Long Island Web Design | Unreal Web Marketing

Canonical TAG, when to use it

newyorkseo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:59:37 +0000

What Information Have the Engines Provided About the Canonical URL Tag?

Carpe diem on any duplicate
content worries: we now support a format that allows you to publicly specify
your preferred version of a URL. If your site has identical or vastly similar
content that’s accessible through multiple URLs, this format provides you with
more control over the URL returned in search results. It also helps to make sure
that properties such as link popularity are consolidated to your preferred
version.

Let’s take our old example of a site
selling Swedish fish. Imagine that your preferred version of the URL and its
content looks like this:

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish

However, users (and Googlebot) can access
Swedish fish through multiple (not as simple) URLs. Even if the key information
on these URLs is the same as your preferred version, they may show slight
content variations due to things like sort parameters or category navigation:

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&category=gummy-candy

Or they have completely identical content,
but with different URLs due to things such as a tracking parameters or a session
ID:

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&trackingid=1234&sessionid=5678

Now, you can simply add this tag to specify
your preferred version:

rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish”
/>

inside the section of the
duplicate content URLs:

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&category=gummy-candy

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&trackingid=1234&sessionid=5678

and
Google will understand that the duplicates all refer to the canonical URL: http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish.
Additional URL properties, like PageRank and related signals, are transferred as
well.

This standard can be adopted by any search engine when crawling and
indexing your site.

Of course you may have more questions. Joachim Kupke, an
engineer from our Indexing Team, is here to provide us with the answers:

Is rel=”canonical” a hint or a directive?
It’s a hint that we honor strongly. We’ll take your preference into account, in conjunction with other signals, when calculating the most relevant page to display in search results.

Can I use a relative path to specify the canonical, such as ?
Yes, relative paths are recognized as expected with the tag. Also, if you include a link in your document, relative paths will resolve according to the base URL.

Is it okay if the canonical is not an exact duplicate of the content?
We allow slight differences, e.g., in the sort order of a table of products. We also recognize that we may crawl the canonical and the duplicate pages at different points in time, so we may occasionally see different versions of your content. All of that is okay with us.

What if the rel=”canonical” returns a 404?
We’ll continue to index your content and use a heuristic to find a canonical, but we recommend that you specify existent URLs as canonicals.

What if the rel=”canonical” hasn’t yet been indexed?
Like all public content on the web, we strive to discover and crawl a designated canonical URL quickly. As soon as we index it, we’ll immediately reconsider the rel=”canonical” hint.

Can rel=”canonical” be a redirect?
Yes, you can specify a URL that redirects as a canonical URL. Google will then process the redirect as usual and try to index it.

What if I have contradictory rel=”canonical” designations?
Our algorithm is lenient: We can follow canonical chains, but we strongly recommend that you update links to point to a single canonical page to ensure optimal canonicalization results.

from Yahoo!:

• The URL paths in the tag can be absolute or relative, though we recommend using absolute paths to avoid any chance of errors.

• A tag can only point to a canonical URL form within the same domain and not across domains. For example, a tag on http://test.example.com can point to a URL on http://www.example.com but not on http://yahoo.com or any other domain.

• The tag will be treated similarly to a 301 redirect, in terms of transferring link references and other effects to the canonical form of the page.

• We will use the tag information as provided, but we’ll also use algorithmic mechanisms to avoid situations where we think the tag was not used as intended. For example, if the canonical form is non-existent, returns an error or a 404, or if the content on the source and target was substantially distinct and unique, the canonical link may be considered erroneous and deferred.

• The tag is transitive. That is, if URL A marks B as canonical, and B marks C as canonical, we’ll treat C as canonical for both A and B, though we will break infinite chains and other issues.

and from Live/MSN:

This tag will be interpreted as a hint by Live Search, not as a command. We’ll evaluate this in the context of all the other information we know about the website and try and make the best determination of the canonical URL. This will help us handle any potential implementation errors or abuse of this tag.

You can use relative or absolute URLs in the “href” attribute of the link tag.

The page and the URL in the “href” attribute must be on the same domain. For example, if the page is found on “http://mysite.com/default.aspx”, and the ”href” attribute in the link tag points to “http://mysite2.com”, the tag will be invalid and ignored.

However, the “href” attribute can point to a different subdomain. For example, if the page is found on “http://mysite.com/default.aspx” and the “href” attribute in the link tag points to “http://www.mysite.com”, the tag will be considered valid.

Live Search expects to implement support for this feature sometime in the near future.

Google Invests in Privacy for Profit

newyorkseo — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:43:32 +0000

Guess what? Google just pissed on the SEO community and tried to call it rain.

Again! -

Since Google’s announcement yesterday that they would now be encrypting search result URLs by default for all users, the community has been out for blood. The change is going to fix known privacy issues, so why is this a bad thing?

“How will this change impact Google Analytics users?
When a signed in user visits your site from an organic Google search, all web analytics services, including Google Analytics, will continue to recognize the visit as Google “organic” search, but will no longer report the query terms that the user searched on to reach your site. Keep in mind that the change will affect only a minority of your traffic. You will continue to see aggregate query data with no change, including visits from users who aren’t signed in and visits from Google “cpc”.’

As of this morning, here’s what we see in Outspoken Media’s Organic Search Traffic report for the last 24 hours:

According to Google’s Matt Cutts, the change is only supposed to affect referral data in the single digit percents — only users who are signed into Google and searching.

That’s a pretty big assumption on Google’s part about my client’s users and referral sources. Remember, they’re AVERAGING based on the entirety of the Internet. In the case of Outspoken Media, yes, this “(not provided)” data does account for a small percent of traffic for that 24-hour period of time. To be exact, it accounts for 1.2% of our visits for that timeframe. But what about clients who have a stronger user base with Google accounts? We spoke with one such client yesterday and approximately 30% of their current users are signed up with Gmail accounts. That’s more than a single digit percentage and they already have a small amount of traffic!

The recommendations from both studies were immediate action on the part of Google to correct these issues:

“We argue that solutions should be quickly deployed to protect users against these two types of attacks. The session hijacking attack is harmful not only because it allows an attacker to collect a lot of private information, including sometimes the search history, but also because it can be exploited to add potentially compromising entries [25]. It can also be used to modify the search results displayed to the victim. In fact, Google allows to delete or promote—i.e., show as first—results using a button associated to them. An adversary hijacking a session cookie can perform searches on the victim’s behalf and influence the results corresponding to these searches as she wishes. For instance, this attack can be a powerful tool for censorship, as it can be used to remove or promote some pages displayed after a Google search.”

In each document were recommendations to both users and Google on how to counteract the threat of hijacking:

USER ACTIONS

Log out from any Google service when performing a search
Delete and disable the Web History service
Disable personalization from anonymous cookies or always delete Google cookies
Sign out from Google accounts when connecting from a shared network or to use a vpn to encrypt the traffic and prevent cookie interception.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE By Rhea Drysdale is the Chief Executive Officer of Outspoken Media.

This is what Google is saying:

Making
search more secure: Accessing search query data in Google Analytics

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 | 11:17 AM

Labels: Announcements, googlenew

As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, particularly for
signed in users, we believe that protecting these personalized search results is
important. As part of that effort, today the Google Search team announced that
SSL Search on https://www.google.com will
become the default experience for signed in users on Google.com (see the Official
Google Blog post to learn more). Protecting user privacy is important to us,
and we want to take this opportunity to explain what the Google Analytics team
is doing to help you continue measuring your website effectively in light of
these changes.

How will this change impact Google Analytics
users?
When a signed in user visits your site from an organic Google
search, all web analytics services, including Google Analytics, will continue to
recognize the visit as Google “organic” search, but will no longer report the
query terms that the user searched on to reach your site. Keep in mind that the
change will affect only a minority of your traffic. You will continue to see
aggregate query data with no change, including visits from users who aren’t
signed in and visits from Google “cpc”.

What is Google Analytics
doing about it?
We are still measuring all SEO traffic. You will still be
able to see your conversion rates, segmentations, and more.

To help you
better identify the signed in user organic search visits, we created the token
“(not provided)” within Organic Search Traffic Keyword reporting. You will
continue to see referrals without any change; only the queries for signed in
user visits will be affected. Note that “cpc” paid search data is not
affected.

Our team continues to explore ways that we can surface relevant
information, like search query data, to help you measure the effectiveness of
your website and marketing efforts, and as always, we welcome any feedback or comments that you
have. Thank you for continuing to help us improve Google
Analytics.

Posted by Amy Chang, Google
Analytics team

Google announced that it is going to begin encrypting search queries with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) as the default experience at Google.com when you search logged into your Google account. http://www.google.com will become https://www.google.com.

“This is especially important when you’re using an unsecured Internet connection, such as a WiFi hotspot in an Internet cafe,” says Google product manager Evelyn Kao.

There’s a chance that your Google experience will be slower with SSL because the computer your’e using has to establish a secure connection with Google. This is interesting, considering that Google has put so much effort into speeding things up.

It’s worth noting that you can just go to https://www.google.com when you’re signed out, and still use encrypted search.

Naturally, webmasters and SEOs are contemplating the effects this will have on search engine optimization and analytics.

Sites visited from Google’s organic listings will be able to tell that the traffic is coming from Google, but they won’t be able to receive info about each individual query. They will, however, receive an aggregated list of the top 1,000 search queries that drove traffic to the site for each of the past 30 days in Webmaster Tools.

“This information helps webmasters keep more accurate statistics about their user traffic,” says Kao. “If you choose to click on an ad appearing on our search results page, your browser will continue to send the relevant query over the network to enable advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and to improve the ads and offers they present to you.”

“When a signed in user visits your site from an organic Google search, all web analytics services, including Google Analytics, will continue to recognize the visit as Google ‘organic’ search, but will no longer report the query terms that the user searched on to reach your site,” says Amy Chang on the Google Analytics blog. “Keep in mind that the change will affect only a minority of your traffic. You will continue to see aggregate query data with no change, including visits from users who aren’t signed in and visits from Google ‘cpc’.”

“We are still measuring all SEO traffic. You will still be able to see your conversion rates, segmentations, and more,” she adds. “To help you better identify the signed in user organic search visits, we created the token ‘not provided)’ within Organic Search Traffic Keyword reporting. You will continue to see referrals without any change; only the queries for signed in user visits will be affected. Note that ‘cpc’ paid search data is not affected.”

Google is making the encrypted search available on all of its search properties except for Maps.

Google Base Products Feed Specification

newyorkseo — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:11:25 +0000

Below is a list of the attributes you need to provide to Google Base for your items to be listed in the Google Product Search (Froogle).

Some of these attirbutes are required and some are not. Please read them carefully so that you don’t have any issues. If you dont provide the required data, your feed wont go live.

Before creating your feed, choose the file format that is right for you.

The document is divided into several sections.
Each section describes the relevant attributes, and requirements for each
attribute:

Basic Product Information: Attributes to describe the basic
information about your products, such as title, description and type of
product.
Availability & Price: Attributes to specify the
availability and prices of your listings.
Unique Product Identifiers: Attributes to ensure your
products appear on the right product page, such as brands, UPCs, and EANs.
Apparel Products: Attributes to describe apparel products,
such as color or gender.
Product Variants: Attributes to correctly describe
variations of a product that only differ by color, material, pattern, or
size.
Tax & Shipping: How to include information to supply
tax and cost of shipping information for your products.
Nearby Stores (US & UK only): How to include
information to show your physical stores in addition to your online store
Loyalty Points (Japan only): Attributes to specify the
loyalty points Google Shopping users gain when buying the item.
Multiple Installments (Brazil only): Attributes to specify
multiple payment programs to buy items.
Additional Attributes: Other attributes to describe your
products.

We use the term item to describe a single
product listing. If you are using Text or Tab delimited format, an item is
equivalent to one line in your data feed. Items are similar to products, but we
assume that products can occur in multiple variations. These variations -
product variants – differ by color, material, pattern, or size. We use
item to refer to a single variation of a
product.

Important Note:

If you are using a delimited format, you can use the attribute names in either
English or the language of your target country. Make sure that the attribute
names (e.g., ‘condition’) and values (e.g., ‘new’) are always in the same
language.
If you are using XML or API, you must use English attribute
names shown within the brackets.
If you are using XML or API, you must use an underscore in place for a space
within an attribute name (e.g., “image_link” instead of “image link”.) A space
within an attribute value is allowed (e.g., “in stock”).

1. Basic Product Information

The following attributes contain basic information about your
items.

id [id]- An identifier of the item

The identifier for each item has to be unique within your account, and cannot
be re-used between feeds. If you have multiple feeds, ids of items within
different feeds must still be unique. You can use any sequence of letters and
digits for the item id.

When to include: Required for all items.

Type	Alphanumeric characters
Text/Tab delimited	tddy123uk
XML	`tddy123uk`

Important:

Once an item is submitted, the id must not change when you update your data
feed or be used for a different product at a later point in time.
For Switzerland only: If your website is in multiple languages, submit one
feed per language. You may re-use the same id for the same item in each version
of the feed for each language.

title [title] – Title of the item

This is the name of your item which is required. We recommend you include
characteristics such as color or brand in the title which differentiates the
item from other products.

When to include: Required for all items.

Type	Text. Should not be longer than 70 characters
Text/Tab delimited	Mens Pique Polo Shirt
XML	`Mens Pique Polo<br /> Shirt`

Important:

Follow our Editorial guidelines closely. For example, do not include any promotional text such as “Free
shipping”, and do not use BLOCK CAPITALS.
For variant products, you are required to include the common title of the
variant items. For example if “Mens Pique Polo Shirt” is available in red and
blue colors, you can have one of the following titles:

Mens Pique Polo Shirt (Can be used for both variants)

Mens Pique Polo Shirt – Red (For the red shirt)

Mens Pique Polo Shirt – Blue (For the blue shirt)

description [description] – Description of
the item

Include only information relevant to the item, but be comprehensive since we
use this text to find your item. We recommend you submit around 500 to 1000
characters, but you can submit up to 10000 characters.

When to include: Required for all items.

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	This teddy bear is fuzzy and cuddly. The bear is yellow with with white paws and stuffed with high quality hypoallergenic synthetic cotton.
XML	`This teddy bear is fuzzy and cuddly. The bear is yellow with with white paws and stuffed with high quality hypoallergenic synthetic cotton.`

Important:

Make sure to follow our Editorial guidelines closely. For example, do not include any
promotional text such as “Free shipping”, do not use BLOCK CAPITALS, and do not
include a description of your store.

google product category
[google_product_category] – Google’s category of the item

This attribute indicates the category of the product being
submitted. It is only applicable to a small subset of categories, unlike the Product Type Attribute which is
applicable to all categories. For this reason, the ‘Google product category’
attribute should not replace the ‘product type’ attribute. Note: This attribute
accepts only one value. If your items fall into multiple categories, include
only one category which is the most relevant. You can include multiple
categories in the ‘product type’ attribute .

Any category from Google’s taxonomy must include the full path. For example,
‘Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Jeans’ is an acceptable value, but
‘Jeans’ is not. This attribute only accepts values that are predefined by
Google’s taxonomy.

When to include: Required for all items that belong to the
‘Apparel and Accessories’, ‘Media’, and ‘Software’ categories, and are in feeds
which target the US, UK, Germany, France, or Japan.

If your products do not fall into one of the categories listed below, or if
your feed doesn’t target one of the required countries, this attribute is
recommended but not required. If you choose not to provide a Google Product
Category value for other product categories, leave the attribute blank.

Type	Predefined values from Google’s product taxonomy
Text/Tab delimited	Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses
XML	`Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses`

Apparel & Accessories

‘Apparel & Accessories > Clothing’
‘Apparel & Accessories > Shoes’
‘Apparel & Accessories’

Important: Products that fall
into clothing or shoes categories must use the categories listed above (‘Apparel
& Accessories > Clothing’ or ‘Apparel & Accessories > Shoes’) or
the more specific categories provided in the full Google product taxonomy. It is not sufficient to provide
the general category ‘Apparel & Accessories’ for these items. Items that do
not belong in the clothing or shoes categories should include the ‘Apparel &
Accessories’ value or the more specific categories provided in the Google
product taxonomy.

Media

‘Media > Books’
‘Media > DVDs & Movies’
‘Media > Music’

Important: Provide the most appropriate categorization for
bundled products of differing product types. For example, a book bundled with a
DVD could be labeled with either ‘Media > Books’ or ‘Media > DVDs &
Movies’.

Software

Software > Video Game Software

Important: The category ‘Software > Video Game Software’
includes computer games.

product type [product_type] – Your
category of the item

This attribute also indicates the category of the product being sold, but is
applicable to all categories. Unlike the ‘Google product category’, You can
include more than one ‘product type’ attribute value if products apply to more
than one category. Please include the full category string. For example, if your
products belong in Refrigerators list the full string: Home
& Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Appliances >
Refrigerators. Any separator such as > or / may be used.

You can include multiple values of this attribute if you have multiple
categories assigned to products.

When to include: Strongly recommended for all items if you
have a categorization for your items.

Type	Text. You may include multiple product types if it’s appropriate for your item. Separate by a comma for tab-delimited; Include multiple attributes for XML.
Text/Tab delimited	Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Appliances > Refrigerators
XML	`Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Appliances > Refrigerators`

link [link] – URL directly linking to your item’s page on
your website

The user is sent to this URL when your item is clicked on Product Search. We
also refer to this as the landing page. It must point to a page
showing the exact item the user was looking at. You can use tracking URLs to
distinguish users coming from Product Search.

When to include: Required for all items.

Type	URL (this must include the http:// portion)
Text/Tab delimited	http://www.example.com/asp/sp.asp?cat=12&id=1030
XML	`http://www.example.com/asp/sp.asp?cat=12&id=1030`

Important:

Read our policies carefully. All your URLs must link directly to
webpages about your products without pop ups. We don’t allow landing pages
requiring sign ups, passwords, or direct links to files/email addresses.
If you’re performing maintenance on your site that affects your landing
pages, you’re required to remove your items from Product Search during that
time.
If multiple products are on the same page, it has to be straightforward for
the user to find the right product. We recommend only one product per page.
For variations of the same product, we recommend you submit URLs that
pre-select the variant which the user clicked on in Google Product Search.
The URL must not redirect or forward to a location external to your
site.
The URL must start with ‘http://’ or ‘https://’ and use the domain name you
verified in Google Webmaster Tools and in the Settings of your Merchant Center
account.
Any symbols used must be replaced by URL encoded entities (e.g. comma =
%2C).

image link [image_link] – URL of an image
of the item

This is the URL of an associated image for a product. Submit full-size images
for your products and do not submit thumbnail versions of the images. For all
apparel products, we require images of at least 250 x 250 pixels and recommend
images of at least 400 x 400 pixels.

If you have multiple images of the item, submit the main view using this
attribute, and include all other views in the ‘additional image link’
attribute.

When to include: Required for all items (For feeds targeting
Japan, this is a recommended attribute, not a required attribute).

Type	URL. (Must start with ‘http://’ or ‘https://’.)
Text/Tab delimited	http://www.example.com/image1.jpg
XML	`http://www.example.com/image1.jpg`

Important:

If you have no image for your item, you cannot submit the item.
For feeds targeting the US and products that fall under “Apparel
& Accessories” and all corresponding sub-categories: If you are
submitting product variants that differ in ‘‘color’, or ‘pattern’, or
‘material’, we require you to submit specific images corresponding to each of
these variants. If you do not have the correct image for the variation of the
product, you may not submit that variant. We recommend specific images for
‘size’ variants too. However, if these are not available you may submit the same
image URL for items that differ in ‘size’.
For all other countries and categories: If you cannot
provide the appropriate images to submit your items as variants, you may list
your variant products as a single item with multiple values for the variant
attributes and provide the available image.
Do not submit a placeholder such as “No image”, logo of the brand or logo of
your store. Images of products must not contain logos or other promotions within
the image.

Formatting

The accepted image formats are GIF, JPG (or JPEG), PNG, BMP, and TIF and the
file extensions for these images should correspond to their format.
Any symbols used within the image URL must be replaced by URL encoded
entities (e.g. comma = %2C).

additional image link
[additional_image_link] – Additional URLs of images of the item

If you have additional images for this item, include them in this attribute.
For example, if you have images that show the product from a different angle
than the main image, or if you have images of the packaging or the product in
various settings.

You can include up to 10 additional images per item by including the
attribute multiple times. For tab-delimited, separate each URL by a comma. For
XML, include each URL as a separate attribute.

When to include: For all items with multiple images.

Type	URL (Must include the http:// portion.)
Text/Tab delimited	http://www.example.com/image1.jpg
XML	`http://www.example.com/image1.jpg`

Important:

The same rules as for image link apply.

condition [condition] – Condition or
state of the item

There are only three accepted values:

‘new’: The product is brand-new and has never been used. It’s in its
original packaging which has not been opened.
‘refurbished’: The product has been restored to working order. This
includes, for example, remanufactured printer cartridges.
‘used’: If the two previous values don’t apply. For example, if the product
has been used before or the original packaging has been opened or is
missing.

When to include: Required for all items.

Type

Three predefined values accepted:

‘new’
‘used’
‘refurbished’

Text/Tab delimited used

XML used

Important:

If you are submitting with English attribute names, the three accepted
values are ‘new’, ‘used’ and ‘refurbished’. Please remember that if you submit
an attribute name in English, you must also submit the attribute value in
English.

2. Availability & Price

The attributes in this section are required
in order to specify the availability and prices of your items. The availability
and prices of your items can change quite frequently, and you need to make sure
Google is notified of these changes as they happen. You can find advice on
providing the most up-to-date or fresh data here.

We regularly check these attributes, and if
the values provided in these attributes are found to be different from the
information presented on your website, we will remove all your items from
Product Search. Please see our policies for more details.

availability [availability] -
Availability status of the item

The availability attribute only has four accepted values:

‘in stock’: Include this value if you are certain that it will ship (or be
in-transit to the customer) in 3 business days or less. For example, if you have
the item available in your warehouse.
‘available for order’: Include this value if it will take 4 or more business
days to ship it to the customer. For example, if you don’t have it in your
warehouse at the moment, but are sure that it will arrive in the next few days.
For unreleased products, use the value ‘preorder’
‘out of stock’: You’re currently not accepting orders for this product.
‘preorder’: You are taking orders for this product, but it’s not yet been
released.

When to include: Required for all items in feeds targeting
the US, Japan, UK, Germany, France. Recommended for all other countries.
However, you need to use this attribute with one of the following if you want to
submit items that are out of stock in your data feed. If you don’t use this
attribute, all the items in your data feed must be in stock on your site.

Type

Four predefined values accepted:

‘in stock’
‘available for order’
‘out of stock’
‘preorder’

Text/Tab delimited in stock

XML in stock

Important:

You need to clearly indicate the availability of an item on the item’s
landing page by either explicitly noting the status (such that it’s clear which
of the above values describe the availability of the item), or mention how many
days it takes until the item ships. (Note: It is acceptable to include
‘available for order’ in your feed and note “out of stock” on your
website.)
Items that are no longer sold have to be removed from the feed
entirely.

price [price] – Price of the item

The price of the item has to be the most prominent price on the landing page.
If multiple items are on the same page with multiple prices, it has to be
straightforward for the user to find the correct item and corresponding
price.

When to include: Required for all items.

Type	Number
Text/Tab delimited	15.00 USD
XML	`15.00 USD`

Important:

For the US, don’t include tax in the price. For all other countries, value
added tax (VAT) has to be included in the price.
The price must include a currency according to ISO 4217 Standard.
Make sure to read our policies in detail. Only items with fixed prices are allowed
in Product Search. Items with variable prices, such as auctions, and prices that
require a membership in a club are not allowed.
For items sold in bulk quantities, the price for the lowest purchasable
number of items must be provided (not the per unit price) and the same price has
to be the most prominent on the landing page.
For products on sale, we recommend including the ‘sale price’ attribute and
submit the regular price (before sale) in the ‘price’ attribute. In this case,
the sale price (instead of the regular price) must be the most prominent price
on the page.

sale price [sale_price] – Advertised sale
price of the item

Use this attribute to submit the advertised sale price of
the item. Learn more about submitting sale price information.

When to include: Recommended for items on sale. If your item
is on sale and you don’t include this attribute, the sale price must be updated
as the value in the ‘price’ attribute.

Format	Number
Text/Tab delimited	15.00 USD
XML	`15.00 USD`

Important:

You must still include the ‘price’ attribute in your feed, which must
reflect the non-sale price you have previously sold the item for.
The price must include a currency.
Submitted sale prices must exactly match the price displayed on your
website. Both prices must be displayed on the landing page (the regular price
and the sale price), but the sale price must be most
prominent.

sale price
effective date [sale_price_effective_date] – Date range during which the item is
on sale

Used in conjunction with sale price. This attribute
indicates the date range during which the sale price applies. Learn more about
submitting sale price
information.

When to include: Recommended for items which use the ‘sale
price’ attribute.

Format	ISO8601, with start and end dates separated by a forward slash (/)
Text/Tab delimited	2011-03-01T13:00:00Z/2011-03-11T15:30:00Z
XML	`2011-03-01T13:00:00Z/2011-03-11T15:30:00Z`

3. Unique Product Identifiers

Unique product identifiers such as UPC,
EAN, JAN or ISBN allow us to
show your listing on the appropriate product page. If you don’t provide the
required unique product identifiers, your store may not appear on product pages,
and all your items may be removed from Product Search.

We require unique product identifiers for all products -
except for custom made goods. For apparel, you must submit the ‘brand’
attribute. For media (such as books, movies, music and video games), you must
submit the ‘gtin’ attribute. In all cases, we recommend you submit all three
attributes.

You need to submit at least two attributes of
‘brand’, ‘gtin’ and ‘mpn’, but we recommend that you submit all three if
available. For media (such as books, movies, music and video games), you must
submit the ‘gtin’ attribute, but we recommend that you include ‘brand’ and ‘mpn’
if available. Learn
more.

brand [brand] – Brand of the item

When to include: Required for all items – except for books,
media and custom made goods, or if you’re providing ‘mpn’ and ‘gtin’.

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	Acme
XML	`Acme`

Important:

You must not provide your store name as the brand unless you manufacture the
product.

gtin [gtin] – Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) of the
item

In this attribute, you will include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) for
your products. These identifiers include UPC (in North America), EAN (in
Europe), JAN (in Japan), and ISBN (for books). You can include any of these
values within this attribute:

UPC: 12-digit number such as 001234567891
EAN: 13-digit number such as 1001234567891
JAN: 8 or 13-digit number such as 12345678 or 1234567890123
ISBN: 10 or 13-digit number such as 0451524233. If you have both, only
include 13-digit number.

When to include: Required for all items – except apparel and
custom made goods, or if you’re providing ‘brand’ and ‘mpn’.

Type	8-, 12-, or 13-digit number (UPC, EAN, JAN, or ISBN)
Text/Tab delimited	001234567891
XML	`12345678`

mpn [mpn] – Manufacturer Part Number (MPN) of the
item

This code uniquely identifies the product to its manufacturer. In particular,
the combination of brand and MPN clearly specifies one product.

When to include:Required for all items – except apparel,
media, and custom made goods, or if you’re providing ‘brand’ and ‘gtin’.

Type	Alphanumeric characters
Text/Tab delimited	GO12345OOGLE
XML	‘GO1234568OOGLE’

4. Apparel Products

Apparel includes all products that fall under
‘Apparel & Accessories’ (including all sub-categories) in Google’s product taxonomy.

For US merchants:: The following attributes
in this section are required across all products in the ‘Apparel &
Accessories’ product category (including all subcategories):

gender
age group
color

In addition, the ‘size’ attribute is only required for the
apparel subcategories ‘Apparel & Accessories > Clothing’ and ‘Apparel
& Accessories > Shoes’. Recommended for other product categories (might
become required in the future).

For all other countries: While the apparel
attributes listed here are not currently required for countries outside the US,
they may become required in the future. Therefore, we strongly recommend that
you include all the relevant attributes where possible, even for countries
outside the US.

gender [gender] – Gender of the item

Three predefined values accepted:

Male
Female
Unisex

When to include: Required for all apparel items in feeds
that target the US. Recommended for other countries and product categories
(might become required in the future).

Format

There are only three values accepted:

Male
Female
Unisex

Text/Tab delimited male

XML male

Important

This attribute is required for items in the ‘apparel and accessories’
category targeting the US. However, this attribute is only recommended for
‘pinback buttons’, ‘tie clips’, ‘wristbands’, ‘shoe covers’, ‘shoe laces’,
‘spurs’, ‘watch bands’ within the ‘apparel and accessories’
category.

age group [age_group] – Target age group
of the item

The only two accepted values of this attribute are:

Adult
Kids

When to include: Required for all apparel items in feeds
that target the US. Recommended for other countries and product categories
(might become required in the future).

Format

There are only two values accepted:

Adult
Kids

Text/Tab delimited adult

XML adult

Important:

This attribute is required for items in the ‘apparel and accessories’
category targeting the US. However, this attribute is only recommended for
‘pinback buttons’, ‘tie clips’, ‘wristbands’, ‘shoe covers’, ‘shoe laces’,
‘spurs’, ‘watch bands’ within the ‘apparel and accessories’ category.
If an item is not clearly just for ‘kids, it should be
declared as ‘adult’, as only one value may be submitted per
item.

color [color] – Color of the item

Note: This attribute is also described in the section on Variant
Products. Please do not submit two versions of this attribute per item.

This defines the dominant color(s) of an item. When a single item has
multiple colors:

Combine them with ‘/’ in order of prominence (dominant color first, then
accent colors). For example, a black shoe with green accents should have a color
value of ‘Black / Green’. This attribute can also be used for finishes as well
(e.g., ‘Mahogany’ vs. ‘Stainless Steel’).
If you’re using XML, you must represent the ‘/’ with /

When to include: Required for all apparel items in feeds
that target the US. Recommended for other countries and product categories
(might become required in the future).

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	Black
XML	`Black`

Important:

This attribute is required for all items in the ‘apparel and accessories’
category targeting the US.
For apparel variants submitted to the
US: Each different color or color combination must be submitted as its
own item, in conjunction with the ‘item group id’. Visit submitting apparel products
for more details.
Use consistent names of colors across variants of the same product, as well
as across multiple products of the same category.
The values you provide may be displayed to users, so provide values that
they will be able to understand.

size [size] – Size of the item

Note: This attribute is also described in the section on Variant
Products. Please do not include two versions of this attribute per
item.

This indicates the size of a product. You may any provide
values which are appropriate to your items. Examples for sizing values can be
found in this article.

When to include: Required for all apparel items in the
‘clothing’ and ‘shoes’ product categories in feeds that target the US.
Recommended for other countries and product categories (might become required in
the future).

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	XL
XML	`XL`

Important:

This attribute is required for ‘clothing’ and ‘shoes’ sub-categories within
the ‘apparel and accessories’ category targeting the US.
For apparel variants submitted to the
US: Each different size or size combination must be submitted as its
own item, in conjunction with the ‘item group id’. Visit submitting apparel products
for more details.
If sizes are complex, condense them into one value (e.g., “16/34 Tall” for
neck size 16 inches, sleeve length 34 inches, and “Tall” fit).
Use consistent size values across variants of the same product, as well as
across multiple products of the same category. For example, within a group of
t-shirts, use “S”, “M” , and “L” as sizes, not “S”, “Medium” , and “Lrg”.
You may use the same ‘image’ URL value for size variants if specific images
are not available but we recommend that the ‘link’ attribute leads to a page
which specifies all the details about the variant item.
The values you provide may be displayed to users, so provide values that
they will be able to understand.

Submitting variant apparel products

If you have apparel products which vary by ‘size’, ‘color’, ‘pattern’, or
‘material’, you must include all the required attributes outlined in this
section, and also follow the approach outlined below.

5. Product Variants

We define variants as a group of identical products that only
differ by the attributes ‘color’, ‘material’, ‘pattern’, or ‘size’.

Variant-level information is required only for products in the
“’Apparel & Accessories’ category, and all related subcategories. Apparel
variants are only required for feeds targeting the US. For
feeds targeting other countries, the attributes are recommended and may be
required in the future.

If you don’t include variant attributes in your feed, you
shouldn’t submit several variants of the same product as separate listings (ex:
the same product in different colors, sizes). These items will be considered as
duplicates which is against our Program Policies. You can find more details
about submitting variant data below.

By submitting variant products, you will help shoppers more
easily find what they are looking for by either enabling them to navigate
between the different product variations on a details page or helping them
discover additional colors, sizes, patterns etc. for a given product.

How to submit variant data

Begin by submitting an item for each variant. For example, if you offer a
t-shirt in 4 colors and 5 sizes, you need to submit 20 item variants.
Include unique ‘id’ attribute values for each item variant, just like you
would for all the other items in your feed.
To identify these items as variants of one another, you are required to
include the ‘item group id’ attribute (required for US apparel items only) and
submit identical values of this attribute for each variant in a given
group.
Include variant attributes that indicate what makes each variant unique .
You can use one or more of the following attributes: ‘color’, ‘material’,
‘pattern’, or ‘size’.
You must only include single values for each of these
variant attributes and the values of these attributes must be unique across all
variants in the group. For example: If one item in a variant group includes the
values “Blue” and “L” for the ‘color’ and ‘size’ attributes, all other items in
the variant group must have values for ‘color’ and ‘size’, and each offer must
have a different combination of values for those attributes.
You only need to send us data for variant attributes if your product varies
by that specific attribute. So, if your shirts are all made of cotton, there’s
no need to send the “Material” attribute. However, if your shirts were available
in three colors and three sizes, you would send us nine separate line items,
varying by color and size.
For apparel items, it is required that you provide a unique
image of the specific variant if the item differs by ‘color’, ‘pattern’ or
‘material’. For variants that differ only by ‘size’, you may submit identical
images. We recommend sending separate images for variant products in other
categories as well. But at this time we will not enforce this as a requirement
for any category other than Apparel & Accessories.
We also recommend you submit URL links that pre-select the
variant. For example, if a user selects the red dress in size 10, they should be
taken to a landing page, where the “red” and “size 10” options are already
selected. If this is not possible, you may include identical link attribute
values for each of the variant items within a group.

For US merchants submitting apparel variants:

For apparel products that vary by ‘color’, ‘material’,
‘pattern’, and/or ‘size’, it is required to include the ‘item group id’ for each
variant, where each item has a unique combination of attribute values to
describe each variant.

For all other countries and categories:

All variant attributes in this section are
recommended for apparel- and non-apparel variants, but may
become required in the future. However, If you choose to include ‘item group
id’, it is required that you also include at least one of the following variant
attributes: ‘color’, ‘size’, ‘pattern’, ‘material’ and following the
corresponding variant guidelines.

Please see this article for more information on submitting variant
apparel products.

Important: When naming your variant
products, be sure to include the title common to all variant items. Visit the
‘title’ attribute for more details.

item group id [item_group_id] – Shared
identifier for all variants of the same product

All items that are color/material/pattern/size variants of the same product
must have the same item group id. If you have a “Parent SKU” that is shared by
all variants of a product, you can provide that as the value for ‘item group
id’.

When to include:Required for variant apparel products in the
US. For other countries, if variant data is submitted with specific images then
include the ‘item group ID’.

Type	Alphanumeric code
Text/Tab delimited	AB12345
XML	`AB12345`

Important:

This attribute is required only for variant apparel products in the US.
The ‘Item group id’ attribute is different from the
‘ID’ attribute. An ‘Item group ID’ attribute will have common
values for a group of variants whereas the ‘ID’ attribute should have unique
values across a group of variants and for all other items, as well.
The values provided for item group id must be unique between products, and
only shared by items that are variants of the same product.
If you send us an ‘item group id’ attribute, we will automatically look for
variant attributes. Conversely, if you did send us ‘Item group id’, you should
ensure you send us at least one variant attribute.

color [color] – Color of the item

Note: This attribute is also described in the section on Variant
Products. Please do not submit two versions of this attribute per item.

This defines the dominant color(s) of an item. When a single item has
multiple colors:

Combine them with ‘/’ in order of prominence (dominant color first, then
accent colors). For example, a black shoe with green accents should have a color
value of ‘Black / Green’. This attribute can also be used for finishes as well
(e.g., ‘Mahogany’ vs. ‘Stainless Steel’).
If you’re using XML, you must represent the ‘/’ with /

When to include: Required for all apparel items in feeds
that target the US. Recommended for other countries and product categories
(might become required in the future).

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	Black
XML	`Black`

Important:

This attribute is required for apparel products targeting the US.
For apparel variants submitted to the
US: Each different color or color combination must be submitted as its
own item, in conjunction with the ‘item group id’. Visit submitting apparel products
for more details.
Use consistent names of colors across variants of the same product, as well
as across multiple products of the same category.
The values you provide may be displayed to users, so provide values that
they will be able to understand.

material [material] – Material of the
item

The material or fabric that a product is made out of. For example, a high
heel pump might have values of “Leather”, “Denim”, “Suede”, etc.

When to include: Required for all apparel items that differ
by material for feeds that target the US. Recommended for other countries and
product categories (might become required in the future).

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	Leather
XML	`Leather`

Important:

For apparel variants submitted to the US: Each item that
differs in ‘material’ must be submitted as its own item, in conjunction with the
‘item group id’.
The values you provide may be displayed to users, so provide values that
they will be able to understand.

pattern [pattern] – Pattern/Graphic of
the item

The pattern or graphic print featured on a product. For example, a t-shirt
might have a logo of a sports team and have pattern values of “Bears”, “Tigers”,
etc. A dress might come in two prints, and have pattern values of “Polka Dot”,
“Striped”, “Paisley”, etc.

As a rule of thumb, if a user can choose to select different patterns on the
landing page of your product, include all variant items in the same item group.
Otherwise, use separate item groups.

When to include: Required for all apparel items that differ
by pattern for feeds that target the US. Recommended for other countries and
product categories(might become required in the future).

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	Striped
XML	`Striped`

Important:

For apparel variants submitted to the US: Each item that
differs in ‘pattern’ must be submitted as its own item, in conjunction with the
‘item group id’.
The values you provide may be displayed to users, so provide values that
they will be able to understand.

size [size] – Size of the item

Note: This attribute is also described in the section on Variant
Products. Please do not include two versions of this attribute per
item.

This indicates the size of a product. You may any provide
values which are appropriate to your items. Examples for sizing values can be
found in this article.

When to include: Required for all apparel items in the
‘clothing’ and ‘shoes’ product categories in feeds that target the US.
Recommended for other countries and product categories.

Type	Text
Text/Tab delimited	XL
XML	`XL`

Important:

The values you provide may be displayed to users, so provide values that
they will be able to understand.
For apparel variants submitted to the
US: Each different size or size combination must be submitted as its
own item, in conjunction with the ‘item group id’. Visit submitting apparel products
for more details.
If sizes are complex, condense them into one value (e.g., “16/34 Tall” for
neck size 16 inches, sleeve length 34 inches, and “Tall” fit).
Use consistent size values across variants of the same product, as well as
across multiple products of the same category. For example, within a group of
t-shirts, use “S”, “M” , and “L” as sizes, not “S”, “Medium” , and “Lrg”.
You may use the same ‘image’ URL value for size variants if specific images
are not available but we recommend that the ‘link’ attribute leads to a page
which specifies all the details about the variant item.

6. Tax & Shipping

Taxes and shipping are an important part of the total cost of
items. In fact, shipping cost is the most common reason for users abandoning
their shopping choices. The ‘tax’ attribute is only applicable to feeds
targeting the US – for all other countries, value added tax (VAT) has to be
included in the price.

There are three ways to specify tax (US only) and shipping
costs:

Settings in the Merchant
Center: We offer various ways to specify tax and shipping costs if your
pricing structure is relatively simple. For example, if you have one shipping
price for all your items, or if you use a structure based on the weight of the
packaged item (in that case, include the shipping weight attribute), our system
can easily accommodate your tax and shipping information. Learn
more.
Attributes in the feed: By using the tax and shipping
attributes below, you can model more complex tax and shipping cost
structures.
Combination of the two: You can specify default tax and
shipping information in the Merchant Center, and then override those defaults
for certain products by specifying the attributes below.

You are required to use one of the ways above to specify tax
and shipping in the US, and only shipping information in the UK, Germany and
France.

If you can’t provide accurate tax or shipping information,
please provide estimates. For example, you can provide tax as well as shipping
cost for each product and state individually by using the tax and shipping
attributes. Please estimate tax and shipping costs such that the total cost in
Product Search results is either correct or overestimated for the majority of
users.

tax [tax]

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Australia the price
attribute should include GST.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting France the price
attribute should include VAT.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting the United Kingdom
the price attribute should include VAT.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Japan the price
attribute should be tax inclusive.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Germany the price
attribute should include VAT.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting China the price
attribute should be tax inclusive.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting the Netherlands the
price attribute should be tax inclusive.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Italy the price
attribute should include VAT.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Spain the price
attribute should include VAT.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Brazil the price
attribute should include VAT.

This
attribute is only available in the US. For feeds targeting Switzerland the price
attribute should include VAT.

The tax attribute is an item-level override for merchant-level tax settings
as defined in your Google Merchant Center account. This attribute is only
accepted in the US, if your feed targets a country outside of the US, please do
not use this attribute.

This attribute has four parts:

country (optional): The country an item is taxed in
according to ISO 3166 standard (at the moment, it’s always ‘US’)
region (optional): The geographic region that a tax rate applies to. In the
US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code, or ZIP code range using *
wildcard.
rate (required): The tax rate as a percent of the item price, i.e., a number
as a percentage
tax_ship (optional): Boolean value for whether you charge tax on shipping, y
for yes or n for no – the default value is n

You can include this attribute up to 100 times to specify taxes for each
state individually. If you decide to submit it explicitly for each state, make
sure to cover every state (even the states where you do not charge tax). Note
you can also specify that you charge no tax for a state.

When to include: For items in
feeds which target the US, use this attribute if you want to specify taxes for a
particular item, or you want to override the default tax costs specified in the
Merchant Center settings. If you do not provide tax information using one of
these methods for each item, your items won’t show up in Product Search
results.Learn more.

Type

Each tax attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country an item is taxed in (as an ISO 3166 country code)	US
region	optional	The geographic region that a tax rate applies to, e.g., in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code, or ZIP code range using * wildcard	CA, 946*
rate	required	The tax rate as a percent of the item price, i.e., number, as a percentage	5.00
tax_ship	optional	Boolean value for whether you charge tax on shipping, ‘y’ for yes or ‘n’ for no – the default value is ‘n’	y

Note: You can submit multiple
values for this attribute.

Text/Tab delimited Separate each sub-attribute with a colon, and each tax attribute group with
a comma. Do not enclose sub-attribute values within quotations. All
colons, even for blank values, are required, i.e., three colons are
required.
::0:
US::0:
US:CA:8.25:y,US:926*:8.75:y

XML

The four sub-attributes are country, region, rate, and tax ship. Include
each tax attribute group as a separate attribute.

US

MA



5.00

shipping [shipping]

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the product.
Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping settings you
defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to specify shipping
cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it explicitly for each part
of the country, make sure to cover each region or to specify if the item has
free shipping.

Note: Please remember that
you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per our Program Policies. Rates for
other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each shipping attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country an item will ship to (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	AU
region	optional	The geographic region that a shipping rate applies to, e.g., in Australia, the three-letter state abbreviation.	NSW
service	optional	N/A for Australia	Ground
price	required	Fixed shipping price	7.95

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

Text/Tab delimited Separate each sub-attribute with a colon, and each shipping attribute group
with a comma. Do not enclose sub-attribute values within quotations. All colons,
even for blank values, are required, i.e., three colons are required.
AU:::7.95 AU:200*:Ground:7.95,AU:NSW:Ground:5.95

XML

The four sub-attributes are country, region, service, and price. Include
each shipping attribute group as a separate attribute.

AU

NSW



Ground



5.95

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	CN
region		The geographical region to which a shipping rate applies.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	7.95

Note: You can submit multiple
values for this attribute.

Text/Tab-delimited Separate each sub-attribute with a colon and each delivery attribute group
with a comma. Do not enclose sub-attribute values within quotations. All colons,
even for blank values, are required, i.e. three colons are required.
CN::0: CN::Standard:8.25,CN::926*:8.75

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

CN

MA



Standard



5.95

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	JP
region		The geographical region to which a shipping rate applies. JIS X 0401 (the national local government code), defined in the county code.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	1000

Note: You can submit multiple
values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

JP



Standard

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of three sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	FR
region	Not used in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	10.00

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

FR



Standard



5.95

Important:

For feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany and France, it is required to
provide shipping costs for every item, either by specifying the global default
shipping costs in the Merchant Center settings, or by providing this attribute.
If you do not provide shipping costs using one of these methods for each item,
your items won’t show up in Product Search results.

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of three sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	GB
region	Not used in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	10.00

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

DE



Standard



5.95

Important:

For feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany and France, it is required to
provide shipping costs for every item, either by specifying the global default
shipping costs in the Merchant Center settings, or by providing this attribute.
If you do not provide shipping costs using one of these methods for each item,
your items won’t show up in Product Search results.

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of three sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	GB
region	Not used in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	10.00

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

NL



Standard



5.95

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of three sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	GB
region	Not used in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	10.00

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

ES



Standard



5.95

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of three sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	GB
region	Not used in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Standard
price	required	Fixed delivery price	10.00

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

IT



Standard



5.95

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of three sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	GB
region	Not used in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands.
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Courier
price	required	Fixed delivery price	10.00

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The three sub-attributes are country, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

GB

   Royal

Mail



10.00

Important:

For feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany and France, it is required to
provide shipping costs for every item, either by specifying the global default
shipping costs in the Merchant Center settings, or by providing this attribute.
If you do not provide shipping costs using one of these methods for each item,
your items won’t show up in Product Search results.

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	US
region	optional	The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies, e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range, using * wildcard.	MA
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Ground
price	required	Fixed delivery price	7.95

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The four sub-attributes are country, region, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

US

MA



Ground



5.95

Important:

For feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany and France, it is required to
provide shipping costs for every item, either by specifying the global default
shipping costs in the Merchant Center settings, or by providing this attribute.
If you do not provide shipping costs using one of these methods for each item,
your items won’t show up in Product Search results.

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	US
region	optional	The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies, e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range, using * wildcard.	MA
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Ground
price	required	Fixed delivery price	7.95

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The four sub-attributes are country, region, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

BR

MA



Ground



5.95

This attribute provides the specific shipping estimate for the
product. Providing this attribute for an item overrides the global shipping
settings you defined in your Google Merchant Center settings.

This attribute has four sub-attributes:

country (required): The country to which an item will be
delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this
sub-attribute is your feed’s target country.
region (optional): The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies,
e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range,
using * wildcard.
service (optional): The name of the shipping method.
price (required): Fixed delivery price.

You can include this attribute up to 100 times per item to
specify shipping cost for individual regions. If you decide to submit it
explicitly for each part of the country, make sure to cover each region or to
specify if the item has free shipping.

Note: Please
remember that you must only provide direct-to-consumer shipping rates, as per
our Program Policies. Rates
for other methods, like ship-to-store delivery, are not allowed.

When to include: If you want
to specify shipping cost for this item, or you want to override the default
shipping cost specified in the Merchant Center settings. Learn more.

Type

Each delivery attribute group consists of four sub-attributes:

Name	Requirement	Description	Examples
country	required	The country to which an item will be delivered (as an ISO 3166 country code). The default value for this attribute is your feed’s target country.	US
region	optional	The geographical region to which a delivery rate applies, e.g. in the US, the two-letter state abbreviation, ZIP code or ZIP code range, using * wildcard.	MA
service	optional	The service class or delivery speed	Ground
price	required	Fixed delivery price	7.95

Note: You can submit
multiple values for this attribute.

XML

The four sub-attributes are country, region, service and price. Include each
delivery attribute group as a separate attribute.

CH

MA



Ground



5.95

Important:

For feeds targeting the US, UK, Germany and France, it is required to
provide shipping costs for every item, either by specifying the global defaultshipping costs in the Merchant Center settings, or by providing this attribute.
If you do not provide shipping costs using one of these methods for each item,
your items won’t show up in Product Search results.

shipping weight [shipping_weight] -
Weight of the item for shipping

This is the weight of the product used to calculate the shipping cost of the
item. If you have specified a global shipping rule that is dependent on shipping
weight, this attribute will be used to calculate the shipping cost of the item
automatically.

When to include: Required if you have set up a shipping rule
in the Merchant Center that is based on weight.

Type	We accept only the following units of weight: lb, pound, oz, ounce, g, gram, kg, kilogram.
Text/Tab delimited	3 kilograms
XML	‘3 kilograms’

Important:

The weight must include a number and a unit of weight. We accept the
following units: lb, pound, oz, ounce, g, gram, kg,
kilogram.

7. Nearby Stores (US & UK only)

If you are a multi-channel retailer with physical presence,
Product Search can show your store locations next to your products. If the user
is looking at one of your products and has specified a location close to one of
your stores, Product Search will show your store(s) on a map. We will display
the phone number in case the user wants to check availability of the item, and
the user can get driving directions to find your store easily.

To enable this feature, you need to submit
your store locations through Google Places. Learn more. Once you have provided your store locations, you
may specify if an item is only available for purchase online and not in your
physical store by providing the attribute below.

online only [online_only] – Whether an
item is available for purchase only online

This
attribute is only available for feeds targeting the United States or United
Kingdom.

This is used to indicate if you have a product that is only available online
and not in your physical store.

There are only two accepted values:

‘y’: if any item is not available in your store to purchase.
‘n’: if a customer can buy the posted item at your physical location – this
is the default assumption.

When to include: Required if you’ve submitted your store
locations, and you have items that you sell online but not in your physical
stores.

Type	Boolean: y or n
Text/Tab delimited	y
XML	`y`

Steve P. Jobs, 1955-2011 – Apple’s Visionary Redefined Digital Age

newyorkseo — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:01:18 +0000

Steven P. Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple who helped usher in the era of personal computers and then led a cultural transformation in the way music, movies and mobile communications were experienced in the digital age, died Wednesday. He was 56.

The death was announced by Apple, the company Mr. Jobs and his high school friend Stephen Wozniak started in 1976 in a suburban California garage.

A friend of the family said that Mr. Jobs died of complications from pancreatic cancer, with which he waged a long and public struggle, remaining the face of the company even as he underwent treatment. He continued to introduce new products for a global market in his trademark blue jeans even as he grew gaunt and frail.

He underwent surgery in 2004, received a liver transplant in 2009 and took three medical leaves of absence as Apple’s chief executive before stepping down in August and turning over the helm to Timothy D. Cook, the chief operating officer. When he left, he was still engaged in the company’s affairs, negotiating with another Silicon Valley executive only weeks earlier.

“I have always said that if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know,” Mr. Jobs said in a letter released by the company. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

By then, having mastered digital technology and capitalized on his intuitive marketing sense, Mr. Jobs had largely come to define the personal computer industry and an array of digital consumer and entertainment businesses centered on the Internet. He had also become a very rich man, worth an estimated $8.3 billion.

Tributes to Mr. Jobs flowed quickly on Wednesday evening, in formal statements and in the flow of social networks, with President Obama, technology industry leaders and legions of Apple fans weighing in.

A Twitter user named Matt Galligan wrote: “R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful.”

Eight years after founding Apple, Mr. Jobs led the team that designed the Macintosh computer, a breakthrough in making personal computers easier to use. After a 12-year separation from the company, prompted by a bitter falling-out with his chief executive, John Sculley, he returned in 1997 to oversee the creation of one innovative digital device after another — the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. These transformed not only product categories like music players and cellphones but also entire industries, like music and mobile communications.

During his years outside Apple, he bought a tiny computer graphics spinoff from the director George Lucas and built a team of computer scientists, artists and animators that became Pixar Animation Studios.

Starting with “Toy Story” in 1995, Pixar produced a string of hit movies, won several Academy Awards for artistic and technological excellence, and made the full-length computer-animated film a mainstream art form enjoyed by children and adults worldwide.

Mr. Jobs was neither a hardware engineer nor a software programmer, nor did he think of himself as a manager. He considered himself a technology leader, choosing the best people possible, encouraging and prodding them, and making the final call on product design.

It was an executive style that had evolved. In his early years at Apple, his meddling in tiny details maddened colleagues, and his criticism could be caustic and even humiliating. But he grew to elicit extraordinary loyalty.

New Google Panda Update – October 2011 Google Update

newyorkseo — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:24:42 +0000

Google has confirmed to WebProNews that an iteration of the controversial Panda update was launched this week. When asked directly if this occurred, a Google spokesperson told us, “yes,” then offered the following canned statement:

“We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users. This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year.”

While Google did not say a specific day, one webmaster reported that her site was hit on Wednesday, September 28th. That was Dani Horowtiz, who runs Daniweb, a Panda victim we’ve discussed several times before, as the site had managed a 110% Panda recovery before getting hit this week.

Search Engine Land is reporting that while Google “declined to share any specifics” about what kinds of pages were being targeted, unnamed sources said the update rolled out on Tuesday. The blog is calling this version 2.3.

Some webmasters thought maybe a Panda update had rolled out earlier this month. Search Engine Land editor Barry Schwartz asked if Panda 2.5 had hit (personally, I’m not bothering much trying to keep track of the numbers). The answer turned out to be no, as Google told him there was no update taking place. According to Search Engine Land now, this latest update is actually the first true Panda update in about 10 weeks.

Since then, Google announced that it is testing algorithmic changes for scraper sites (blog scrapers in particular). The company also released a video giving an inside look at how Google handles search algorithm tweaks:

Improved handling of URLs with parameters

newyorkseo — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:46:18 +0000

You may have noticed that the Parameter Handling feature disappeared from the Site configuration > Settings section of Webmaster Tools. Fear not; you can now find it under its new name, URL Parameters! Along with renaming it, we refreshed and improved the feature. We hope you’ll find it even more useful. Configuration of URL parameters made in the old version of the feature will be automatically visible in the new version. Before we reveal all the cool things you can do with URL parameters now, let us remind you (or introduce, if you are new to this feature) of the purpose of this feature and when it may come in handy.

When to use
URL Parameters helps you control which URLs on your site should be crawled by Googlebot, depending on the parameters that appear in these URLs. This functionality provides a simple way to prevent crawling duplicate content on your site. Now, your site can be crawled more effectively, reducing your bandwidth usage and likely allowing more unique content from your site to be indexed. If you suspect that Googlebot’s crawl coverage of the content on your site could be improved, using this feature can be a good idea. But with great power comes great responsibility! You should only use this feature if you’re sure about the behavior of URL parameters on your site. Otherwise you might mistakenly prevent some URLs from being crawled, making their content no longer accessible to Googlebot.

A lot more to do
Okay, let’s talk about what’s new and improved. To begin with, in addition to assigning a crawl action to an individual parameter, you can now also describe the behavior of the parameter. You start by telling us whether or not the parameter changes the content of the page. If the parameter doesn’t affect the page’s content then your work is done; Googlebot will choose URLs with a representative value of this parameter and will crawl the URLs with this value. Since the parameter doesn’t change the content, any value chosen is equally good. However, if the parameter does change the content of a page, you can now assign one of four possible ways for Google to crawl URLs with this parameter:
•Let Googlebot decide
•Every URL
•Only crawl URLs with value=x
•No URLs
We also added the ability to provide your own specific value to be used, with the “Only URLs with value=x” option; you’re no longer restricted to the list of values that we provide. Optionally, you can also tell us exactly what the parameter does–whether it sorts, paginates, determines content, etc. One last improvement is that for every parameter, we’ll try to show you a sample of example URLs from your site that Googlebot crawled which contain that particular parameter.

Of the four crawl options listed above, “No URLs” is new and deserves special attention. This option is the most restrictive and, for any given URL, takes precedence over settings of other parameters in that URL. This means that if the URL contains a parameter that is set to the “No URLs” option, this URL will never be crawled, even if other parameters in the URL are set to “Every URL.” You should be careful when using this option. The second most restrictive setting is “Only URLs with value=x.”

Feature in use
Now let’s do something fun and exercise our brains on an example.

- – -
Once upon a time there was an online store, fairyclothes.example.com. The store’s website used parameters in its URLs, and the same content could be reached through multiple URLs. One day the store owner noticed, that too many redundant URLs could be preventing Googlebot from crawling the site thoroughly. So he sent his assistant CuriousQuestionAsker to The GreatWebWizard to get advice on using the URL parameters feature to reduce the duplicate content crawled by Googlebot. The Great WebWizard was famous for his wisdom. He looked at the URL parameters and proposed the following configuration:

Parameter name Effect on content? What should Googlebot crawl?
trackingId None One representative URL
sortOrder Sorts Only URLs with value = ‘lowToHigh’
sortBy Sorts Only URLs with value = ‘price’
filterByColor Narrows No URLs
itemId Specifies Every URL
page Paginates Every URL

The CuriousQuestionAsker couldn’t avoid his nature and started asking questions:

CuriousQuestionAsker: You’ve instructed Googlebot to choose a representative URL for trackingId (value to be chosen by Googlebot). Why not select the Only URLs with value=x option and choose the value myself?
Great WebWizard: While crawling the web Googlebot encountered the following URLs that link to your site:
1.fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?trackingId=aaa123
2.fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?trackingId=aaa124
3.fairyclothes.example.com/trousers/?trackingId=aaa125
Imagine that you were to tell Googebot to only crawl URLs where “trackingId=aaa125”. In that case Googlebot would not crawl URLs 1 and 2 as neither of them has the value aaa125 for trackingId. Their content would neither be crawled nor indexed and none of your inventory of fine skirts would show up in Google’s search results. No, for this case choosing a representative URL is the way to go. Why? Because that tells Googlebot that when it encounters two URLs on the web that differ only in this parameter (as URLs 1 and 2 above do) then it only needs to crawl one of them (either will do) and it will still get all the content. In the example above two URLs will be crawled; either 1 & 3, or 2 & 3. Not a single skirt or trouser will be lost.

CuriousQuestionAsker: What about the sortOrder parameter? I don’t care if the items are listed in ascending or descending order. Why not let Google select a representative value?
Great WebWizard: As Googlebot continues to crawl it may find the following URLs:

1.fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=1&sortBy=price&sortOrder=’lowToHigh’
2.fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=1&sortBy=price&sortOrder=’highToLow’
3.fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=2&sortBy=price&sortOrder=’lowToHigh’
4.fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=2&sortBy=price&sortOrder=’ highToLow’
Notice how the first pair of URLs (1 & 2) differs only in the value of the sortOrder parameter as do URLs in the second pair (3 & 4). However, URLs 1 and 2 will produce different content: the first showing the least expensive of your skirts while the second showing the priciest. That should be your first hint that using a single representative value is not a good choice for this situation. Moreover, if you let Googlebot choose a single representative from among a set of URLs that differ only in their sortOrder parameter it might choose a different value each time. In the example above, from the first pair of URLs, URL 1 might be chosen (sortOrder=’lowToHigh’). Whereas from the second pair URL 4 might be picked (sortOrder=’ highToLow’). If that were to happen Googlebot would crawl only the least expensive skirts (twice):
•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=1&sortBy=price&sortOrder=’lowToHigh’
•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=2&sortBy=price&sortOrder=’ highToLow’
Your most expensive skirts would not be crawled at all! When dealing with sorting parameters consistency is key. Always sort the same way.

CuriousQuestionAsker: How about the sortBy value?
Great WebWizard: This is very similar to the sortOrder attribute. You want the crawled URLs of your listing to be sorted consistently throughout all the pages, otherwise some of the items may not be visible to Googlebot. However, you should be careful which value you choose. If you sell books as well as shoes in your store, it would be better not to select the value ‘title’ since URLs pointing to shoes never contain ‘sortBy=title’, so they will not be crawled. Likewise setting ‘sortBy=size’ works well for crawling shoes, but not for crawling books. Keep in mind that parameters configuration has influence throughout the whole site.

CuriousQuestionAsker: Why not crawl URLs with parameter filterByColor?
Great WebWizard: Imagine that you have a three-page list of skirts. Some of the skirts are blue, some of them are red and others are green.

•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=1
•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=2
•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=3
This list is filterable. When a user selects a color, she gets two pages of blue skirts:
•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=1&flterByColor=blue
•fairyclothes.example.com/skirts/?page=2&flterByColor=blue
They seem like new pages (the set of items are different from all other pages), but there is actually no new content on them, since all the blue skirts were already included in the original three pages. There’s no need to crawl URLs that narrow the content by color, since the content served on those URLs was already crawled. There is one important thing to notice here: before you disallow some URLs from being crawled by selecting the “No URLs” option, make sure that Googlebot can access the content in another way. Considering our example, Googlebot needs to be able to find the first three links on your site, and there should be no settings that prevent crawling them.

- – -

If your site has URL parameters that are potentially creating duplicate content issues then you should check out the new URL Parameters feature in Webmaster Tools. Let us know what you think or if you have any questions post them to the Webmaster Help Forum.

Preview the latest Google +1 button changes

newyorkseo — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:44:02 +0000

Want to test the latest +1 features? Today we’re introducing a new option for webmasters who want to be the first to know about changes to the +1 button. Enroll in the Google+ Platform Preview, available globally, to test updates before they launch to all users on your site. When you’re logged into the account you’ve enrolled with and you visit a page with the +1 button, you’ll see the latest preview release.

If you join now, you’ll be able to test the first set of updates we’ve released to Platform Preview: hover and confirmation bubbles.

Submit URLs to Google with Fetch as Googlebot

newyorkseo — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:40:32 +0000

The Fetch as Googlebot feature in Webmaster Tools now provides a way to submit new and updated URLs to Google for indexing. After you fetch a URL as Googlebot, if the fetch is successful, you’ll now see the option to submit that URL to our index. When you submit a URL in this way Googlebot will crawl the URL, usually within a day. We’ll then consider it for inclusion in our index. Note that we don’t guarantee that every URL submitted in this way will be indexed; we’ll still use our regular processes—the same ones we use on URLs discovered in any other way—to evaluate whether a URL belongs in our index.

This new functionality may help you in several situations: if you’ve just launched a new site, or added some key new pages, you can ask Googlebot to find and crawl them immediately rather than waiting for us to discover them naturally. You can also submit URLs that are already indexed in order to refresh them, say if you’ve updated some key content for the event you’re hosting this weekend and want to make sure we see it in time. It could also help if you’ve accidentally published information that you didn’t mean to, and want to update our cached version after you’ve removed the information from your site.

How to submit a URL
First, use Diagnostics > Fetch As Googlebot to fetch the URL you want to submit to Google. If the URL is successfully fetched you’ll see a new “Submit to index” link appear next to the fetched URL.
Once you click “Submit to index” you’ll see a dialog box that allows you to choose whether you want to submit only the one URL, or that URL and all its linked pages.
When submitting individual URLs, we have a maximum limit of 50 submissions per week; when submitting URLs with all linked pages, the limit is 10 submissions per month. You can see how many submissions you have left on the Fetch as Googlebot page. Any URL submitted should point to content that would be suitable for Google Web Search, so if you’re trying to submit images or videos you should use Sitemaps instead.

Submit URLs to Google without verifying
In conjunction with this update to Fetch as Googlebot, we’ve also updated the public “Add your URL to Google” form. It’s now the Crawl URL form. It has the same quota limits for submitting pages to the index as the Fetch as Googlebot feature but doesn’t require verifying ownership of the site in question, so you can submit any URLs that you want crawled and indexed.

Note that Googlebot is already pretty good about finding and crawling new content in a timely fashion, so don’t feel obligated to use this tool for every change or update on your site. But if you’ve got a URL whose crawling or indexing you want to speed up, consider submitting it using the Crawl URL form or the updated Fetch as Googlebot feature in Webmaster Tools. Feel free to comment here or visit our Webmaster Help Forum if you have more detailed questions.

Responsive Web Design

newyorkseo — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:58:40 +0000

Ethan Marcotte wrote an introductory article about the approach, “Responsive Web Design,” for A List Apart. It stems from the notion of responsive architectural design, whereby a room or space automatically adjusts to the number and flow of people within it:

“Recently, an emergent discipline called “responsive architecture” has begun asking how physical spaces can respond to the presence of people passing through them. Through a combination of embedded robotics and tensile materials, architects are experimenting with art installations and wall structures that bend, flex, and expand as crowds approach them. Motion sensors can be paired with climate control systems to adjust a room’s temperature and ambient lighting as it fills with people. Companies have already produced “smart glass technology” that can automatically become opaque when a room’s occupants reach a certain density threshold, giving them an additional layer of privacy.”

Transplant this discipline onto Web design, and we have a similar yet whole new idea. Why should we create a custom Web design for each group of users; after all, architects don’t design a building for each group size and type that passes through it? Like responsive architecture, Web design should automatically adjust. It shouldn’t require countless custom-made solutions for each new category of users.

Obviously, we can’t use motion sensors and robotics to accomplish this the way a building would. Responsive Web design requires a more abstract way of thinking. However, some ideas are already being practiced: fluid layouts, media queries and scripts that can reformat Web pages and mark-up effortlessly (or automatically).

But responsive Web design is not only about adjustable screen resolutions and automatically resizable images, but rather about a whole new way of thinking about design. Let’s talk about all of these features, plus additional ideas in the making.

Adjusting Screen Resolution – Responsive Web Design

With more devices come varying screen resolutions, definitions and orientations. New devices with new screen sizes are being developed every day, and each of these devices may be able to handle variations in size, functionality and even color. Some are in landscape, others in portrait, still others even completely square. As we know from the rising popularity of the iPhone, iPad and advanced smartphones, many new devices are able to switch from portrait to landscape at the user’s whim. How is one to design for these situations?

In addition to designing for both landscape and portrait (and enabling those orientations to possibly switch in an instant upon page load), we must consider the hundreds of different screen sizes. Yes, it is possible to group them into major categories, design for each of them, and make each design as flexible as necessary. But that can be overwhelming, and who knows what the usage figures will be in five years? Besides, many users do not maximize their browsers, which itself leaves far too much room for variety among screen sizes.

Morten Hjerde and a few of his colleagues identified statistics on about 400 devices sold between 2005 and 2008. Below are some of the most common:

Since then even more devices have come out. It’s obvious that we can’t keep creating custom solutions for each one. So, how do we deal with the situation?

One major problem that needs to be solved with responsive Web design is working with images. There are a number of techniques to resize images proportionately, and many are easily done. The most popular option, noted in Ethan Marcotte’s article on fluid images but first experimented with by Richard Rutter, is to use CSS’s max-width for an easy fix.

`1`	`img {` `max-width:` `100%; }`

As long as no other width-based image styles override this rule, every image will load in its original size, unless the viewing area becomes narrower than the image’s original width. The maximum width of the image is set to 100% of the screen or browser width, so when that 100% becomes narrower, so does the image. Essentially, as Jason Grigsby noted, “The idea behind fluid images is that you deliver images at the maximum size they will be used at. You don’t declare the height and width in your code, but instead let the browser resize the images as needed while using CSS to guide their relative size”. It’s a great and simple technique to resize images beautifully.

Note that max-width is not supported in IE, but a good use of width: 100% would solve the problem neatly in an IE-specific style sheet. One more issue is that when an image is resized too small in some older browsers in Windows, the rendering isn’t as clear as it ought to be. There is a JavaScript to fix this issue, though, found in Ethan Marcotte’s article.

While the above is a great quick fix and good start to responsive images, image resolution and download times should be the primary considerations. While resizing an image for mobile devices can be very simple, if the original image size is meant for large devices, it could significantly slow download times and take up space unnecessarily.

Filament Group’s Responsive Images

This technique, presented by the Filament Group, takes this issue into consideration and not only resizes images proportionately, but shrinks image resolution on smaller devices, so very large images don’t waste space unnecessarily on small screens. Check out the demo page here.

To READ the entire “Responsive Web Design” Article click here

Web Design Trends 2011

newyorkseo — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:50:15 +0000

2010 has been an incredibly verdant year for web designers. Mobile has hit the mainstream; Web typography has reached new levels of sophistication; New coding techniques have vastly improved our ability to get creative with design (without compromising stability). All in all, it’s been a year that’s moved fast, even by the standards of the web, so let’s dig in to our first annual post covering the state of web design as 2010 turns to 2011.

The Death of the Fold

The traditional “fold” (the imaginary line on a screen that designates what content is visible before a viewer needs to scroll) became vague, unimportant, and nearly irrelevant in 2010.

Why? Because the traditional “screen” that people view the web through has undergone an explosion of variety… no longer can we expect web-surfers to be on something close to a 19″ monitor with a resolution somewhere between 1024×768 and 1280×700. Screens nowadays come in all shapes and sizes, from iPhones (and smaller phones) to 60″ HDTVs. It’s not just resolution that can vary wildly though; the very aspect ratio of a screen (even on the same device like the iPhone) can change with the flick of the wrist. Sure, web designers will always be advised to keep the most important messages of a site near the top, but with so many new ways for web-surfers to view the web, there’s no longer a defined height for where content must be above.

We’ll be discussing this topic in a lot more detail this month, so subscribe (it’s free) to stay tuned.

Mobile Sites – Web Design Trends

Sites have been being designed for mobile scenarios since the inception of mobile devices… but 2010 has seen a huge push towards entire sub-sites that are designed specifically to be viewed on small, handheld screens. You can thank the iPhone for starting this trend, but the wave of “mobified” sites is spreading like wildfire…. and come this same time next year, I’m sure you’ll be hard-pressed to find a major publishing site without a mobile companion site.

What’s neat about mobile screens is that it forces designers to get creative with a relatively small amount of real estate. Succeeding in the mobile environment isn’t tough if you keep a few rules in mind: Messages need to be conveyed quicker and with more efficiency; Links have to be designed for a touchscreen environment; and text needs to become legible (or at least effectively zoomable). Here are just a few examples of mobile sites:

For the FULL article, click here

Massive Images – Web Design Trends

Here’s another trend that’s been happening for more than just this last year. Massive images were once taboo for web designers, but thanks to better image optimization, faster internet connections, and smarter loading methods, designers can gain a lot in some sites by pushing image sizes to the max.

More than just “big images”, we’re beginning to see more trending towards sites that use vast illustrative (and photographic) backdrops that are as a part of the actual experience as they are simply additional artwork.

More CSS3 + HTML5 – Web Design Trends

What a gratifying sigh of relief! CSS3 and HTML5 have been on the distant horizon of web design for the past couple of years, but now, in 2011, we see an explosion of it. Designers are finally starting to let go of Flash. However you may feel about Flash, you do know that it does not play well with some of the hot, new technology available to your current and potential visitors. In 2011, you will slowly step away from Flash and embrace the magic known as HTML5. Look at the amazingly similar comparison:

Now that’s shown, please understand that Flash and HTML5 are not equal opponents. There is plenty of room for both in 2011. The problem is that designers in 2010 (and before) misused Flash. Case in point, very rarely should your entire site be made of Flash, especially these days. HTML5 alleviates some of the burden we have placed on Flash. However, HTML5 cannot (yet) replace the extraordinary design elements we can achieve through Flash.

Perhaps even more exciting is the fact that CSS3 is available to us in a real way this year. Move over Photoshop (wow, Adobe just cannot rest), because CSS3 is making short work of text shadow, border radius and image transparency. If you have not already begun, now is the time to really delve into understanding CSS3 and HTML5.

Designing for Touch Screens – Web Design Trends

Technology has become much more tactile. Usability is shifting from abstract to tangible. This means that instead of navigating your mouse to remotely connect, your destination is literally at your fingertips. Tablets, most smartphones and some desktops use touchscreens. Does your design accommodate fingertip navigation?

How much of your design is mouse-oriented? As designers, we worship mice. Our links light up when the mouse hovers over. However, there’s no hovering in touchscreen. How will your design indicate links to your visitors? What about drop-down menus? That’s also a no-go in touchscreen design.

Similarly, how will visitors peruse your site? As controversial as it may be for standard web browsing, horizontal scrolling may be more appropriate for touchscreens. Fitting nicely into this niche is a magazine-like layout where visitors virtually flip through your site.

Lastly, consider using liquid layouts as part of your commitment toward responsive design. In 2011, you are no longer dealing with screen resolution size. Visitors can change their viewing orientation from vertical to horizontal. Your design must be flexible to meet any challenge, or you will be a relic of 2010.

QR: Quick Response

If you have noticed those square barcodes popping on business cards, magazines or else where, you may already know that they are a hot trend for 2011. How exactly does it translate into web design? Amazingly well, in fact.

The barcodes are called QR, short for Quick Response. Simply take a photo of the unique barcode with your camera phone. Like magic, your phone will call up the website associated with said barcode. The beautiful thing about QR is that you can use it in a myriad of ways. Feature your QR on your website, in order for site visitors to have a shortcut to your mobile site. You can also track your visitors through QR, by placing a special referral code on your URL. When you are leaving comments on sites such as this, use the QR as your avatar.

2011 is all about mobility and it will be smart to take advantage of this new medium.

\For the FULL article click here

Long Island Web Design | Unreal Web Marketing

Canonical TAG, when to use it

Google Invests in Privacy for Profit

Making search more secure: Accessing search query data in Google Analytics

Google Base Products Feed Specification

1. Basic Product Information

2. Availability & Price

3. Unique Product Identifiers

4. Apparel Products

5. Product Variants

6. Tax & Shipping

7. Nearby Stores (US & UK only)

Steve P. Jobs, 1955-2011 – Apple’s Visionary Redefined Digital Age

New Google Panda Update – October 2011 Google Update

Improved handling of URLs with parameters

Preview the latest Google +1 button changes

Submit URLs to Google with Fetch as Googlebot

Responsive Web Design

Adjusting Screen Resolution – Responsive Web Design

Filament Group’s Responsive Images

Web Design Trends 2011

The Death of the Fold

Mobile Sites – Web Design Trends

Massive Images – Web Design Trends

More CSS3 + HTML5 – Web Design Trends

Designing for Touch Screens – Web Design Trends

QR: Quick Response

Making
search more secure: Accessing search query data in Google Analytics