Chapter 2 merchant center, feeds and content api, Structuring your content, Chapter 2 – Google Commerce Search Deployment Guide User Manual
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Chapter 2 Merchant Center, Feeds and Content API
Unlike Google Site Search, which uses the Google crawler (googlebot) to index your site, GCS
builds its index from content that is directly fed or “pushed” to Google. In most cases, you might
already be feeding some of your product data to Google through Merchant Center, for Google
Product Search (formerly called “Froogle”). This product feed can also be shared with Google
Commerce Search. Likewise, you can specify that a feed is only for GCS, and the items will not
show up in public product search.
The Merchant Center feed defines a number of required and recommended fields, as described
in the “Product Feeds Specification” at
You can also find examples of the various feed formats at this link.
GCS has the same required attribute fields for each item:id, title, link, price, description,
condition. Any of the recommended fields can also be used in your GCS implementation. But as
a GCS customer, you are also able to submit custom-defined attributes.
Structuring your content
Before we look at the technical details involved with feeding content to Google, it is important
first to map your current product schema into something GCS can use. Typically, this exercise
involves determining which fields in your current database are important for search functionality,
and then mapping them to fields in the feed sent to Google.
Here are some questions that will help you determine what data you want to send to Google:
●
What data do you need to display in search results?
For example, thumbnail image, title, and price
●
Which fields do you need to use for refinements?
For example, color, size, and brand
●
Which fields do you need to use for sorting?
For example, price, date added, and rating
●
Which fields might you use for ranking?
For example, best seller, quantity in stock, and featured item
●
Do you need to do any range-based searches?
For example, dates, prices, sizes
Essentially, for any features you wish to implement, the supporting data needs to be submitted
in your feed.
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