Google Base Feeder Support Thread [OLD]

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day,

It seems Google Base Feeder doesn't output linked products. That is, products that have been linked so that they appear in more than one category.

Given that the URLs and Meta Tag information Zen Cart produces for linked products are different, wouldn't we do better if linked products were output? Seems to me there should be no 'duplicate content' penalty, and because of the different search keywords, there is a greater chance people might find the products. Or am I missing something here?

Any chance a future version might support the option of outputing linked products?

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day,

It seems Google Base doesn't like products without a description.

Any chance Google Base Feeder could be modified to not output products without a description? Ideally have this as an option that could be configured.

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

[numinix]

G'day,

It seems Google Base Feeder doesn't output linked products. That is, products that have been linked so that they appear in more than one category.

Given that the URLs and Meta Tag information Zen Cart produces for linked products are different, wouldn't we do better if linked products were output? Seems to me there should be no 'duplicate content' penalty, and because of the different search keywords, there is a greater chance people might find the products. Or am I missing something here?

Any chance a future version might support the option of outputing linked products?

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

If someone were willing to support it then it'll happen.

G'day,

It seems Google Base doesn't like products without a description.

Any chance Google Base Feeder could be modified to not output products without a description? Ideally have this as an option that could be configured.

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

The module already disallows any product with a description of 15 characters or less. There is no switch in the configuration to turn this on or off, it is always on.

[lloyd_borrett]

The module already disallows any product with a description of 15 characters or less. There is no switch in the configuration to turn this on or off, it is always on.

In my case Google Base processed 968 products and inserted 851. It reported that the others were "missing an important attribute" and that the bad data was the description.

Unfortunately a new feed file has been created since this submission, so the reports by Google no longer match the positions in the file to check it. Looking throught the feed file, maybe one or more of the following is happening:

1 - Google has changed the minimum length of the description to be higher than 15.

2- When HTML markup is stripped out a 4 space gap is left instead of a 1 space gap. Maybe Google Base Feeder is testing the length of the description with these extra spaces included, but Google Base is ignoring them.

3 - Google Base Feeder turns appropriate characters into HTML entities. Maybe Google Base is testing the length of the description with the full length of the entity included, but Google Base is treating these entities as a single character.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day,

Is there an explanation somewhere as to what the options for the various Google Base Feeder Configuration options are, what sort of values should be set for them, what's acceptable, and what they do to the feed result and the way the feed is displayed by Google Product Search?

I'm have some difficulty understanding just what is what with these settings.

In my case, it's a store operating in Australia.

GST tax of 10% is payable by those buying in Australia. No GST for those buying from elsewhere.

We accept credit cards from those in Australia and New Zealand. We only accept Direct Transfer payment from those elsewhere.

We offer free shipping on orders over A$1000 in value to anywhere in Australia.

We give everyone store pickup as an option. Those in Australia can select from two forms of shipping. Those elsewhere can only get International air delivery for shipping.

All of these things are configured into the store using the various zone options for shipping, payments etc.

But I'm at a loss as to how to transfer these settings into the Google Base Feed Configuration setup. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day,

After reading some more about Google Base, especially it's attribute optins, I'm starting to come to grips with some of the Google Base Feeder Configuration options.

But I now also have some more questions.

Google Base supports a "location" attribute, being the address of where the item is. Surely it would be useful to provide this, especially if Store Pickup is set to true? Also, providing the location might help in the case where, like me, the store is in one country but Google Base is being used to target customers in another country.

Google Base supports a "manufacturer" attribute. Google Base Feeder picks up the manufacturer from Zen Cart and outputs it as the "brand" attribute. Why output the brand attribute instead of the manufacturer attribute? Would there be any benefit or penalty if both the brand and manufacturer attributes were output?

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.

[g_force]

Originally Posted by lloyd_borrett View Post
G'day,

It seems Google Base Feeder doesn't output linked products. That is, products that have been linked so that they appear in more than one category.

Given that the URLs and Meta Tag information Zen Cart produces for linked products are different, wouldn't we do better if linked products were output? Seems to me there should be no 'duplicate content' penalty, and because of the different search keywords, there is a greater chance people might find the products. Or am I missing something here?

Any chance a future version might support the option of outputing linked products?

Cheers, Lloyd Borrett.
If someone were willing to support it then it'll happen.

If someone were willing to support it then it'll happen.

Does this mean what I think it means = linked products will not be processed??? .. because almost all of my products are linked..

_thanks

[samar777]

I have a manual way of doing this. As our final goal is get our products listed at Google.


if your upload is failing, you can do it manually.

1. Go to admin>>google feed>> create feed
2.Go to your website's 'Feed' folder, and download the _products.xml file on your computer.
3. sign in to Google Base account ( on google website), click on Data feed, and create a need and give it SAME name as .xml file on your computer.
4. click on "manual upload" and upload the .xml file from your computer.

5. go have a snack, and by the time you come back your feed will be processed and products listed ( give the content is without errors)


Good luck fellows, go make some money.

Samar

[g_force]

I have a manual way of doing this. As our final goal is get our products listed at Google.


if your upload is failing, you can do it manually.

1. Go to admin>>google feed>> create feed
2.Go to your website's 'Feed' folder, and download the _products.xml file on your computer.
3. sign in to Google Base account ( on google website), click on Data feed, and create a need and give it SAME name as .xml file on your computer.
4. click on "manual upload" and upload the .xml file from your computer.

5. go have a snack, and by the time you come back your feed will be processed and products listed ( give the content is without errors)


Good luck fellows, go make some money.

Samar

Good advice... I've tried this however but as I mentioned a few posts back no records are coming up when I create feed.. anyone experiencing/experienced this?

Sorry for this but google status says no items inserted and domain_products.xml file is empty - I have over 500 products that should have been picked up.. anyone getting this??

_thanks

[RalphStirrat]

Good advice... I've tried this however but as I mentioned a few posts back no records are coming up when I create feed.. anyone experiencing/experienced this?

Yes I've upgraded to the latest version 1.7.4 and now mine is not processing? I upgraded as Google was disapproving because my prices did not include VAT so I thought the new version might help.

Anyone any ideas?