Determining the correct values for new attributes
February 15th, 2007 | Published in Google Merchant
By Clint Guerrero, Google Base Support
During the past two weeks we sent out an email to those of you submitting products to Google Base with a request to submit bulk uploads with a richer set of data. We've revised the list of required attributes in an effort to improve the search experience and to improve your exposure during product searches.
In response to this note, we noticed some confusion about what values we were looking for. For a few of the attributes, here's some guidance about appropriate values for your upgraded bulk upload:
brand
- Don't fret if all your items aren't from a major brand name. If you made the item yourself, your name or company name could be the brand. If you're selling art, often times the artist becomes the brand, e.g. Picasso
condition
- New, used, refurbished
product_type
- We have a list of suggested values here. It's best to sync your values with these, but if your values are far outside what's available, go with what you got.
expiration_date
- If you don't list expiration dates on your site, this value should be set to a date 30 days from your file's creation. For example, the products in a bulk upload I created today would be "2007-03-16." You can also set this value to a far off date like 2012-12-12. This attribute is important because it helps us ensure fresh content for users (your customers).
id
- This should be a unique value that stays constant.
For those of you who'd like to gain even more exposure, here are a few of the many bonus attributes you can add:
color
- We allow up to 10 values here. Try to stick with common colors that people would search for: "red" rather than something exotic like "crimson sangria."
department
- Think of a department store when adding values: men's, women's, electronics.
made_in
- This is the country your product was made in. It must be formatted using ISO 3166 -- e.g. China = CN & United States = US.
I hope that these examples are helpful. If you have a special case where you aren't sure what to include, feel free to discuss it at this Google Groups thread. I'll keep an eye on this thread and provide some guidance.
During the past two weeks we sent out an email to those of you submitting products to Google Base with a request to submit bulk uploads with a richer set of data. We've revised the list of required attributes in an effort to improve the search experience and to improve your exposure during product searches.
In response to this note, we noticed some confusion about what values we were looking for. For a few of the attributes, here's some guidance about appropriate values for your upgraded bulk upload:
brand
- Don't fret if all your items aren't from a major brand name. If you made the item yourself, your name or company name could be the brand. If you're selling art, often times the artist becomes the brand, e.g. Picasso
condition
- New, used, refurbished
product_type
- We have a list of suggested values here. It's best to sync your values with these, but if your values are far outside what's available, go with what you got.
expiration_date
- If you don't list expiration dates on your site, this value should be set to a date 30 days from your file's creation. For example, the products in a bulk upload I created today would be "2007-03-16." You can also set this value to a far off date like 2012-12-12. This attribute is important because it helps us ensure fresh content for users (your customers).
id
- This should be a unique value that stays constant.
For those of you who'd like to gain even more exposure, here are a few of the many bonus attributes you can add:
color
- We allow up to 10 values here. Try to stick with common colors that people would search for: "red" rather than something exotic like "crimson sangria."
department
- Think of a department store when adding values: men's, women's, electronics.
made_in
- This is the country your product was made in. It must be formatted using ISO 3166 -- e.g. China = CN & United States = US.
I hope that these examples are helpful. If you have a special case where you aren't sure what to include, feel free to discuss it at this Google Groups thread. I'll keep an eye on this thread and provide some guidance.