Just when you thought your Google feed was perfect, Google has announced even MORE changes this month that will be enforced Sept. 22, 2011. These apply to Google Product Search feeds sent to the US, UK, Australia and Germany.
Rest assured that GoDataFeed is on top of all of these changes and has already started making changes to our 'Google Product Search' template, including the 'Google Product Category', 'Product Type', and 'Availability' fields.
Google's Newest Requirements:
· 'Availability' attribute will now be required, so make sure you have one of these four values: in stock, out of stock, available for order or preorder
· 'Google Product Category' attribute will be required - that is Google's category of the item
· 'Product Type' is now a new recommended field intended for your Merchant Category. We recommend that you map this to your Merchant Category right away in your Google feed, to avoid seeing warnings in your Google Merchant Center
· Images will now be required [image_link]. Please use full size images (300x300 pixels or larger), not thumbnails or logos. Soon, you will also be able to add up to 10 Additional Image Links through [additional_image_link]
· Apparel: In order to create a better experience for product variants such as dresses or shoes that are available in multiple colors or sizes, Google will be requiring US Merchants to include [size], [color], [gender] and [age group]. If you're an Apparel Retailer, please review Google's Tips for Submitting Apparel Products
Warnings vs. Errors
To prepare Merchants for upcoming changes, Google started placing 'Warnings' on these items. Please note that 'Warnings' will change these to 'Errors' as of 9/22/2011. Keep in mind that product listings with 'Warnings' will generally still get listed, but 'Errors' will not.
We highly suggest that you check your product data and/or download the current feed file to be sure you are in compliance with these changes.
You can learn more about Google's latest round of changes to the Product Feed Specifications here (with examples).
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