Why is product feed optimization so important?

At the beginning, it is worth asking yourself the basic question why the care of the product feed is so high in the hierarchy of activities that we undertake when creating a PLA campaign. It is such an important factor for several reasons. First of all, in this type of campaign, we have no influence on what key phrases our ad will be displayed on. It is the Google Ads algorithm that decides when to show our product, based on the information contained in the product feed. Therefore, optimizing this file, for example by adding key phrases of interest to us in the title or description of the item, gives us at least an indirect influence on to whom and in what context our products will be published.

Secondly, a number of attributes can be added to each product, i.e. product features, such as, among others, size, color, material, gender (e.g. in the case of clothes) or pattern. In the Google Shopping tab, the user can filter the results based on exactly the same attributes. So the more fields describing the product are filled in, the greater the chance that it will also appear in filtered views. The third reason to optimize the feed is that Google Ads algorithms constantly determine its quality and reward products from those files that they consider to be of high quality in views.

High feed quality, in addition to influencing your impression position, can also help reduce CPC, the rate per click on your ad. If the feed is well structured, our product is more suited to the customer’s inquiry, thanks to which we burn less budget. This means that the campaign can achieve much better results, as it gives more clicks within the set budget and reaches a better selected audience.

What must be included in the product feed?

In the case of the product feed, some information is mandatory for the feed to be accepted by the system, and some is optional, and in addition, some options are required only in campaigns for selected countries or only in the case of specific product categories. Therefore, when creating a product campaign, it is best to check the feed requirements in our industry and in the country where we want to publish the advertisements. In simplified terms, however, it can be said that the information that must be included in the product feed includes:

– ID – unique identifier of the product. Ideally, it should be the same as in our warehouse identification.
– Title – the name of the product and the most important information about it. We will write a little further about what exactly it should look like.
– Description – in this field, describe the product in detail, using the keywords that are most relevant to you.
– Link – this should lead to the product page where you can make the purchase.
– Image link – address of the main product image, which will be available for indexing by Google.
– Availability – product status. It can have the value “in stock”, “unavailable”, “temporarily unavailable” or “presale” (in the case of the last two options, it is also obligatory to complete the attribute indicating the date of availability).
– Price – it must be consistent with the price on the store’s website and on the payment page.
– GTIN – Global Trade Item Number – GTIN is required only for products that have this manufacturer assigned number, but Google strongly recommends it be used for all products.

If the product feed includes the above-mentioned elements, it will be accepted by the advertising system, but it is not tantamount to high quality of the feed. These are only the basics and to get a high rating for the algorithm, you should also complete some of the attributes from the optional list. Before we get down to describing them, however, let’s figure out how to optimize this basic product data.

How to optimize your product feed titles?

The title is a very important element not only because it is one of the first pieces of information the user sees. It is also important because it is one of the main parameters that the algorithm takes into account when determining which keywords to display a given product on. Therefore, it is worth including not only information about the name of the product, but also, for example, its brand, color or size. We will repeat this information in other attributes, but if we also include it in the title, we increase the chance that the products will be displayed with the best queries in their case. The order in which the information is provided is also very important, which may be slightly different for different product categories. Google states that the best practices for title optimization for the most popular industries are:

– Clothes: Brand name + Gender + Product type + Product features (color, size, material, etc.),
– Food: Brand name + Product type + Product features (taste, number of pieces in a package, weight),
– Home & Garden: Brand Name + Product Type + Product Features + Model,
– Electronics: Brand Name + Product Features + Product Type + Model,
– Seasonal products: Opportunity + Product Type + Product Features.

Of course, these are not universal models that will work in all cases. For example, a brand name in a title will only attract an audience if it is recognizable and has a good reputation. So it’s best to experiment with names and test different options to choose the combination that works best for you.

It is also worth remembering that product titles may be displayed differently on different devices and thus the system may cut them off in some cases. We have 150 characters to use in the title field and it is good to use them, but make sure you have the most important information at the beginning of this section. In the Google Shopping tab, the titles are truncated after 70 characters, so it’s best to fit the most important data in this pool.

How to optimize the descriptions in the product feed?

In the case of the product description in the feed, we have 5,000 characters at our disposal. Of course, we don’t have to use all of them, but this field is a place for us to place many keywords. Admittedly, this will not guarantee that the product will show up for these words, but it does significantly increase the chances of it happening.

The description should not only be saturated with keywords, but also valuable for the user. Therefore, it is worth ensuring that it describes the product in detail and is of high quality. The description for each product should be unique, which increases the chance that the system will correctly select the one that best suits a given search query from the list of our products. For this field it is best to use a minimum of 500 characters, although of course the more useful information for the user, the better.

However, the question of where to get the information from which keywords will be most valuable for a given product remains. This is where the free Google Trends tool comes in handy. In it, we can enter terms that are associated with our product and check which of them are most frequently searched by users of the search engine. Thanks to this, we can include in the description those key phrases that have a chance to bring us the most impressions and clicks on the ad. For example, if Google Trends shows that “women’s black high heels” than “women’s black pumps” are more frequently searched for, it is worth using the first option in both the description and the title.

How to optimize product photos in a product feed?

An obligatory element of the feed is a link to a product photo, which the system can then use in advertisements. However, in order to obtain the best possible file quality, it is worth not to stop at one photo, but add a few to show the product more precisely. This can be done by using the Link to additional photo attribute. This attribute can be repeated 10 times for one product, which means we can add up to 10 additional photos. However, the standard is that for one product, we put 3-5 photos that show the product from different angles.

All photos should be of good quality, but their weight must not exceed 16 MB. Although in the official specification of the feed on the Google website we can find the information that the photos should have a minimum of 250 × 250 pixels for clothing and 100 × 100 pixels for other products, it is better to focus on photos with a higher resolution. The optimal size for product photos is 800 × 800 pixels. It’s a good idea to stick to these guidelines, because high-quality images improve your click-through rate and, as a result, can also increase your conversions.

Optional attributes that should be completed to optimize the product feed

As already mentioned, in addition to the basic data, it is also worth supplementing at least some of the attributes that are considered optional by the system. It is true that the file without them will be accepted and the ads will be displayed, but their effectiveness will not be as good as if we added additional information. Here are some attributes that should definitely be supplemented.

Brand
The Brand Attribute is most helpful when we sell products of well-known and frequently searched brands, but it is worth using in any case. However, this is an attribute that is often misspelled and can make your ads less effective, so pay close attention to it. A common mistake is to enter the name of your online store here, while the correct value is the name of the manufacturer of the product. So if, for example, we sell Nike sneakers in our store called XYZ, we should enter “Nike” in the brand attribute, not “XYZ”. Enter the name of your online store here only when our company produces the item from the offer. If the product does not have a brand or the brand is unknown, do not complete this attribute. It is a mistake to enter a value of the type “not applicable” or “missing” here.

Product group ID
This attribute is used to group products that come in different versions, such as sizes and colors. Thanks to this, they will not be displayed to users as separate products, but as variants of the same item, which will make it easier to get to know the offer and make a purchase decision. For all products to be grouped, we should add the same product group ID.

Size
This attribute is mandatory for clothes and shoes, but recommended for all products with different size variants. It is best to use the most popular sizes in the country where the campaign is to be used to determine this parameter. If a product is available in multiple sizes, it is important that you add the Product Group ID to all versions of the product. If the garment we sell has one size, we can enter the value “universal size” in the attribute.

Material
Material is one of the most important attributes for many products, including clothing, accessories, footwear and furniture. If the product has different material variants, each of them is added to the file separately and combined into one offer using the same product group identifier. It happens, however, that an item is made of several materials, e.g. a mixture of cotton and polyester. Then all the materials are added in one version in the Material attribute, separating them with the “/” sign without spaces, eg “cotton / polyester”.

Mobile link
If we have different URLs for traffic from computers and mobile devices, we can also complete the Mobile link attribute. Thanks to this, we will make sure that users using smartphones and tablets, after clicking the ad, will go to the subpages of our store optimized for these devices. This, in turn, will give them a better shopping experience for our brand. If the page URL is the same for both the desktop and mobile versions, we don’t need to complete this attribute.

What else can be done to optimize the product feed?

The high level of the product feed is also influenced by including information about product types in it and filling in the field with Google categories. Thanks to the proper classification of the product, the system is better at positioning the offer and adjusting it to the needs of the recipients.

It is also worth ensuring that only up-to-date information about our product range appears in the product feed. For this purpose, it is best to set up automatic product feed updates in Google Merchant Center once a day. You can also fix more frequent updates (up to 4 times a day), but such frequent refreshing of the product feed is only necessary in individual cases. In addition, if we make changes to the website, e.g. we add new products to the offer or introduce a promotion, we can also force the feed update manually, without waiting for the automatic download of data. When setting automatic updates, it is a good idea to choose night hours so that refreshing the file does not interfere with the display of ads to recipients.

Google history – where does the name come from?

The company known as Google was founded on three main elements: American Larry Page, Russian from Sergey Brin and…mistake. When looking for a name for their company, the gentlemen drew on what was at hand, and the most at hand at that time was Page’s roommate from college. He came up with the idea that the ideal name for a product intended to organize unimaginable amounts of websites would be the name of a large number. However, a million or a billion sounded too little spectacular, because there was a proposal to christen the company as googol. Googol actually means a huge number, as much as 10 to the hundredth power.

However, luck wanted that Larry Page, checking if such a domain was free, made a typo (it cannot be ruled out that math in the form of percentages contributed to it) and entered “google”, which was free as a non-existent word. A contented founding father bought the domain and it stayed that way. The bug was discovered very quickly, the very next day, but the googol address was still busy, so the gentlemen decided to stick to the name chosen by the accident.

University beginnings

Before this memorable event happened, however, what was called Google was also developing under different names. So let’s step back a bit to see the real beginning of the most popular search engine in the world. Larry Page and Sergey Brin met while studying at Stanford University, and rumor has it that they didn’t like each other a bit. However, the initial animosities quickly turned into sympathy and in 1995 the gentlemen decided to create an innovative project for those times – a system that would determine the value of individual websites and, after entering a query by the user, create a list of them – from the best results to the least significant.

The tool was originally named Backrub. This name comes from the main and initially the only factor that was taken into account when creating the page ranking, i.e. backlinks – external links. The way of creating the list was therefore very transparent – the more pages linking to a given site (and therefore recommended it), the higher position in the search engine was that site had. While the tool itself was enthusiastically received, its name had a much cooler welcome, so the search engine was renamed PageRank. It was patented under this name, but eventually the gentlemen changed the name once again – this time to the well-known Google.

Google search engine – the first investments in the brand

Initially, Page and Brin developed their project at university, but when this became hampered by the distrust of college computer scientists, they moved to where the best ideas are known to be born – the garage. The lease of the research area was the first step in the company’s development – and certainly great for humanity. It was possible thanks to the first major investor, Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun. He invested 100,000 dollars in the emerging brand, thanks to which in 1998 the gentlemen officially registered the company and started operating outside the walls of Stanford University.

In the garage where one of the most complicated algorithms in the world was hatching, there were initially only the most necessary things: a carpet, a ping pong table, and some computers. According to various sources, the design of the first Google headquarters was a tribute to all sorts of saturated, bright colors – this passion for vivid colors is still visible today not only in Google headquarters, but even in the brand’s logo.

Google Top Dog

The following years brought technological development, new engineers whose names hardly anyone remembers, and one dog that everyone remembers. Yoshka belonged to one of the engineers – Ursa Hölzle – and was the first four-legged creature to enter Google’s headquarters. He was named Google Top Dog, and he probably visited the company more regularly than many of its employees. His appearance was even noted on the official website with the history of the brand. Yoshka was well known and loved by the staff and even couriers. Already at a later stage, when Google took its current headquarters, he often appeared in front of one of the company’s cafes, which is why years later it was named after him.

Googleplex – the company’s headquarters in Mountain View

It is also worth writing a few words about the seat itself. The company moved from the garage to the complex in Mountain View, now known as Googleplex. At first, of course, Google only rented some of the premises, but as it expanded, it grew more and more, and finally the company bought the entire 47,000 square meter complex. The facility consists of over 20 buildings, which means that employees have to travel long distances, which is why in many places you can find company bikes in the Google colors.

The headquarters of the company developed in a natural way what began with a carpet and a ping pong table, i.e. attractions for employees. The complex has a lot of rubber balls, foosball tables, several beach volleyball courts, two swimming pools, mini golf, a swimming pool with colorful balls, chairs for naps, a dozen cafes, canteens with delicacies from around the world and many other amenities. An interesting addition is, for example, a hairdressing bus, where employees can take care of a haircut for free. Employees can also eat free of charge in all pubs and food trucks located within the complex. Googleplex is also a place where you can see the eccentric hobbies of the founder of the brand, such as a replica of the first private manned spacecraft or the skeleton of a tyrannosaur.

Work culture at Google

Along with the technological development, the high organizational culture also grew in Google, which can be seen for example in the example of employee bonuses. Google has built a new quality in terms of relations between employees and on the employee-employer level. The company is known for leaving a lot of freedom in terms of both clothes and work. It focuses on free development, loose contact and a friendly atmosphere at every level of the organization.

One of the most important business principles of Google is don’t be evil, which can be translated as “don’t be evil” or “do not do evil”. In the top 10 maxims of the brand, we find one that says that you can also be serious without a suit. Hairdressing in the workplace may seem like a fun idea, but this is also the bigger idea – since employees spend many hours in the complex, the company wants to save them from wasting time and energy searching for essential services elsewhere. For privileges, employed specialists repay with creative ideas and effective work – according to Google’s tenth maxim – great is not enough.

Google products

In addition to the flagship product, i.e. the Internet search engine, Google has also developed other projects over the years, many of which have been extremely successful. These include, among others:

– Google Maps – a huge system containing maps and aerial photos, connected with the so-called Street View, i.e. photos of individual streets, squares, facilities, thanks to which we can take virtual walks around the world. It is also a navigation tool used by many drivers.
– Google Translate – a Google translator who was rather a joke some time ago. Today it is refined to such an extent that it is possible to obtain consistent, logical translations thanks to it. Currently, it also translates texts from photos in real time, makes transcriptions, even including punctuation, and changes the language versions of entire websites.
– Google Chrome – in addition to the Google search engine, it also offers a browser for computers and mobile devices with a constantly growing list of add-ons and extensions.
– YouTube – Google did not design the largest online video viewing platform, but acquired it in 2006, the most expensive transaction in the company’s history.
– Chromecast – is a device that allows you to transfer movies and music from your phone to the TV, if you do not have the Smart version of the receiver.
– Android – one of the most popular operating systems for mobile devices purchased by Google in 2005.
– Gmail – Internet mail with a well-developed message filtering algorithm, thanks to which mailboxes are protected against spam.
– Calendar – a tool that allows you not only to plan your own events, but also share them with others. Many companies use this system to synchronize and arrange team meetings, recruitment, meetings with clients, etc.
– Google Drive – a place in the cloud for storing texts, photos, videos, presentations, etc., thanks to which we always have access to our files.
– Documents, Sheets, Presentations (Google Docs) – office programs in which you can create content, tables, presentations and share them with other users. They automatically save a history of changes, so the owner knows who has made changes to it and when.
– Google Ads – an advertising system that allows companies to promote themselves on the search network, YouTube, mobile applications and over 2 million pages owned by Google advertising partners.
– Google AdSense – a program that allows you to join the network of advertising partners of Google. There, website owners can provide advertising space on their websites and earn money from advertising created through Google.
– Google My Business – a tool that allows you to create an electronic business listing. Thanks to this, users of the search engine and google maps can find the most important data about the company gathered in one place: name, address, phone number, website, social media, photos, customer opinions, type of services offered, etc.
– Google Analytics – a tool that allows you to analyze the behavior of Internet users on our website. If we implement the Analytics tag on your website, we can use many statistics that show the effectiveness of activities so far and allow us to develop a strategy to increase conversion.
– Google Play – an online store from which we can download applications with tools, games, music, etc. to our phone.
– GooglePay – a system that allows you to make payments online and in stationary stores by phone.
– Google Assistant – an intelligent system that can communicate verbally with a user of mobile devices. With it, you can search for information, save events in the calendar, shop online, control smart home devices or recognize objects thanks to the camera. The Google Assistant can also be asked questions and given instructions – for example, to sing a song.
– Google Meet – a video communication tool. It includes, among others, chat, screen sharing and presentation services, so it can also be used for remote business or training communication.

Google currently

Today, Google is a huge company employing approximately 100,000 people. It generates billions in profits and is based in various countries on five continents. It is also still in the top places in the ranking of the best employers in the world. He is constantly developing new products to facilitate our work and provide online entertainment. What else can we expect from a global giant? We will probably find out soon.

Two ways to show your products or services in Google search results

– Google Ads – immediate and clearly visible effect, but displayed only during the promotional campaign,
– SEO – an effect that you have to wait for, but the obtained results are longer than the duration of a standard Google Ads promotional campaign. In the long run, it is the cheapest method of acquiring customers from the search engine.

How long does SEO take – can I check the waiting time?

Yes and no. Paraphrase-Online.com, a group of SEO experts providing data from the Google world, analyzed search engine traffic on the basis of 23 most important industries and over 250,000 key phrases. The results of the analysis are presented in a simple table. However, although the report deals with specific numbers, it all depends on individual calculations and many variables.

What are the general conclusions of the Paraphrase-Online.com report?

No surprises, the main principle of SEO, mentioned above, has been confirmed: you have to wait for traffic from the search engine! In order for the product to be visible, it must be worked on.

Fun fact: The main problem of SEO agencies is explaining to customers who expect organic results that SEO is a process, not an immediate action.

How long does SEO take?

Various analyzes can be found on the web, depending on the industry, website, selected keywords, competition, etc. And why is this happening? Imagine you are offering a “Miami Car Service” service. What if you still offer the same service in New York. Will the customer entering the phrase “car service + given town” see your website in the same position in the search engine? No.

On the basis of numerous campaigns carried out by Paraphrase-Online.com, we join the claim that in order to position the keyword we need a minimum of:
2-3 months for less popular phrases,
4-8 months for moderately popular phrases,
over 9 months for very popular phrases.

How is the positioning process shaped depending on the industry?

The shortest time for the effects, i.e. entering the TOP10, is in the Business and Law and Politics categories – just over 2 months, and the longest in the Style & Fashion category – it takes over 5 months for the result to appear in the top 10. The average for all categories is 105 days.

It is also worth paying attention to the Career or Hobby category. Both, despite the fact that you had to wait over 4 months for the effects, the positions obtained remain in the TOP10 for about 2.5 years!

Important: Our results show us arithmetic means for given categories, which were calculated on the basis of several thousand keywords. If we look at the deviation column, we will see that in all categories, positioned sites wait much longer or much shorter for effects than the third column shows.

Let’s also look at the Sports category. The average transition from TOP50 to TOP10 of search results takes a minimum time of about 3 months, however, the high value of the standard deviation – 566 days indicates that these differences between individual phrases may differ radically from each other.

What affects standard deviations?

The waiting time for the effects of positioning may be shortened or extended by several factors which, depending on the category of the website being positioned, are more or less important. How long seo lasts consists of, among others:

– the number and position of competition,
– industry in which the company operates,
– modernity of the website – in terms of technical and content optimization,
– having good-quality content,
– changes in the Google algorithm,
– knowledge and experience of SEO specialists,
– budget,
– speed of introducing optimization changes.

How can we accelerate the appearance of positioning results?

The basic activity that must be performed before positioning an existing website is an SEO audit. On its basis, detected errors can be eliminated and the indicated shortcomings can be filled.

What is important for a properly conducted phrase positioning process:

– qualified and experienced positioners, constantly improving their qualifications and being up to date with introduced changes in algorithms,
– technical optimization of the website,
– the quality of the content and its uniqueness,
– elimination of indexing errors,
– adapting the website code to the requirements of search engines,
– internal linking,
– proper selection of keywords,
– valuable links coming from external websites,
– getting to know the target market and direct competition,
– an appropriate budget for the implementation of SEO activities,
– patience.