When Creating a File to Upload to Google Merchant Center What Format Is Accepted

This mail volition look at the types of data feed that you can submit to Merchant Center. We'll list all the accepted file formats so you tin can choose the 1 that suits you best.

Some types of information feed are more suitable for certain merchants than others. The almost appropriate method for y'all will depend on various factors, such equally the ecommerce platform you use, your in-house development/technical capabilities, the number of products y'all want to list, and how oft the production information on your website changes.

The full general method for getting your product listing ads (PLAs) set up is to first create a Merchant Heart business relationship, and then create a data feed in an accepted file format, annals the data feed in Merchant Center, and then upload the data feed using the method yous choose.

Information technology may seem complicated at first, just once yous get your head effectually the main types of data feed file, and the best way to manage inputting your product data into Google, it volition become apparent which method is going to work best for your store.

In this mail I will discuss the data feed, and the accustomed file formats. In my next blog mail I will proceed to examine the diverse upload methods.

What Is A Information Feed?

A data feed is simply a file that lists all the products that yous wish to sell on Google Shopping. This list needs to comprise various pieces of information about your products, set by Google, which are known as product attributes. Some of these attributes are mandatory and some are optional – y'all tin notice an overview feed specification guide and a description of the diverse product attributes here.

On a basic level, the data feed may be thought of as a spreadsheet — like Microsoft Excel or a Google Sheet — where each column represents a product attribute like price, name, GTIN, shipping cost, or description, and where each row is an individual product.

All the same, at that place are more complex ways to create the data feed such as XML, which is more like HTML, and Content API (further detail below).

Adjacent I'll outline the file formats accepted by Google. This is an important decision yous will need to brand, and the format needs to be selected according to your needs as a merchant every bit well as your ability to create the relevant file.

Accustomed File Formats

When it comes to creating the feed there are limited options in terms of file formats. Substantially you take two – a TXT file or an XML file.

TXT (Tab-delimited)

Google suggests that for smaller merchants, using a TXT format may be the best selection. There are a number of reasons for this simply the main one is that it requires the to the lowest degree technical knowledge.

This type of file will either end in .txt or .csv. You tin can utilise Google Sheets, either directly from Merchant Center, where Google will generate a spreadsheet template for yous to fill, or yous can upload an existing Google Sheet. Alternatively you lot can create the feed in Microsoft Excel, and save as a .csv file, then upload direct into Merchant Centre.

If you're new to online shopping, or if you're a merchant with a modest number of products, this data feed file can be created with relative ease. However, you do need to exist reasonably familiar with spreadsheets.

If y'all know that your product information won't modify very often, and you take the time and resource to make the relevant changes and upload the data feed each time products modify, so this could be platonic for yous. Merely if you have products that oft get in and out of stock, and you are adding a lot of new products all the time, this won't exist the best choice. You can read more from Google virtually how to gear up up this type of file hither.

Let'due south look at the potential advantages and disadvantages of using the TXT format for your data feed:

Advantages

• If you lot know how to create spreadsheets then generating a TXT file is easy
• Y'all tin hands optimise the feed titles and descriptions
• Information technology is easy to view multiple products at once

Disadvantages

• You need to manually update and upload your file whenever you make a change
• You lot need to ensure you re-upload every 30 days
• It'southward not suitable when yous have many products
• It is easy to make formatting mistakes
• You need to familiarise yourself with Production Feed Specifications

An important point to notation is that Google does not accept feeds in Excel formal (.xls) – then if yous are using Excel to create the feed you lot will need to convert it to a text format (such every bit .csv) before you tin upload it. You tin can read Google'south guide on how to convert your Excel files here.

XML

This file format is ordinarily used by larger advertisers who have bigger product ranges. It's of import to note that this format will require some .xml coding knowledge and the use of a text-editing program. The feed must then be submitted in the .xml file format. This could be done manually in Merchant Centre, but you're more than likely to use the XML format and then that your product data feed can be automatically generated from an online database when requested.

If you have hundreds of products that come and go very quickly then it'south best to develop a dynamic XML feed. Beneath is an example of how an XML information feed would be hosted on your website:

Advantages:

• Your site may already generate an XML file of your content
• Including multiple values for an attribute is easier
• Good for big product quantities when connected to your website database
• You can automate the updating process using scheduled fetches in Merchant Center

Disadvantages:

• Noesis of XML or another language is required
• Not suitable when yous have many products if not connected to your website database
• Y'all need to ensure you lot understand Google'due south Policy regarding XML feeds
• It is difficult to come across many products inside the file at once

When creating your data feed, remember to salve your file in one of the supported filetypes with the appropriate filename extension:
.txt: text
.xml: XML
.gz: Gnu nothing, compressed text or XML
.zip: Zip, compressed text or XML
.bz2: Bzip2, compressed text or XML

Some ecommerce platforms have an extension or plugin that builds a feed for yous automatically. You can download and upload this manually into Merchant Center, or set it to update automatically through scheduled fetches. Using a more than common ecommerce platform volition brand it much more probable for at that place to be a plugin/module to make a feed, whereas a custom website requires custom development which can take several days of work to develop.

Note: Data feed files are ane way to submit product information to Merchant Middle, only y'all can also submit product information via the Content API for Google Shopping or via a supported ecommerce platform import.

My next blog post will discuss the various upload methods, and so you can work out the best way for you lot to become your product information (independent within the data feed) into Google Merchant Center.

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Source: https://www.hallaminternet.com/which-file-format-should-you-use-for-your-google-shopping-data-feed/

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