Google Disallowed Words! A Note from the Editor. Google Base Rejects ArtFire Listings!

This is a retype from our COO Tony Ford at ArtFire Chatterbox posted this morning at 8:24am Tucson time.  This is very important for all of us to note not just for our listings, but also our blogging, our posts and other Google searchables.  


I knew this was an issue from using an awesome cdrom tool I have called "Website Promoter" I bought off of Ebay for a couple of bucks.  


Here is what Tony had to say!  


"We received an email from Google base this morning that some of the  feeds from ArtFire.com have been temporarily removed.  This is because some of the items on ArtFire had "excessive capitalization". 

Google requires items to be grammatically correct with proper title capitalization.  Those folks using all caps to try to make their titles more attention grabbing may now have zero products in google base.  We see this kind of title on other venues quite often. 

The difference is that we will be auto-altering your titles to adjust to this guideline and sharing the information with you.   If you are using all caps on ArtFire.com you can start by changing those titles.  If you are using them on other venues with Google base, you should consider changing them there as well. 

We do not know how many accounts are affected at this point.   It is a good idea to use proper grammar on your titles and descriptions. 

This also suggests that Google Base (shopping) will continue to develop more sophisticated filters in the future.  For this reason it is important that you follow guidelines and not try to use hyphens or misspellings to try to work around prohibited terms. (wine spelled wi-ne or whine) for example.

In this case, it appears to be only some accounts that were inactivated, but google can and does ban entire websites permanently from google base for repeat violationsThat means that one or two sellers who attempt to "fool" google can cause all sellers items to be removed from google shopping. 

Thank you for your attention to this issue. We have already made the adjustment to auto-correct new items before submitting them to google.  

Here is the email we received from google:



"Thank you for submitting your products to the Google Merchant Center.
We've recently reviewed your items and noticed they contain errors.
Because of these errors, we've temporarily removed your items from the search results. Please correct the following problems with your items:
Issues:
- Excessive capitalization
-----------------
- Excessive capitalization: Some of your items' titles contain excessive capitalization. Please use standard spelling and grammar, and avoid all unnecessary use of capitalization. Please visit
http://google.com/support/merchants/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=160057to ensure your items comply with our Editorial Guidelines.
After you've corrected the errors, please upload your items again. If you're using the scheduling feature to submit your feed, we recommend that you upload the corrected feed manually before your next scheduled upload.
In addition, please know that your items are automatically re-evaluated.
Therefore, you do not need to reply to this email confirming that you've resubmitted your feed. We'll notify you if any additional corrections are needed. If you have any questions, please visit our Help Center to find answers to frequently asked questions.
Sincerely,
The Google Team"

This is extremely important as sites that are repeat offenders are permanently blocked from Google! If we don't change this phenomenon then we could all loose out.  If you see a listing on ArtFire that has some illegal spellings...such as "wine" or "free" or are misspelled, you can message the artisan and refer them to the forum or this blog.   If you are an Etsy seller, make sure you check those listings also.  Capital letters seem to catch attention, but in reality, all it does is get you kicked off of Google base. 


Disallowed Words











28 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing this helpful info!

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  2. Thank you good guidelines

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  3. Thanks for the tip on capitalization.

    I have seen a similar list of prohibited words before. However, I have always found it suspect because it contains the word "wine". Look on Google - you will find plenty of listings that contain the word wine, including some from my Etsy shop.

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  4. Thank you - this is very helpful! xx

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  5. Great article Susan! Thanks so much for sharing with all of us. It's funny, Google is an anomoly and they pretty much set the rules for all of us.

    Make it a terrific day!
    Dawn

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  6. On a listing description I was writing, " I bet ....." and it came back saying I could not use that word on Google.

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  7. That makes it hard for our Beer soaps, and our Bay Rum and Lime. :( But definitely thanks for the heads up. I wonder why some of those terms arent allow, when people would be searching for them?

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  8. Thanks for sharing this with all of us, Susan! I do recall trying to use hemp for hemp cording once in a description and it was not allowed...funny, how would I describe the cording? A good list to keep on hand.

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  9. Thank you so much, Susan! That list of disallowed words is especially helpful to me ... and to my hubby who sells vintage books.
    xo Mollie

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  10. Boy it's getting to be a lot...
    now I have to go change Champagne pearls to....ecru.....
    Thanks for the heads up!

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  11. Thank you, Audrey! I was just trying to come up with a synonym for champagne. Next thing you know they'll ban ivory. Whew!

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  12. This all so good to know! Thank you so much!
    Sandy lol

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  13. Thank you so very much for sharing this important info!

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  14. Thank you for sharing this!

    I think much of Google's prohibited words are silly though. So many of the words are also great descriptors for colors...camel, burgundy...

    And chick? Oh my, poor baby chick!

    Corsage? Muse? (I have actually searched on AF for Muse for a collection!)

    Egad!

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  15. Wow, thanks for writing such a helpful post. Kind of depressing, since champagne and wine are two of my favorite adjectives for beige and dark red.

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  16. Thanks so much for sharing this invaluable information, received your email message thru facebook, thanks for sending it to me!

    I also wanted to let you know about our "Pink Present" Holiday Giveaway and invite you and your wonderful followers come on over to our blog and enter for a chance to win! It's valued at over $500 and there is no purchase necessary! Here's the link:http://shabbycottageshops.blogspot.com/2010/11/pink-present-holiday-giveaway-at-shabby.html

    I am also following your blog and invite you to come and follow us too!

    Have a great day!

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  17. OMG how disturbing! My shop name is MUSE Silk Paintings and MUSE is a NO-NO?

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  18. Thank you. You have a wealth of info. I feel lucky that someone sent me a link.

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  19. Thanks for the good info in your post about the words google won't allow. Although this sounds too controlling to me, like no freedom of speech anymore. Some of these words are very useful in describing colors on items and I use them frequently or for describing a mood/place in a blog post. Travel is a no-no word?? I started out with a travel blog!

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  20. Wezz - I totally missed Travel! That's just crazy! Thanks for pointing that out.

    Well, I'll search on travel anyway, so there :P

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  21. Thank you so much for this post Susan.
    It's amazing how our perfectly innocent and valid descriptions are being penalised. Hey ho... We shall overcome!!
    Have a great weekend :)

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  22. Thanks for the info! I'm new to all this so the info is invaluable to me.

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  23. Thank you for sharing this important info!

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