Google Merchant Center strategy

8

85VicWagonGuy

New member
Feb 12, 2009
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Boston, MA
1) Had success in the eyewear market: www.shadesofmalibu.com
- 100% due to submitting 20,000 items to Google Merchant Center (MC)

2) Built a Site Builder that uses large product feed files from CJ to create new cart sites in minutes

2) Tested the laptop battery (50k items) and halloween costume (7k items) markets
- both sites were immediately DISALLOWED by MC

Any general suggestions to encourage ALLOWED status?

Any other forums that specialize in MC?
 
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Reactions: Sohan


GMC disallows affiliates and dropshippers. Unless you handle the transaction all the way through creation/fulfillment, no go except in rare cases.

Awesome that you snuck the eyeglasses one in! Rake it in -- I won't be surprised if they drop the ban hammer on you now though :(
 
SSL
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GMC states that your cart must have an SSL.

Although they have approved some of my sites without SSLs, one of my sites that does have an SSL has never been disapproved.

I'm going to launch a new site (to replace a disallowed site) this week... WITH SSL on the cart. Same for all future launches on GMC.

I'll report on the results...
 
Immediate disapproval can mean xml error or just general account problems too. Does the feed validate? Use this tool to check: Celebird - Google Base and Merchant Center data feed check

Have you tried importing a feed with just one item that you know is totally fine (no 3rd party image, unique description, etc?) Try that on an SSL domain and see if it's auto-dissaproved? If so it's not the content, it's the domain or account.

Are these all in the same google account? You could try the 1 item feed trick on a totally clean account/new domain to see if that makes a difference, then start adding more items in.

If all else fails (and I mean everything) The GMC team actually does respond to emails with human advice, but only do it from a proxy and new account with a new domain with a handful of items.. just to get the ball rolling for that account/domain combo, then start feeding it.

good luck!
 
You have a better chance slipping through stuff like that if you use a little .htaccess magic and a default ordering lander when you submit it.

For example your product "heavy hammer 4 lbs" instead of having the "buy" link go to the affiliate site have it go to a internal page to buy it that looks like a shopping cart.

Once you are approved change the htaccess links to go where it should go.

Won't last forever and a manual review will always nail you later - but it works for a long time sometimes.
 
stmadeveloper said:
You have a better chance slipping through stuff like that if you use a little .htaccess magic and a default ordering lander when you submit it.

For example your product "heavy hammer 4 lbs" instead of having the "buy" link go to the affiliate site have it go to a internal page to buy it that looks like a shopping cart.

Once you are approved change the htaccess links to go where it should go.
Click to expand...

We've been using a cart during processing for a while now.

Messed with every feed field today, still disallowed without stated reason.

So far the only thing we can guess is that the always-allowed site is 1 of 5 in Google Shopping for that market. The sites that are getting disallowed tend to be 1 of 10 or 20 in their markets.

Maybe Google has put a limit on the # of competitors in some markets?
 
dantex said:
Immediate disapproval can mean xml error or just general account problems too. Does the feed validate? Use this tool to check: Celebird - Google Base and Merchant Center data feed check

Have you tried importing a feed with just one item that you know is totally fine (no 3rd party image, unique description, etc?) Try that on an SSL domain and see if it's auto-dissaproved? If so it's not the content, it's the domain or account.

Are these all in the same google account? You could try the 1 item feed trick on a totally clean account/new domain to see if that makes a difference, then start adding more items in.

If all else fails (and I mean everything) The GMC team actually does respond to emails with human advice, but only do it from a proxy and new account with a new domain with a handful of items.. just to get the ball rolling for that account/domain combo, then start feeding it.
Click to expand...

1) Thanks, trying the validator.

2) Yes, we've tried SSL with 30000, 200, 5 and 1 items in a feed. All disapproved.

3) We create an account for each separate site, but the contact info is the same in all. Maybe we should try a new account with totally bogus contact info, as a test.
 
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