Etsy and Google Base - recent changes for sellers

I'm sure I'm the last person to the party on this (I usually am), but in case this affects anyone else here I figured I'd post about it.

I just learned that in the last couple months, Etsy changed their affiliation with Google Base so that individual sellers are no longer responsible for uploading their own feeds into Google Product Search. I had noticed a new "syndication" button on my Etsy toolbar, but didn't realize that it meant my old data feed was no longer working.

The new integration is all well and good, except that your older listings (those done before the switch) are not automatically uploaded to Google Base to be included in the product search. And here I was wondering why the page views on all my older listings were so low recently! Apparently you either have to edit these listings or deactivate/reactivate them to get them to show up.

Here are some links that explain everything better than I can -
Etsy's Storque article about the changes:
http://etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/tech-update-google-product-search-syndication-6258/

Helpful FAQs:
http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/12/06/faqs-about-the-etsy-gm-feed/

Instructions on how to get all your items into the feed:
http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2009/12/02/etsys-gm-syndication-enable-your-items/

I did a search to see if anyone had posted about this, and it didn't come up with anything - but if this has already been discussed and I missed it, sorry for rehashing old news! I was just surprised today when I figured out what had happened, and figured that if it took me this long to learn about it, then maybe I wasn't the only one left in the dark.

I did the de/reactivation thing a few hours ago, so hopefully within the next day my listings will all be back in the great big world of Google product searches!

 

Thank you for posting this. I knew about the changes, and while it was great fun learning all about SEO, and uploading data feeds to Google Base (not!), I am very happy that they've now integrated. It had not occurred to me, about my older listings, and that deactivation/reactivation method is good.

 

By deactivation, do you mean renewing or relisting them and paying the 20 cents again?

 

No, you only have to put them in edit, if I am understanding the directions in that link above.

 

Joules is right, you don't have to give Etsy another 20 cents. And thank goodness for that! By the way, I did a few "test" searches in Google to see if I could get my old items to show up after doing the reactivation trick (after ~12 hours or so), and it looks like they're all back! So, it does work. Whew!

 

Thanks so much!

 

I probably just missed it, but what is the date when the changes took place?
I noticed some of my older listing were getting some hits now.

 

They rolled it out in incremental stages a few months ago, or so, making it hard to say exactly when.

 

Hmmm, would this have been why we had so much trouble when implementing the VFG Google search? We couldn't seem to get it to recognize etsy sellers. Hope this fixes whatever the issue was...since I think even the die hard ebayers may be jumping ship soon.

 

Interesting theory, and could be...

 

Looks like I'm not syndicated yet??

 

Don't worry Amber, I'm not either. You just have to keep checking to see if you're syndicated. I'm assuming it's gonna take a while, and unfortunately there's no way of know when they'll get to you.

 

Hmm, I've had the syndication button for a couple of weeks, I've done the de-activate/re-activate thing, and my items still aren't showing up in Google shopping at all!

They show up in regular Google searches, which is some consolation I suppose!

Sarah

 

I was reading and I have to take the FREE US SHIPPING out of my titles to be seen on google. This kind of sucks as I see it as a selling point, but at the same time I do want to be seen on Google. :clueless:

 

I think they don't like the word 'free' - try changing it to 'US shipping included' or something similar to get round that.

There's a whole load of banned words that will mean your item is not listed on Google if you use them, such as wine, cognac, whisky (anything alcoholic), cigarettes (and any tobacco), knife (or any weapons), sexy (and anything pornographic!).

So if you have a nice pair of 'sexy burgundy coloured cigarette pants,' you might want to rethink your title and description!

Sarah

 

Thanks for that bit of advice and the good idea too, Sarah!! I will have to sit down with a couple of cups of tea and change all of that out.