Inside Small Business » 2009

Google This…Google Product Search for Free Search Listings

Inside Small Business | February 16th, 2009

Bryan Stapp, Loud Amplifier Marketin g

Here’s a nice way to get additional listings for your product on Google, and all the clicks are free. Upload your product catalog feed to Google Base and have your products listed in the organic search rankings through Google Product Search. To borrow from the old Dire Straits song, get your “money for nothing, and your clicks for free”.

Google Product Search (you may remember this as “Froogle”) helps shoppers find and buy products from merchants across the web. When you list your products in Product Search, shoppers can quickly and easily find your site, delivering you more traffic and helping you to increase sales. And if you accept Google Checkout for payment, the Checkout badge will appear on your Product Search listings, driving even more traffic and confident shoppers to your site.

Listing your products in Product Search is completely free, with no set up or hidden costs. Because Product Search delivers unbiased and objective search results the same way Google Search does, the ranking is based solely on the quality and relevance of your product listings.

One really nice feature is the ability to upload your product catalog in bulk via XML feed. Several shopping carts support Google Product Search and will generate your feed and upload it with just a few clicks. You can update the feed as often as you like, but you must maintain it monthly as all listings expire after 31 days. See my reviews on the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart and Volusion’s e-commerce platforms as both of these make it easy to use Google Product Search.

One shortcoming is the confusing number of names that Google uses for these products. “Base”, “Product Search”, “Shopping”, “Checkout” all are part of the same set of tools you will need to work with. I think someone there could simplify the naming conventions for dumb marketing guys like me. Drive more clicks for free at http://base.google.com/base/help/sellongoogle.html.

*Bryan Stapp is the Chief Marketer for his firm Loud Amplifier Marketing, providing strategic marketing consulting to private equity firms, CEO’s and CMO’s in multiple industries. He also operates several direct-to-consumer online businesses, and plays lead guitar in a rock band just to keep things interesting.Bryan frequently presents at industry conferences, and writes about internet marketing, consumer relationships, and brand building. He has deep experience in combining online and offline strategies for customer acquisition and building brands. Read Bryan’s blog posts at www.LoudAmplifierMarketing.com.