With its advent of a free content submission program, Google has joined Craig’s List and eBay in the competitive online marketplace. Google Base and Google Merchant Center, released respectively in November 2006 and September 2009, allow individuals to post online and offline content for Google to make searchable.
How does it work?
Through Google Base and Google Merchant Center, you can describe any content you post with attributes. These attributes, which reveal characteristics of your item, help people find your posts when they do similar searches.
Google Base and Google Merchant Center serve as types of queries for Product Search, Adwords, and other Google properties. When users search for an item, Google will pull items that match the search from these listings. The attributes that were entered into Google will be given to the user to help them make a better product choice. The more relevant the item’s description is to the search at hand, the more likely that item will be selected.
A Golden Marketing Tool
Although a major component of the original Google Base was an online classified ads service, it can also be used to list things like current events, recipes, and profiles. You can list services on Google Base, as well. Virtually anything a person is trying to sell or promote can be listed using Google Base.
Google Base versus Google Merchant Center
In September 2009, Google released its Merchant Center to replace Google Base for product-type submissions. Google Base remains available for other, more content-based listings, but the Merchant Center is where Google will spend the time making tools and improvements for product listings.
The Google Merchant Center interface is very similar to that of Google Base, and you can access all of your feeds, items, and settings by logging into the Merchant Center with your existing username and password.
The Goal of Google Base
Although the role of Google Base has shrunk with the release of Merchant Center, the service is still the best place to list items like classified ads and professional services. Non-product items are best listed on Google Base.
What’s in it for me?
The benefits of Google Base and Google Merchant Center for everyday Internet users and businesses are innumerable.
Some advantages of Google Base and Google Merchant Center include:
- If the content is not yet online, Google will host it for you.
- There is no cost.
- The service is available in English and German interfaces.
- Items you submit to Google Base and Google Merchant Center may be found on Google properties like Google or Google Maps.
Google Base and Google Merchant Center allow the average individual with no HTML knowledge to list items online. These Google services also allow users to get their content into the search results without being reviewed by web crawlers and sitemaps.
Leave a Reply