Web Design and SEO News and Tips » archive for July, 2007

How Do I Get My Products into Google Base?

  • July 26th, 2007

I’m glad you asked! If you read my previous post about Google Base, you’ve already seen how having your products listed there can dramatically increase your exposure in Google’s regular search results.

Getting your products listed is not difficult.

1. Go to http://base.google.com. If you already use Google services such as Google Checkout, Gmail, or Webmaster Central, you can use your Google Account information to sign in to Base. If you don’t use any of the Google services, or if you simply want to keep your Google Base account separate from your Gmail or other Google stuff, just go ahead and create a new account (you’ll need a second email address if you choose this latter option). Once you’ve created your Google Account, go to http://base.google.com and sign in.

2. Once signed in, you will be presented with a drop down menu asking what kind of items you want to list. Choices include products, vehicles, personals, housing, jobs, etc. Because I sell books and DVDs, I chose products. Choose what best fits your item, or create your own item type. Click Next. (If you want to upload your items in bulk, you should click the “Post multiple items with a bulk upload file” link. This option allows you to provide Base with a properly formatted XML file that contains information about all your products. More about this later.)

3. What happens next depends on which item type you chose. Assuming you chose “Products,” you will be presented with a form where you will enter information about your product, such as price, condition, brand, etc. as well as a text box for a full description (HTML allowed) and also a place to upload a picture of your product. You will also be required to supply other information, such as what payment methods you accept, and when the item expires (maximum is 30 days). Click Preview to see what your product will look like in the results pages, Save Draft to save your product without publishing it to Google’s search results, or Publish to go live with your product.

4. That’s it! Just rinse and repeat for each of your products.

Bulk Uploads
This is the way to go if you have more than about twenty products. If you already have your products in some kind of database, find out how to get your product listing into a properly formatted XML file for Google Base. If you are using a shopping cart for online sales, find out if your shopping cart developer has a Google Base plugin available, or if third party developers have created a mod or add-on that adds this functionality. I use the EcommerceTemplates shopping cart, and Mike Beebe, a third party developer, has created Google Base Product Lister, an excellent add-on to the shopping cart which extracts product information from the database and automatically formats it into an XML file. I then upload this XML file to Google Base and within a few hours all my products are published and searchable not only in Google Base but also in Google’s regular search engine results. It literally saves me hours of work.

Google Base Boosts Exposure, Rankings, Sales!

  • July 10th, 2007

If you operate an online store or otherwise sell products on the internet, you need to know about Google Base. Formerly known as Froogle, Google Base is an online catalog of products and services for sale over the internet. The BEST thing about Google Base for you as an online merchant or advertiser is that, unlike Yahoo Shopping and other product sites, it’s TOTALLY FREE to list your products! Plus, it can sometimes double, or even triple your exposure on Google’s search engine. Consider this example:

I operate an online store that sells books and DVDs at www.kingsleypress.com. I also operate an eBay store. I submit my product catalog to Google Base every 30 days and have recently added my eBay store inventory to Google Base through what they call the Store Connector, a small piece of software that takes my eBay store listings and plugs them into Google Base at the push of a few buttons. What could be simpler?

What happens next will blow you away! One of the products I sell is a DVD called “The Tanglewood’s Secret DVD.” If you type this into Google’s search engine, you’ll find that I have no less than FIVE positions on the FIRST PAGE of Google’s search results (see screenshot below). Wow! See what I mean about increased exposure?

In the screen shot below, which I took a few minutes ago right from Google’s search results, you’ll see I’ve pointed out and numbered each of my listings in the search results:

Number 1 is my eBay listing through Google Base.
Number 2 is my online store listing through Google Base.
Number 3 is my organic search listing (pulled from GB into regular search listings).
Number 4 is my regular organic search listing.
Number 5 is my secondary organic listing.

That’s a total of FIVE chances I have on that one page that someone will click through and buy the product from my online store as opposed to someone else’s.

In another post I’ll give you some tips on how to get started with Google Base.

Google Base Screen Shot