Google Sales Channel, Merchant Center, Structured Data & Shopify

[rdaniel]

Hi,

I have setup structured data for the landing pages of my products with JSON-LD I want Google Merchant Center to mainly use a feed that crawls the structured data for both ads and free listings.

When I try to setup a new feed in Google Merchant Center I don't got the option of choosing crawl as a get method for the feed. After researching, I've found out that crawl only shows up when Google bot finds qualified structured data in my products. Is that right? So my theory is that Google don't qualify my structured data, but I don't quite get why it doesn't qualify it. I've verified that the data is read correctly and there aren't any errors with both Google's test tool and Schema.org's test tool.

The data looks like this (from Schema.org's test tool):

@type	Product
@type	Book
@Anonymous	https://xn--voltr-vra.no/products/breasts-and-eggs-mieko-kawakami-9781529074413
url	https://xn--voltr-vra.no/products/breasts-and-eggs-mieko-kawakami-9781529074413
name	Breasts And Eggs av Mieko Kawakami
gtin14	09781529074413
sku	9781529074413
image	https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0608/6508/5605/products/9781529074413.jpg?v=1656797096&width=264
isbn	9781529074413
bookEdition	Pocket
bookFormat	http://schema.org/Paperback
inLanguage	en
description	A captivating novel about three women who struggle to define their own identities in the present day Tokyo. It's a New York Times 'Notable Book of the Year' as well as the Elena Ferrante's Top 40 Female Authors' Books' A hot, summer day in a slum in Tokyo We meet 3 women who are thirty years old: Natsuko and her elder sister Makiko and Makiko's teenaged daughter Midoriko. Makiko hosts, who is getting older and who is affrighted by her appearance, has traveled to Tokyo to seek cosmetic surgery for breasts. Makiko is accompanied by Midoriko who recently stopped talking, finding herself unprepared to face her changing body and her mother's self-deprecating. The silence of Natsuko's home, acting as a catalyst that allows each lady to wrestle with their own fears and relationships with each other. After eight years, we see Natsuko again. She's now a writer, and is returning to her hometown and reminiscing about the summer of her childhood and the past of her family while facing the uncertain path ahead for her future. The novel Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami creates a powerful and intimate depiction of the current women of the working class in Japan telling the harrowing experiences of three women living in a world where the odds are against them. This is a memorable English debut by an international star of the moment. Translation from Japanese written by Sam Bett and David Boyd.Forfatter av boken er Mieko Kawakami med hjelp av Sam Bett (oversetter) , utgitt av Pan Macmillan. Boken er på engelsk.
author
@type	Person
name	Mieko Kawakami
publisher
@type	Organization
name	Pan Macmillan
aggregateRating
@type	AggregateRating
ratingValue	3.85
reviewCount	21587
offers
@type	Offer
sku	9781529074413
availability	http://schema.org/InStock
itemCondition	http://schema.org/NewCondition
priceValidUntil	2027-01-01
url	https://xn--voltr-vra.no/products/breasts-and-eggs-mieko-kawakami-9781529074413?variant=41733681414309
priceSpecification
@type	UnitPriceSpecification
price	189
priceCurrency	NOK
shippingDetails
@type	OfferShippingDetails
shippingRate
@type	MonetaryAmount
value	0
currency	NOK
shippingDestination
@type	DefinedRegion
addressCountry
@type	Country
name	NO
deliveryTime
@type	ShippingDeliveryTime
handlingTime
@type	QuantitativeValue
unitCode	DAY
minValue	0
maxValue	1
transitTime
@type	QuantitativeValue
unitCode	DAY
minValue	7
maxValue	13

Anyone that can see an obvious reason that Google won't qualify my data?

Or are there any other possible problems with what I'm trying to do? Or maybe there are any other possible solutions that will give me the same results?

Looking forward to your help and ideas.

Thanks!

[flareAI]

Hello @rdaniel,

I'm Gina - Product Manager at flareAI. flareAI has helped Shopify stores generating $5 million in sales from Google Search, on autopilot.

If it's helpful to you, please let me know by giving it a like or marking it as a solution.

I would like to share a few suggestions while going through your question.

This can happen. Not all accounts have "website crawl" in early stages.

1. Make sure your structured data markup is correct with all required attributes
2. Make sure you don't currently have a feed in your account. If you have feed, remove it.
3. Your GMC account is not suspended
4. Your robots.txt is not blocking the Googlebot

Also, go through this documentation on how to use automated feeds to build your product data. 

You can try to contact Google support team and see if they can help you.

I hope that the above list's tips will help you solve your query

Gina
flareAI

[rdaniel]

Ok, so if I have a feed that is from Content API, I have to delete that feed? 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

The crawl option will only become available on 2 conditions.

1) You have valid structured data

2) You have no other active feeds enabled

If condition 2, first delete your existing feeds, then check under Products > feeds > if its available.

However, I do not recommend you use the web crawler, it's very limited, and not very functional. For example not all products will pull, for example it will take weeks before it updates product info, it will also take weeks for products to be added, or removed.

It's really only an option for merchants who have absolutely no other option.

You are better off using a professional tool such as: https://apps.shopify.com/multiple-google-shopping-feeds

[rdaniel]

Option doesn't show up when removing main feed. So I guess there's something wrong with my structured data.

I've been reading in the reviews for this app, and others, that they're not open for much customisation. For example: I think our store is served with structured data that features book titles, because Google will then display our products more often when viewing competitors products (that's also featured as book titles).

I'm planning to have ContentAPI as the main feed and crawl feed as an extra feed. 

I guess these apps only make feed management easier, and doesn't do anything that I can't do myself. Although my customisation might be more hard coded than the apps. But that's not an issue for me.

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

[EmmanuelFlossie]

This app I use for all my clients, it has two settings.

Basic and Advanced.

With the advanced feature I am able to setup all the requirements I need using simple rules and advanced regular expressions.

Ofcourse each result may require a different kind of setup, but I have not found any limitations using the app.

I do also manually improve data using a supplement feed in Google Merchant Center, however the app also allows you to manually edit every value seperately.

[rdaniel]

I have tried the app now, and yes I can confirm that it's not customisable to the degree I need. First of all I can't change the entries to books instead of or addition to products, and second of all I can't route it to pick up information about my product ratings. And third, the cost of the app doesn't correspond to the quality difference from a regular Content API feed to the somewhat customized feed I get from this app. This is really not an acceptable solution for me.

[EmmanuelFlossie]

To understand what you are trying to do can you provide more info?

First of all I can't change the entries to books instead of or addition to products

All listings will be products, only two fields help identify the product type, this is category and product type, which can be set to correctly identify what you sell. However I'm unsure what you are trying to do. Please provide more details.

and second of all I can't route it to pick up information about my product ratings.

Yes, that sounds correct in terms of the product data feed. You will not be able to pull this data as Google does not accept it.

However, if you mean product review feed, then the app I think is limited to a few review platforms. The best option is to directly link it up to Google merchant center, to know if your review platform supports this, reach out to the support team.

The questions above, is for me to understand what you are trying to do. As I manage feeds day in and day out, I like to learn what people are trying to do.