Google Unique Product Identifiers UPI Starts Today for Google Shopping

Today is the BIG day with Google, and their changes they are laying out for ALL who sell online. Some of us might sell with a market place, sell with maybe our own websites, but as an Online Seller we all have to abide by some of the same rules. GOOGLE is the big dog search engine that we all try to work with. We do what we can to follow their rules which are forever changing, and it is hard to keep up with all the changes they do. As of today they are hitting us all with a Very Big step that they are implementing to all of us. Either follow the rules, or you will not show with Google Shopping. This can effect you alone, or if there are too many incidents it can also effect the whole market place site that you sell with too.

As of today (May 3) for Google Shopping Google is requesting Unique Product Identifiers to be added to specific listings. If your items do not have these identifiers they are requesting they will not be submitted to Google Shopping. 

Unique Product Identifiers are product codes, or other values that may be associated with an individual product, or a listing. These identifiers are like a UPC code, MPN manufacturer part number, ISBN or that of a Japanese or Eurpeon article number JAN, EAN.

Categories they mention are Media which would use the UPC, EAN, or JAN. Books ISBN 10 or 13. Exceptions would be for the books published before 1970. Apparel, Custom Made Goods will need NO identifiers required at the moment. All Other they want you to show at least 2 of the following identifiers which is -UPC, EAN, or JAN -Brand -MPN.

This unfortunately is making a lot of sellers go back through everything, and edit their listings, and making us aware of new listings for how they must be done. IF you yourself cannot find the UPI you can request an exemption from Google. Remember, even they make mistakes if they deny this to you as I seen done with 1 seller of a vintage item. If the UPI is available by any other retailer, then you must also include the UPI as well with no exemption. 

Categories NOT currently requiring the UPI: Apparel (including asseccories like jewelry) collectibles, vintage, antiques, one-of-a-kind OOAK, and custom made goods. Below I have copied a small chart being passed around for others to see, and I did get this one from the forums at Artfire too.

I would like to also note that at the same time these issues are strongly being informed by Google to PLEASE watch your duplicate content also. Google does not permit this. I know, I know, we are all seeing it all the time, everyone seems to be getting by with it, but read auctionbytes with an article recently of how they have shut off iOffer do to rules not being followed. At the end of this particular article is was also noted:  

Additionally, Google has a rigid policy against duplicate listings. "There is a strict "one item, one owner" policy," the terms state. "As the owner, you may only submit one listing per item, no matter if you own multiple websites."

I would like to emphasize this too...since I seen it with 1 of my Artfire listings out of the 97 listed so far....I have a vintage item not accepted to Google Shopping.......REMEMBER, Google Shopping is not the only search engine. There is still more of google that is used for searching. You also have search engines from Bing, Yahoo, MSN, The Find, and actually there are a lot of them out there. Google is the biggest one yes, but Google Shopping is not the biggest of the Google search engines either. Many people will go to Google, and type in their keywords they are searching. After viewing those pages they might then click on Shopping. But, the Shopping tab is not the first thing considered.

I have seen from Google Analytics, and other stats I have that it is not always Google Shopping that shows me, but rather it is from a normal Google Search, The Find, Bing, AOL, and etc. This informs me that my items are still being seen with other searches. What I myself can do is keep focusing on my keywords, titles, my SEO, tags, and etc. Let Google 'clean house' Should have been done a long time ago, but it is happening now. We can either deal with it, and do the best that we can, or like some have done...moved on, and given up. Sorry, I am too stubborn for the latter part of what some have done:)

I wish all of you the best of luck with all of these changes. Gonna be tough at first, but things will soon calm with us learning our own ways of dealing with this, reading from others about what they are doing that works, and as I always seem to do...Learn as I go:) Thanks for visiting with PassnItOn today. Take care, and I wish the best of luck to everyone!:) 

Here is a chart I copied to show you a bit of what was discussed. Good Luck to all of you, and I wish you well.

Category	Identifiers required for each product
Media (i.e., Music, Movies, Video games)	UPC, EAN, or JAN
Books	ISBN (Either ISBN-10 or ISBN-13. Exceptions apply for books published before 1970.)
Apparel, custom made goods	No identifiers are required at the moment Custom made: Custom made items include one-of-a-kind items include items which are custom made, vintage goods, collectibles etc. Custom made items can be in every product category.
All other	At least two of the following three identifiers: UPC, EAN, or JAN Brand MPN