google product feed data fixes

[mythandmagic]

Making a few changes to my google product data feed as it does not work as well as I'd like it to.

I didn't like that its using the on page product description for the google product description as lots of my products have exactly the same description with a couple of minor tweaks.

However the meta description is different for all the products, so in the layout google product feed layout I have changed line 14 from "description" to <![CDATA[<actinic:variable name="ProductPageMetaDescription" />]]>.so it now uses each products meta description.

When it was using the on page description is was also picking up some of the coding and using that in the feed too.

Maybe this will be useful to some.

I have a question though, I like my feed within adwords to be in product groups, sub divided into "product type" but I do not see how to add this into sellerdeck?

Do I need a new column in my feed with the title "product type" Anybody got a fix/answer for this ??

[mythandmagic]

ok - think I've got a fix for that too..

New variable copied from product / brand and renamed it to product type.

then in layout google product feed ive put this on line above price.

<g: product type>
<![CDATA[<actinic:variable name="Product Type" />]
</g: product type>

see how this goes

[Buzby]

I didn't like that its using the on page product description for the google product description as lots of my products have exactly the same description with a couple of minor tweaks.

This isn't very good for SEO, you should try to have unique descriptions for each product.

If this isn't possible then you should use a canonicalised link.

[mythandmagic]

Yup, totally agree. but keeping the on page descriptions simple works for us from a customer point of view.

[mythandmagic]

ok - that didn't work.

when looking at the feed in google it ended up with a formatting error. the profuctmetadata is working fine, its something to do with what I've done with "product type"

anyone know where I went wrong ? or if I missed a step somewhere?

[mythandmagic]

Never mind all.

I now know that the "category" you put the products in within sellerdeck are the "product type" in your google feed.