Laying out the goods on the virtual shelves of an online store, the owner expects that demand will soon appear on his offer, and there it’s not a long time to wait for profits. But in order to surely reach out to the network target audience, it is necessary to take into account the category of goods sold and place it in accordance with this parameter. Everything, as in real life: flower seedlings are not sold in the auto parts store, and food - in the toy department. To ensure that the inflow of online market customers is stable, the google_product_category attribute cannot be dispensed with. Let’s discuss the nuances.

Irreplaceable attribute: briefly about the main

The Google product category is an attribute used in two cases:

1. If the product falls under the mandatory cataloging.

2. If the owner of the online store wants to optimize sales performance.

Entering the product category into this attribute is equivalent to the effect of targeted advertising - the product will be shown to those users who really need it.

List of required categories, or What you need

We approved a list of product categories that require the indispensable use of the google_product_category attribute:

· Clothes and shoes.

· Clothing accessories (bags, covers, glasses, wallets).

· Jewelry (watches, etc.)

· Media (books, videos, music products).

· Software products (including video games).

For the remaining sections, google_product_category is optional, but desirable. To bring the goods into the framework of this attribute, you should use simple rules.

Play by the rules, or How to ensure a 100 % hit

Specify the product in the format .xls or .txt. This will allow the data to be correctly interpreted. To avoid rejection of the product description by the service, it is necessary to adhere to the minimum list of requirements:

· Focus on classifier. Google clearly prescribed the compliance of groups of products to certain categories, so you should not deviate from the standard. You can enter values ​​in the form of a concise numeric identifier (special code) or in text format. It is permissible to use the product_type attribute if it is necessary to categorize a product in an unconventional way (up to 750 characters, including only letters and numbers).

· Accuracy is politeness of the programmer. The product category should be indicated as accurately as possible and gradually pass from the general to the narrow. This will allow users who are looking for specific products to purchase it from you. That is, if the seller sells children's raincoat, it is not enough to indicate a generalized section “Articles of clothing and accessories” as a category, since this is a fairly extensive commodity layer. Correct indication of the path is carried out according to the following algorithm: “Articles of clothing and accessories” → “Stuff and clothes for children” → “Children's protective clothing” → “Raincoat”.

· Timely updates. Tables of product categories, compiled before 2011 inclusive, are considered obsolete, and therefore need to be updated. The current list is available in Google Merchant Center.

In addition to the general set of rules, there are nuances that are also spelled out on the pages of the above service. They relate to individual countries, as well as specific categories of goods or sets.