Creating the perfect product feed for Google Shopping isn’t always easy.

– An accurate product feed ensures your customers find what they need – something both they and Google appreciate!

The CMS you use affects which challenges you may face setting up or mapping your product feed. You might lack product data or a certain attribute may be missing. Many tools, plugins and third-party solutions simplify this process. Some are free, but most require a monthly fee.

One of the most overlooked tools is Google’s own feed rules in Google Merchant Center (GMC). Sometimes you need third-party solutions, but many small changes can be made right in Merchant Center if you’re missing an attribute or need to edit attribute values directly in your feed.

In this post, I’ll cover some basic GMC feed rules features so you can improve your product feed and boost results over time.

Product Titles

The product title is the most important field for making your products discoverable in searches. Other factors matter, but the title is ranked highest since it describes what you’re selling.

You can use feed rules for several purposes – both to improve titles and to use title info elsewhere in the feed.

Simple example: the title is missing text, like a brand. When you create rules, there are two ways: add source to fill an empty attribute; edit to change an existing value.

To add a brand to the title, use “Edit”.

In editing, you have three main choices and some advanced ones:

You can add something at the beginning, at the end, or use search and replace. Search and replace works like other systems and is used mainly to edit text in the middle of the title. Choose what fits your need for inserting a brand.

You may enter a value yourself or fetch it dynamically from another attribute. If the brand is already in the brand field, you can drag it into the title from there:

Preview your changes by hovering the blue field in the top right corner:

To review a specific product, search for the product ID.

Save your changes as a draft and click apply to implement:

Using Conditions

Often, you want rules to apply only to certain products, not the whole feed.

Solve this by adding conditions so only selected products change:

For example, create a rule for a specific category, if the title contains a word, or for all products of a given brand. Use attributes to determine when a rule applies. Don’t forget to preview and save.

Filling Attributes with Missing Data

You’ll quickly get familiar with the feed rule interface and can start adding missing information. The more relevant content your feed has, the better.

Common fields to fill in:

• Color
• Material
• Size
• Gender
• Energy class
• Brand

Use “Add source.” The principle is the same – control which products get the value. It’s common for apparel color to be written in the title but missing from Google’s color field. If “Red” is in the title, set the color attribute to red. This way Google understands the product is red and your products show in relevant searches more often.

Now you have a few simple tools to improve your product feed. There’s always more to optimize for greater visibility in Google Shopping.

Need advice or help? Contact us here at WeMarket.