Go To Great Panes

The good news:
Today LisaJune posted in the Etsy forums about a new Etsy employee to work just on the Etsy/Google Merchant integration (yay!)
and
she’s started a new thread for the problem that some sellers using vacation mode have had with items not being put back in to syndication when they came out of vacation mode (which appears to be a problem on Google’s end, not Etsy’s)–see here for her thread:

The bad news:
I haven’t heard anything new about when Google will be able to get all shops syndicated. Last I heard is a forum post back in April that said Google still can’t handle all Etsy items through their new Marketplace Partners set up (here).

(((Knocks wood that all my fellow sellers will be syndicated soon!)))

Appearing/Disappearing Syndication Link:

• Having the link in Your Etsy doesn’t mean you are syndicated unless you clicked it and it said your syndication is active.

• Deactivating/activating your items won’t change the status from pending to active, it only helps once your status is active.

• Some sellers, like myself, have had the syndication link go missing, yet we are still syndicated. If you missing the link and want to check your status, see here: Etsy has Started to Syndicate Shops

More info about syndication:

Google uses robots (spiders) to follow links from page to page (crawl the web) to index sites to use in their regular search results. ( http://www.google.com ) The majority of shoppers come through Google’s regular search.

Syndication is only for Etsy uploading our items to Google Merchant Center to get into Google’s special shopping/product search ( http://www.google.com/products ), and all shops will eventually have it (you don’t need to do anything to get it).

Etsy has been rolling it out in stages to sellers since December, see the second link for basic info about Etsy’s syndication & to find out if you are syndicated.

What is Google Base/Merchant?
http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/02/15/what-is-google-base

FAQs for Etsy’s Google Merchant Feed/Syndication
–includes vacation mode info!
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6492737

When you bring your shop out of vacation mode your currently listed items won’t be placed back in the feed automatically. You’ll need to re-enable your current stock for upload to get them back on Google’s Shopping Search, see here for OhFaro’s quick tip to enable your items.

All items you list, renew, relist or edit will still be added automatically once you are out of vacation mode, this is just about items you had listed when you put your shop in vacation mode.

There does seem to be another small downside to going in to vacation mode besides your items being pulled from Google Shopping & the hassle of re-enabling:

When the new feed from Etsy was coexisting with the RSS feeds sellers had done themselves, items in the older feeds (RSS done by sellers) were coming up close to the top of the search results and the newer feed (Etsy’s syndication) were coming up later in the results for the very same listings. This leads me to believe that older feeds have a little more weight for better search results.

When you go in to vacation mode and come back out, you delete your old sub-account syndication feed and get a new one which might result in less-good results in Google Shopping searches.

That also means if you’ve bookmarked search results for your old author id, you’ll need to update it with your feed’s new author id when you come out of vacation mode or it won’t show you the items you currently have in Google Shopping.

Then your pictures are most likely too big.

If you are selling on Etsy, they have made these recommendations:

Minimum: 430 pixels wide
Maximum: 800 to 1,000 pixels wide or long on the largest side

Narrower images will be pixelated/blurry in the item listing because Etsy will stretch them to fit the 430 pixel-wide space on the listing page.

Larger images are slow to load which is:

and now, it’s also

What to do?

You can either lower the setting on your camera or use photo editing program to make them smaller. If you don’t have photo editing software, you try these two free ones:

Picasa (from what I hear it’s relatively simple)
http://picasa.google.com

GIMP (more advanced)
http://www.gimp.org/windows

Need help getting the image sizes right for cropping on Etsy?

See this post:

Image Cropping for Etsy
http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2010/04/08/image-cropping-for-etsy

b. Select “http://” from the drop down menu and put in your shop address, for example goto.etsy.com or gotosupplies.etsy.com

Sean11 just posted an update (02/25/10) on the syndication roll out–here’s the main gist:

• Most active sellers now have it.
• The reason not everyone is syndicated yet is because of Google limitations and they are working on expanding it, as they do Etsy is adding more shops.
• Etsy is the largest site adding items through the new special Google Product Search Marketplace Partner.
• 10,000 shops were syndication yesterday, they expect everyone will be syndicated soon.

See his two posts in the forums here:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6448041&page=7

We did get 6 more weeks than they said out of them, but the RSS feeds were interfering with Etsy’s new syndication uploads so they had to be shut down (admin post here and here). Now we need to rely on Etsy’s uploads, sellers are being added gradually over the next few months–see here for more on that:

FAQs for the Etsy Google Merchant Product Search Feed

Our old RSS feed said “disapproved because some or all of your items are not complying with our Program Policies”, meaning that individual sellers can no longer upload items from marketplaces like Etsy. So far only 1 of our 2 Etsy shops is syndicated, so we’re looking forward to this being completed as much as the next person!

1. What is syndication?
Syndication is Etsy uploading our items to Google Merchant Center to get into Google’s special shopping/product search, and all shops will eventually have it (you don’t need to do anything to get it). Etsy has been rolling it out in stages to sellers since December.
2. What is Google Merchant Center/Google’s special shopping/product search?
See this post: What is Google Base/Merchant?
3. Is my shop in it?
See this post: Etsy has Started to Syndicate Shops
4. If my shop is syndicated, do I need to do anything else?
Yes–you need to enable your current stock for upload, see here for OhFaro’s quick trick:

Etsy’s GM Syndication: Enable your items

Any listings/edits/renewals you make from here on out will be added to Google Merchant automatically.

5. I had the RSS feed set up with the scheduler, but my syndication page doesn’t say active.
Unfortunately there are some folks who didn’t get added. Sean11 (an admin) said they included folks based on a list of active Google Merchant account users that Google provided them with, other than that I don’t know why some have been added and some haven’t. See his post here: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6365505&page=12
6. My shop isn’t syndicated yet, what can I do?
   My shop says “pending”, what now?
The only thing you can do now is wait for Etsy add your shop to the syndication–please see the entries below for more general info.
7. How soon will my items show up in Google’s Shopping/Product search?
Once your shop is syndicated, items will be sent to Google immediately after listing/editing, but may take 24 to 48 hours to show in their Shopping/Product search:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6365505&page=21
8. Will it show anything in my Google Merchant Account?
No, your merchant account will only show your current feeds, and the new uploads are Etsy’s feed–so it will only show in their account.
9. Do I need to do anything with the feed I set up for the RSS uploads?
Your individual feed will stop working shortly if it hasn’t already (Google had said sellers could no longer submit items as of December). Most RSS feeds for Etsy shops have already stopped working (see here).

Unless you delete the feed or stop the email messages you will continue to get notices about the upload failures. I chose to delete the feeds since they are dead now anyway.

10. How do I find my items in the shopping search to know if they are uploading?

It’s not as easy as when we were able to do our own uploads…

a. You have to search for your items on Google’s shopping search like a buyer–I start with searching an item name. Search here: http://www.google.com/products

b. Go to a page where you see your items in results shown as sold by Etsy – USERNAME (USERNAME being your Etsy username). On the left side of the page you’ll also see links all the sellers on that page (click “more” if you don’t see it). Click the link on the left for your shop.

I searched stained glass bat, clicked the link on the left for my shop.

c. In the address bar you’ll find the address for that page–most of it will be gobbledy-gook, mine looked like this:

http://www.google.com/products?q=stained+glass+bat&hl= en&authorid=6901101&cdn=Etsy+-+GoTo&lnk=storesugg&show
=li&ei=pEC9S_yoO6XaxAWToqmzCA&sa=X&ved=0CGwQhggoCA

Copy the address for your page to a word processor and find the author id number like is highlighted in purple in my address.

Take that number put it in the webpage address below instead of the XXXXXX and you should be taken to a page with just your items uploaded by Etsy:

http://www.google.com/products?q=&authorid=XXXXXX

Mine looks like this:

http://www.google.com/products?q=&authorid=6901101

d. Once you have that address working for finding your items, bookmark it in your browser for easier finding in the future. Please note: If you put your shop in vacation mode your number might change so you may have to create a new bookmark after coming out of vacation mode. You’ll also need to re-enable your items for upload or they won’t be in the feed.

11. When will the rest of the shops to be added?
The gradual roll out to the rest of Etsy is in the works and will continue over the next few months–the admin say they can’t give us a deadline for when it is happening:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6365505&page=23
12. Why does my Google Merchant Account still only show 100 items uploading–I thought Etsy was removing the 100 item limit?
Your merchant account will only show your current feeds, and the new uploads are on Etsy’s feed–it will only show in their account. Your feed may still be uploading your 100 most recent items, but Etsy’s feed will upload them all and it won’t be reflected in your GM account, it will only be shown in Etsy’s GM account.

Once your feed is retired (see here), you won’t get notifications of items that aren’t inserted anymore:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6365505&page=3

A few items not inserted won’t effect the rest of the items Etsy uploads.

13. Why is it taking so long for the rest of the shops to be added?

    Because Etsy is part of a new Marketplace Partner Program that is different than the RSS uploads we used to have. It’s also different than the way most other venues upload their goods:

• Immediate upload to GM, not sent in batches like on other sites–see here. (It may still take 24 to 48 hours for items to show once Google has the info.)
• Items are listed as being sold by:
  Etsy – USERNAME
  other venues list only their business name.
• Our feedback on Etsy will be linked to our listings,
14. When will our feedback show on GM?
Update: It’s currently showing for some sellers.
When Google sets it up–according to admin sean11 “in the coming weeks”, as stated here:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6365505&page=23
15. What else should I know?

• Newer feeds generally seem to be weaker initially as far as search results go, so it will probably take a little time for our items to get really good search results. Well-established feeds get better search results, and we’ll get there.
• Etsy will be adding product type values for us! Using the first three tags of each item, Etsy will create product types for the Google Merchant submission–make sure your first three tags are in a good order and be sure to keep anything that prevents items from being inserted out of the first three tags.
• If your items aren’t being inserted after you’ve enabled your items, you need to check that they don’t conflict with GM’s rules. Some tips for that can be seen in the first entry of:
  FAQ 3.
• GM gets item titles, the entire item description and the first three Etsy tags, so if you want to include things that Google doesn’t want in the feed (like free shipping), be sure it isn’t in those places.
16. How can I see the stats coming from the Google Merchant hits now that it doesn’t show in my Google Base/Merchant account?
You need to set up your Google Analytics account to show them: http://bloghandmade.blogspot.com/2009/10/tracking-your-traffic-from-google-base.html
17. Where can I find Etsy’s Google Product Search help?
http://help.etsy.com/app/answers/list/c/8,30/noIntercept/1

While many were struggling through editing 100 or more items one at a time to trigger the items inclusion in Google Merchant’s database, OhFaro put on her thinking cap and came up with a brilliant short cut, and sean11 (an admin) confirmed that it will work:

1. In Your Etsy at the bottom of the list of items there’s a box next to Select All, check it.
2. Right below that is a button that says Deactivate, click it.
3. On the left side of the page, under Items click Inactive listings.
4. At the bottom of the list of items there’s a box next to Select All, check it.
   Please note: If you have items in inactive that you want to keep in inactive, you’ll need to uncheck those boxes before activating your items, and make sure all items that are supposed to be activated are since some may be bumped to the inactive section’s page 2.
5. Right below that is a button that says Activate, click it.

So that whole page of items is ready for upload to Google Merchant Center now. Repeat that for every page of items you have listed on Etsy, and they’ll all be added to GM in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Future listings, renewals and edits will be automatically added by Etsy. This is just for your initial syndication upload.

Please note: I have found that some items didn’t respond to whole shop enabling so I went and edited them individually and that seemed to get them in.