Google Shopping Feed Taxonomy Categories - How to find the most appropriate category?

[Dan-Lawrence]

Hi

I have a Shopify store using a Google merchant centre app.

I successfully set up Google shopping feed (& Bing) using the Symprosys app in conjunction with the Engines merchant centres.

My products (on G shopping) all showed up for about a week and then disappeared (without me having changed anything), although apparently, this is perfectly normal and quite common (they can accept your products then, later on, suppress them for various possible reasons, even if nothing has changed).

So now I'm working through all possible reasons starting with taxonomy and categorisations since I see that Googles has automatically categorised my products very weirdly, such as aprons etc when they are in fact Colour Charts/Guides used by designers etc to accurately select and communicate colours for their work, used for graphic design or fashion design or interior design etc etc.

So I think this makes logical sense to try correctly categorise them and rule that out before moving on to other potential reasons, and of course, I want them to be correctly categorised anyway.

They obviously aren't aprons and since they are books of colour then I thought it makes sense to choose:

'> Print Books' from the G taxonomy options. The app developer has suggested:

Arts & Entertainment > Hobbies & Creative Arts > Arts & Crafts > Art & Crafting Tools > Color Mixing Tools > Palettes

Which does kind of make sense too, although they are not actually mixing palettes they are books of colours and their codes.

So I think the best thing is to find out what other sellers of the same products have categorised them as first, does anyone now how you can do this? Since I've had a look at the other sellers for the same product and cant see a category giving. OR failing that if you think given the product type it should be 'Palletes' or 'Books'

All Best

Dan

[LynnPatchett]

Hi Dan

I wouldn't think that the products not showing are because of categorisation but if the auto categories are not what you think they should be then it is always worth specifying. Not sure if there is an easy way to see what competitors are using but if the products are books I would definitely label them as such and not art supplies. Having a quick look at shopping results for 'colour palettes' shows a mix of books and colour samplers anyway so the overlap seems to be recognised by Google already.

In my experience one of the quickest wins in getting more impressions out of shopping ads are tweaking your product titles (and descriptions). If for example the title is just the title of the book, it can help if you prepend or append the title with something like 'Art Book' or 'Colour Guide' or similar. You can even do this through shopping feed rules if it is difficult to get it set up via your CMS. A bit of trial and error to see what works best is usually needed.

Hope it helps!

[Dan-Lawrence]

HI Lynn

Thanks for this!

Ah ok, was hoping that Gs innacurate auto-categorisation was the potential cause of them not displaying in enhanced free listings, such as the free shopping listings (where they did show for about a week next to the competitors but have since disapeared).

They are books sort of (either binders of colour chips or swatch fan guides, of different colours & shades) so reckon that does sound more logical than art pallets, but a tad worried if select books will also expect ISBN numbers etc which i don't think these have.

Yes generally speaking the titles include what they are i.e. colour guides etc

Would just love to find a way of finding out what others have specified them as.

My Shopping feed app supplier say should prob use/install G reviews too to help achieve enhanced listings but see most of my competitors don't so whilst this is prob still a good idea for other general reasons then, don't think its what's preventing the enhanced listings at the moment, since it's not prohibiting the competitors from surfacing in enhanced listings

All Best

Dan

[LynnPatchett]

Hey Dan,

Ah, didn't clue in to the FREE shopping ads part! Standards best practices still apply though, check out this checklist for a good rundown of technical setup points to keep in mind: https://feedarmy.com/kb/requirements-for-enhanced-listings-on-surfaces-across-google/

[Dan-Lawrence]

Thanks for that link Lynn, will take a look asap

I have eliminated all Errors but still a few Warnings in there but only for a very few products but beginning to and was pretty sure they dont actually prevent a listing, or that one instance could poss prevent any other form the feed for displaying but ill work through them just in case and to eliminate that possibility

All Best

Dan