WARNING: Attempts to cheat the Google system using misspellings or asterisks or other tricks are considered abuse, and could get the entire Artfire feed blocked!
So what are the forbidden words for Google Base? Here's a sum up from this and this forum threads.
PROMOTIONAL WORDS:
- free (including hyphenated words such as pet-free, smoke-free, hands-free, etc-free)
- sale
- vacation
- travel
- travelsANYTHING ALCOHOL / TOBACCO / DRUG RELATED WORDS
- smoke, smoked
- champagne
- whiskey
- beer
- tobacco
- tobacco
- cigar
- cigarette
- rum
- rummo
- wine
- wine
- vine (supposedly because vine = wine in another language)
- vineyard
- camel (for it being a cig brand)
- brandy
- gin- bordeaux
- burgundy
- ale
- hemp (?)
- absinthe
ADULT / MATURE / EXPLICIT / NAUGHTY / VIOLENCE RELATED WORDS:
- anime ( however "manga" is allowed)
- strip
- stripper
- adult; including hyphenated words such as adult-size
- sexy
- butt
- sex
- butt
- sex
- affair
- chick
- sensual
- gun
- offensive language
- knife/knives
- nude
- knife/knives
- nude
MISCELLANEOUS WORDS:
- postage (or postage stamp)
- collecting (collectible and collect are okay)
- thorny
- precious metal - muse
- corsage
- Z (as a stand alone letter)
- double @ (i.e: L@@K, B@@BS)
- fireworks
- bank
- FDA
PRICE RESTRICTION: Google Base will not take items under US $1.
Now we know all of this, what to do to get our listings passing through Google Base?
1. By replacing those words with other words; such as:
Free shipping = complimentary shipping, shipping is on me, no price charges on shipping, etc.
** I'm not too positive about this but I vaguely remember that having the word SOLD will make your listing go at the bottom of Google's list. So try to avoid this word. You can replace it with "you will receive a similar item", "made to order", etc. **
2. OR put those forbidden/disallowed words in the Promo Box if you're an ArtFire seller. Promo Box is not gonna get indexed by Google Base.
3. Be creative and open thesaurus! Ha! (but limit only at common words) Need help? Use this Google AdWords: Keyword Tool
CAPITALIZATION KILLS!! (update per June 16, 2010)
This just in that Google Base now inactivate listings with excessive capitalization. Google requires items to be grammatically correct with proper title capitalization. Read this link below for more details.
Why No One Should Try to "Fool" Google Base.
***** If you know other words that are not on the list, please leave it in the comment section and I'll add them on my list :) *****
* Google and Google Base are two different search engines. Rejected listings in Google Base (Google Product Search/Google Shopping) may still appear in Google.
While many of these words make sense it can seem a bit overbearing. My Mom lists things on both Etsy and Artfire and sometimes has issues posting the descriptions on Artfire, specifically in a couple items that she has which are "hands-free." Complimentary makes sense in the case of free meaning "no money" but in that case picking an analogous phrase is a bit annoying.
ReplyDeleteWe never have had this kind of issue in Etsy because Etsy didn't feed our products in GB while ArtFire does and always have been. I don't know about now, has Etsy submit our products in GB? I heard rumors about it that they were going to implement it.
ReplyDeleteI'll add hands-free on the list. But it could be the word Free that's being rejected. GB is somewhat crazy... xP
Thanks! :)
It was an Artfire listing she had an issue with, she posted a similar item complete with "hands-free" in the description to Etsy with no faults. The Artfire submission form specifically stated it was the word free that could cause an issue.
ReplyDeleteI know its cheating the system but I am sorely tempted to use the method I have seen on a couple websites of hyphenating free as "fr-ee."
Oh, crud! Thanks for posting this, Kay - I had already forgotten about it, and I think I listed something with bordeaux-colored beads. Now I'm going to have to skim over my listings and make sure they're ok.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, hands-free is a tricky one. Some of the "free" alternatives could be "no" ("no pets") or "-less", but that doesn't work well with hands.
The easy way to check of your AF listings are submitted in GB or not is through "Active Product List". If you insist on having those forbidden words in your listings, you could opt-out Google Base. Your items can still be found on regular Google Search.
ReplyDeleteI'll add Bordeaux on the list! Thanks! :D
Now that is valuable knowledge! Thanks Kay!
ReplyDelete~~Creative Haven
Muse was dissallowed on one of my painted clock listings. As in 'I paint what the muse tells me to'... I have no idea why that word would be dissallowed but that's the word the error message came back with as the cause.
ReplyDeleteYour welcome April. Paula, thanks for the tip. Muse is added :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not 100% certain, but I think that atomic or fire might be a problem. I have a necklace and earring set called "Atomic Fireballs" and instead of showing as "pending" like my listings do at first, it immediately showed as "NO" that it wasn't in the GDB.
ReplyDeleteI can't find any other objectionable words, so I think...THINK that it must be either the atomic or fire part. Not sure.
it could be atomic (as in atomic bomb?) GB is so weird.. i'd like to think that fire is alright as fire is in ArtFire, which is already mentioned a lot in listings. hmm...
ReplyDeleteI am finally finding time to figure out why I keep getting messages about disallowed words in my listings. I paint wine and martini glasses and accessories, so it's REALLY hard to not put that in the titles and descriptions of my pieces. Can anyone explain how I get around this please and thank you.
ReplyDelete@Lynette: you can select NO and choose not to submit your items with martini and wine to Google Base. It will still be found in regular Google search so no worries.
ReplyDeleteI hope that helps :)
Okay, I'm feeling stupid here, but I just read that last post...so even if your item doesn't show up in Google Database, it will still show up in a google search? Holy crap, I wish I'd known that a long time ago! I've made myself crazy trying to figure out why some of my items kept getting rejected.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they turn up on some kind of google search, I'm not going to sweat it so much if a few don't make GDB.
Yeah, Google Shopping is a different search engine than regular Google search. When you submit your items to Google Base (GB) your items will appear in both Google search and in Google Shopping.
ReplyDeleteIf you check Google Shopping page, they have a different search than regular Google Search. GS shows thumbnails of products with prices. And according to Tony, only few people are searching items using GB. So don't sweat it too much :)
The word ''Gun'' is not allowed .
ReplyDeleteThank you! Gun is added! :D
ReplyDeleteWine is one of those alcoholic words not allowed.
ReplyDelete@Cindy: OMG! I can't believe I missed that word! I even had "vine as it is wine in another language" listed since the start but forgot to write wine X_x. thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for getting this list together, all in one place, Kay ♥
ReplyDeleteAdd to your list ~
knife
knives
tobacco
@PetitPoulailler: Thank you! :D added!
ReplyDeleteI found your post in Google base...go figure in your Facebook note with the title. Great job! Blogging about it too!
ReplyDeleteWe could all learn from your blog, all the tweeks you have added to it. Great blogger, Kay! Thanks for this!
Susan Adams
http://itsbetterhandmade.blogspot.com
Hi, Not sure if it's listed but FDA wasn't allowed. My listing was "claims not something something by the FDA" had to take it out.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Shiny Cat! It's added to the list :)
ReplyDeleteLynette...how about "stemware" as in stemware adornments or stemware jewelry? I had a jewelry listing refused because it had "champaign colored" pearls. And I'm still trying to figure out how to describe the color "burgundy" or what if an item has vines in the decorations..."long thin swirly leafy branches"? lol! . How about using "smokeless" and "petless" homes? Or "no pets or smoke". Although it probably won't be long before "smoke" is added to the list.
ReplyDeleteYou can put the rejected words in promotion box in Artfire. Words put in there will not be submitted to g.base.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's ok not to list it in gbase, your listing will still appear in regular google search.
"Remington" is apparently not allowed. It's a gun brand, so I expect other gun brands might be disallowed. I wonder what one does about listing Remington shaving products? They seem to be awfully vague with some of these. Might cause problems if the official color of something is "burgundy", for example. They want you to list properly, but put obstacles in your way.
ReplyDeletethanks so much, this is extremely helpful. I will haves to revisit a lot of my listings both on Etsy and Artfire
ReplyDelete