Google Base (FROOGLE) Changes, why they wont accept automatically actinic bulk sites

[dangermouse116]

oh btw jan is there a way i can set the product type in the mash? got google complaining about that as well

Hello Chris,

Thank you for submitting a bulk upload to Google Base. We have reviewed your bulk upload and need you to make changes. Your bulk upload has been disapproved due to the reason(s) listed below.

Issues:

1. Irrelevant product type
2. Multiple items listed on the same page

-----------------
1. Irrelevant product type: We noticed that some of the product_type values you included are not relevant to your items. For example, your item titled "Tunze Universal clamp V4A 0102.400 " should include a more relevant product_type value, such as "Pet Supplies."

Including irrelevant information may cause your products to be miscategorised and adversely affect your items' placement. For a list of examples product_type values, please visit:

http://base.google.co.uk/base/uk/product_types.html

2. Multiple items listed on the same page: We noticed some of the links you provided for your items lead to pages that lists other items as well.
In order to provide a better user experience, we only accept links to item pages that list a single item. Please include URLs for pages specific to each item and remove from your bulk upload any items without individual pages.

After you have made the necessary change(s), please upload a new version of your bulk upload. We will notify you if we need you to make any additional corrections. Otherwise, we will send you an email to let you know that your bulk upload has been approved.

Yours sincerely,

The Google Team

[RuralWeb]

yeah but the buggers are checking it

I get the impression that they are manually checking most feeds now.

[TraceyHand]

jees..they're going to make it almost impossible for anyone to submit a feed that hasn't been meticulously put together product by product soon, aren't they?

*applies for a job as a GoogleBase feed checker*

[Nick Walker]

Yeah, i have had this problem since last month, although they have accepted my feed which is good until the 20th of this month, even if it is out of date.

Already contacted Mole End as Jan said once already, lots of people are getting this problem.

I understand from the perspective from Google, since it helps to index pages individually, perhaps a way of getting around this, but although this would require a big amount of work, would be to put in <a name=blah blah> for every product on the page.

I.e <a name=PRODUCTREF> so then the URL would read www.mysite.com/acatalog/page1#PRODUCTREF

Depends though if that is read as 'different page' or if it's read as 'different URL'.

Overall, i think to be honest, we will all be changing before Googlebase does. Since Actinic is not the only e-commerce software and perhaps the others do create individual pages at some level.

[dangermouse116]

i spoke to mark in sales at actinic and they said they would not be adding this as a feature....Im hoping that our little thread might make them re-assess that thought. Ive check other shopping carts and know that they offer the 1 product per page, would rather stick with actinic though as the rest of their offering kicks ass.

[Nick Walker]

To be honest, i don't have much experience with other ecommerce / shopping cart software. But i remember one of the differences with Actinic is that there are actually static pages, and from what i can tell a lot of other shopping carts and custom software throw them up on the fly.

I'm not sure either way what effect this has from Google's perspective, but i still fail to understand how this is not being worked on from either Actinic's side or Google's side.

[RuralWeb]

but i still fail to understand how this is not being worked on from either Actinic's side

IMO its not really Actinics problem - the problem arrises due to the way people build thier sites ie multiple product pages. Actinic can produce single product pages so there is no real problem with the software,

[Nick Walker]

Yeah, you could create single product pages. But i guess that comes down to the way that Actinic does this, i don't think i have seen a single catalogue designed this way. Maybe as a web design company you have?

Regardless, would my idea not work with the <a name> tags? There's certainly a lot of speculation here, maybe we can find a resolution.

[pinbrook]

There are lots of sites out there using one product per page,

surf-wax.co.uk/acatalog/index.html
mole-end.biz/acatalog/index.html
fancylines.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

[dangermouse116]

it is tempting, i know someone who can write a utility for me to do the changes via the datatbase so i dont have to do the horrible job....will cost me a day or 2 labour....just gotta decide if its worth it

[TraceyHand]

ok...a bit of a thicko reply..how are the "single product pages" done?

Are the product list pages just laid out in rows/columns..and the main product details done as the "extended info"?

sorry if that's a dim Q! It's been a long day

ETS..I will be looking it up later

[Duncan Rounding]

I think it would probably be worth it for SEO advantages alone never mind GBase.

[Duncan Rounding]

ok...a bit of a thicko reply..how are the "single product pages" done?

Are the product list pages just laid out in rows/columns..and the main product details done as the "extended info"?

sorry if that's a dim Q! It's been a long day

A parent section will contain sub-sections of single products per section (pages). The parent section will also contain duplicates of these products (often in a cut down version). You can then click on the duplicate to take you to the single product's page.

parent Section
-subsection
--product a
-subsection
--product b
-subsection
--product c
-duplicate product a
-duplicate product b
-duplicate product c

Like here for example: http://www.fancylines.co.uk/acatalog/Babydolls.html

[dangermouse116]

from an seo point it will put everything down another lvl....am not sure how that will effect it

[Duncan Rounding]

from an seo point it will put everything down another lvl....am not sure how that will effect it

The level as you refer to it will not affect SEO - your sitemap has all the pages at the same level. The benefit comes in being able to fully optimise the single page for just one product.