalink

    I followed your excellent step by step instructions TWICE just to be certain I didn’t overlook anything. This was 2 days ago and as far as I can tell, nothing has happened. When I go to googlebase and sign in, it shows no activity. I was careful with the shop number and rss number, the gemstonesandsilver.xml and now I’m wondering if I should go through it all again for a 3rd time???? And will I know of success only by going to googlebase – or from an email to my gmail?

  • . GoTo | June 29, 2009 at 3:13 pm | Permalink

    Barbara–You don’t need to do it again unless the feed says “no items have been inserted”.

    Google Base has been having issues since about June 16 which has their scheduled feeds processing realllly slowly–sometimes several days behind.

    If it still says “none” under “Last upload date & status” on the data feeds page then you are just waiting for Google Base to catch up with processing. At least the feed hasn’t failed!

    Google Base: Slow Processing & Uploading
    http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/06/20/google-base-slow-processing

    For more help with your feed join our Etsy forums help thread:

    http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6067830

  • . Barbara Ivy | June 29, 2009 at 4:02 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for responding so quickly! Googlebase says “none” under “last upload and status”.

    However under “My Items” it states “you do not have any published items”.

    So does this indicate that I’m in the system and now just waiting for their catch-up??

  • . GoTo | June 29, 2009 at 4:06 pm | Permalink

    You’re welcome! “None” just means you are still waiting for the first upload so it hasn’t seen you items yet and there’s nothing for them to show.

  • . Lauren | June 29, 2009 at 8:25 pm | Permalink

    Thank you so much, that was so helpful and you made it so easy to understand!

  • . Heather | June 29, 2009 at 11:40 pm | Permalink

    GoTo, I followed your instructions without fail it worked. But when it went to auto insert the second time it came back with this error message. Now, I’m all kinds of confused. Do you know anything about fixing this?

    Feed status summary

    No items inserted – Processed on Jun 28, 2009 9:51 am PDT

    Detected file format: XML
    Feed Level Messages
    Error: XML formatting error
    Our system encountered an error when processing your data feed.
    Learn more.
    Error: Mismatched XML tag.
    Your data feed contains a pair of opening/closing XML tags that don’t match.
    Learn more.

    Examples:
    Item Nr. Line Nr.
    19

    I would sure appreciate any help I can get I’m anxious to get back on board.

  • . GoTo | June 30, 2009 at 3:02 am | Permalink

    Heather–I’ve replied in the Etsy forum help thread (since you also asked there): http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6067830&page=160

  • . Barbara Ivy | June 30, 2009 at 10:13 am | Permalink

    Here I am at day 3 or 4 (I’ve lost track) Absolutely nothing is happening. Any suggestions GoTo??

  • . GoTo | June 30, 2009 at 1:11 pm | Permalink

    Barbara–Google is having slow down issues for scheduled feeds. See this post for info on that and a way to get your items in while we wait for Google to fix it: Google Base: Slow Processing & Uploading

  • . Barbara Ivy | June 30, 2009 at 10:57 pm | Permalink

    GoTo,

    While waiting, I’ve just looked again at everything I entered a few days ago per your tutorial and am wondering if I made a mistake with my Display Name – I entered “Gemstones and silver” because that is the name of my etsy shop. And after Description, I entered “Gemstones and Silver jewelry store on etsy”. Are these entries correct?

  • . GoTo | July 1, 2009 at 7:33 pm | Permalink

    I’d go with “Gemstones and Silver” –it’s not necessary to mention it is an Etsy shop there (unless you want to). Folks will know it when they click your items and are taken to your shop on Etsy. :)

  • . Barbara Ivy | July 1, 2009 at 11:09 pm | Permalink

    Back again! I followed your instructions for the manual upload and my 28 items processed!!! Hooray for a small success which feels like a huge one to this non-techie. Thanks for this help. I do have a question regarding a Feed Level Message I received regarding the download:

    It says “Missing recommended attribute: weight. We recommend including relevant attributes if they are available.”

    What does this mean and is this something I can address?

  • . Barbara Ivy | July 1, 2009 at 11:32 pm | Permalink

    Also, GoTo, I’m guessing there is a lag time between the inserting and posting/publishing while the file is evaluated? My googlebase says that 28 of 28 items were inserted, however I note that nothing has been published

  • . Barbara Ivy | July 1, 2009 at 11:37 pm | Permalink

    Disregard my questions, please…..I found the FAQ that answered them for me!!

  • . GoTo | July 2, 2009 at 1:08 am | Permalink

    Hi Barbara–glad you found the answers! For anyone elso who needs to find them:

    Google Base FAQ 1:
    I’ve set up Google Base, now what?

    Google Base FAQ 2:
    My feed uploaded and it says items were inserted!

    Google Base FAQ 3:
    My Google Base feed processed but shows a No items inserted message!

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