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| Google Base (Formerly Froogle) - What Can It Do For You? |
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If you are not familiar with Google Base, you should take a look at a great FREE search engine marketing opportunity offered from Google. Google Base in a nutshell is a way to promote your products or services to Google, via a data feed. The Google Base mission is to provide an easy way to add offline content to Google to appear on Google Search or Google Product Search. The great thing about it is that you can add your content and once it is approved, then it has the possibilty of showing up on Google's main page as well as Google Product Search.
Who Needs Google Base?
Store Owners who have products to sell - The good thing is that you DO NOT have to have a website to submit information to Google Base!
Service Offerings - Got a Service? Post it online using Google Base. Services can be ANYTHING from painters to search engine optimization and marketing firms such as yours truly!
Real Estate, Vacation Rentals, Vehicles, etc... - The list is endless as to what can be posted onto Google Base.
Sounds Good, Now How Do I Get Started?
Go to Google Base
If you do not have an account, you will need to create one. You can do that HERE
Once Logged in, you will need to click on BASE, under the MY Services section.
Ok, Now that you have gotten this far...then this is where it does get a little tricky, you have to decide how many items, services or whatever you are adding requires a bulk upload or a manual submission. The rule here is that if you want to promote a service or say you want to sale your vehicle...then that would be a manual submission. Bulk Upload - You would want to use this option if you have an online store that sells 10 or more items.
One At A Time or Manual Submission - Select One at a Time on Google Base, this will take you to the manual submission screen. Once here, you choose an existing item type or create a new one. Once you choose your item type, fill out the next screen and either Save Draft for later or Publish. THAT'S IT! Now what happens is that if anyone searches on your specific service, then you may get found on the Google main page or Google Base.
Bulk Upload - This can be a little tricky for first time users or those out there who have limited scripting knowledge...So I will tell you the easiest way that I have found to do this. The best thing for you to do is use the Google Base Bulk Upload Help File Here. Once you are on the help page, you can read the overview. Click on step 2 and choose an item type. Click on the one that best suits your needs. Then you will want to find TAB-DELIMITED and click on SAMPLE.XLS (This will bring up an Excel Spreadsheet on your computer...most everyone is familiar with spreadsheets). Using that spreadsheet, fill out your information under the respective columns and save the file. Save the file as something that is associated with Google Base, such as "google_items", so you can easily find that file when you want to update and re-submit. NOTE: Ensure that you save the file as a TAB-DELIMITED .txt file or it will not process correctly. Once you save that file, you will need to Register the Bulk Upload File under your account. Go back to Google Base Home and click on BULK UPLOAD. Click on Register a New Bulk Upload File. Enter the File name EXACTLY as how you saved it and choose the item type. Then a Format Your Products Page will appear, if you used the sample file, it should be formatted correctly. Click "I'm Done Formatting My File, Continue to upload". This will take you to the upload page, Click Browse under the name of your file and then upload and process the file. I know it seems like a long drawn out process, but once you have the file registered, you are done and can upload the file at any time you make updates.
Other Things You Should Know
Check Your Bulk Upload after processing to ensure that your file processed correctly and that you do not have any errors. If you do have errors, click on the errors help and it will show you the line number that contains your error in your file. Note: Trademark symbols and copywright symbols will kick out an error in your file, so ensure that you remove any special symbols from your file.
You have to re-register your bulk upload after 30 days. After a period of 30 days, Google will delete your bulk upload file and you will have to re-submit it. This is a good time to review your file to ensure that you do not have any new items, price changes or old items that you no longer carry. Re-submitting your file takes about a minute.
I hope that this article sheds some light on some things that you can do to further expand your search engine marketing horizons. Remember, if you need any help with Google Base, Bizz Promotions offers Google Base Consultations. We can also create your Google Base Files for you and keep them up to date.
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