Google Base Uploading: Search Still Favoring Froogle Items

[mandy]

While I switched to the Google Base attributes back in July (a month after Google recommended to do so) and have been recommended the same for all merchants, I’m not sure this has been the best advice.

Unfortunately, the Product Search OneBox results at the top of Google’s main search engine results page (SERP) lists Froogle items, not Google Base items. In other words, all the work everyone has done to switch to the Google Base format and optimize for Google Base is great, but Google Base gets no traffic. Merchants who didn’t make the change have been much better off.

So the question to the Google Base Guide is…when are the Google OneBox results going to reflect Google Base listings as opposed to Froogle listings?...

full article: http://www.comparisonengines.com/2006/10...asesort-of

[sneakymagenta]

Froogle is the only option I see.

[xppman]

When I do a GB search my eCrater stuff comes up on page one and two.
eCrated feeds to froggle.  ;D

[cranky_hippie]

I guess, for once, it's a good thing that I am ignorant. I don't have a clue yet how to do a feed so it doesn't matter to me right now. Maybe by the time Google/Froogle gets it together I'll HAVE a clue. 

[xppman]

Some of you are so missing the boat IMO.

I don't know how to do a feed either
BUT that's not what's really needed for me at this point.
For example if I can get placement on page one two and three of the
majors buy loading up a few items here and there on auction sites and eCrater
types, that's all that is needed.

IT'S YOUR BRAND YOU WANT THEM TO SEE AND YOU WANT THEM TO
COME TO YOUR WEBSITE. NOT BUY ALL YOUR STUFF ON GB EC OR ANYWHERE ELSE. 

LESS IS MORE to me and just put "some" items out there to get them to COME to your
SITE to see it ALL and buy.

Of course I don't have 1000's of items like some of you guys but to me if I did.
Seems it would be easier to maintain say 10 -20 items "out there"
than to try and maintain 1000's all over the place.
Especially if you need to change prices or are out of a particular item.

[maryrussel]

That makes a lot of sense XPP. I had been thinking of doing a bulk listing but never seemed to get around to it. If I concentrate on just doing a few I might actually get it done before the selling season is over. I never even thought about what a PITA it would be to have to change all the prices or to remember to maintain my listings everytime my inventory is depleted or changed.

[xppman]

Yea and eCrater is GREAT for that.
You list say 10 items.
THEY do the feed to Froogle and Froogle does the feed to Google Base and to Goggle.
Then all of a sudden, Yahoo is picking you up as well as MSN, Alta Vista and the others.

All you have to do is list items in simple HTML.
If your stock is depleted. Simply delete the item
(save the HTML to put up later if you get more of the same)

Same deal with G base you can deactivate stuff with a click of a mouse
but imagine if you have a 1000 items up there.

BRANDING people BRANDING.

Same at alternate sites. (FREE TO LIST)
If they do feeds GREAT... put up a few items. Don't matter if they sell
the Search engines pick them up.
Next thing you know Suzy buyer is sitting there Looking at your little widget
and SEES your BRAND.
Suzy says. hmmm I wonder if they have a bigger one?
Let me just slide on over to the website and SEE.

[thentavius]

Of course I don't have 1000's of items like some of you guys but to me if I did.
Seems it would be easier to maintain say 10 -20 items "out there"
than to try and maintain 1000's all over the place.

It is, I think. You can put all of your energy into advertising every angle of a few items. When you have 1,000s, you don't have the time to focus on each individual product (unless you have a large staff).

[xppman]

Not only is time a factor but ad budget as well.
Like me for instance.
I pay 0 ...ZERO for CPC ads.
Instead I use those free to list venues who ARE feeding to
the engines and the engines are apparently crawling them as well.

Now one thing I've noticed with all the engines is some type of rotation over the years.
This isn't scientific, just an observation.

The key words and content I focus on it seems to work well as I can USUALLY
find my items on pages one two or three of most the majors.
Now who defines the majors? Just take a look at what is bundled in your browsers search
tool.  I think most people use those search engine tools when looking for stuff.

Now as more business come online this tends to shift from time to time as more people
coming online will PAY for sponsored ad spots.  Even if for a short time.
But still I place high enough to be found and again high up in the pages.
The deepest I found myself was 10 pages deep on Goggle last week,
with 20 results on a page.
The worst I've ever seen for me.

Some will say that people DON'T go past page one, but I beg to differ and have also heard
people like radio talk show hosts Clark Howard and Kim Komando say something to thier audiences about this. They have said that your BEST bet is to go past the first page
and even further to find bargains. The reasoning given is that those who are paying for advertising tend to be charging MORE for thier products and services and they also said that
the BIG companies may NOT have the best CS or merchandise.
(Now all that was just recollection and not quotes but the conversations were along those lines).

So what I'm getting at is search engines may tend to rank YOU higher if:

1)Your listing some product on as many free sites as possible.
2)BRANDING yourself on those sites with the same or as close to your website's name.
3)Listing items that may NOT be your best sellers, because the IDEA is to spark the curiosity
of the would be buyer to seek MORE of what you have and GO TO YOUR website.

I tend to list items at the venues at a higher price than I sell at my website to encourage
buyers to buy for less direct.

This is also a way to get more BANG for your buck on those sites who do charge an up front listing fee. Your AD stays up for the length of time you paid for in most cases.

Any of this make sense to anyone here?

[amy]

THEY do the feed to Froogle and Froogle does the feed to Google Base and to Goggle.
Then all of a sudden, Yahoo is picking you up as well as MSN, Alta Vista and the others.

We do daily automated uploads of our store feeds with ZenCart to Google Base/Froogle.  Total time spent creating the feed file: 0.  Total time spent uploading to Base/Froogle: 0.

If we did the feeds manually with Zen the total time to create the feed and upload to Google would be under 1 minute--it's a 2 mouse-click operation.

The best part of using Zen to handle the feeds is that all of your products are fed to Google and the buyers come directly to your site instead of going to a venue first which is much better than having eCrater or BluJay upload a few of your products to Google for you and directing the buyers to their venue where your competitors also sell.

We also have RSS feeds on all of our stores which get picked up by various search engines and shopping sites like Edgeio, etc.

I'm fairly sure that both CRELoaded and osCMax have Google Base/Froogle and RSS mods too.