Google Product Search Feed Changes

Google recently announced a very important update to their product search feed for merchants and PPC advertising clients who list their products within Google Product Search. According to Google, the changes will take effect on September 22, 2011.

This is a change that could end up being very costly for Google merchants and will impact most businesses who use feeds for Google Product Search.

Some of the main changes of the recent Google Product Search:

Availability: You will be required to list the availability status of your products, even if it is out of stock. The reason for this is that Google wants searchers to be able to find your products regardless of the availability.
New Product Category: Google will also be adding a new high-level category called ‘Google Product Category’ that will contain the actual category of the items in Google’s taxonomy. Currently, its only required for a select number of categories as well as the existing ‘product type’ attribute.
New Images: Google is revising images by requiring you to submit image links and are encouraging you to to submit up to 10 additional images in your feed. Google would like to improve the visual appearance of your products.
Apparel: Google will be requiring you to submit different variations of your product such as different sizes, colors as well as gender and age group.
Data Freshness: Another Google Product Search change will also be regularly checking feeds for updated information such as pricing accuracy, availability and have stated they will take action against accounts that violate their standards.