In order to appear in Google Base, our listings must follow Google Base rules or else they will be removed from Google Base sooner or later. To make sure your ArtFire listings are submitted to Google Base, activate it in
My Gbase Feed.
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
- travels
ANYTHING ALCOHOL / TOBACCO / DRUG RELATED WORDS
- smoke, smoked
- champagne
- whiskey
- beer
- tobacco
- cigar
- cigarette
- rum
- rummo
- 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
- affair
- chick
- sensual
- gun
- offensive language
- knife/knives
- nude
- 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.
***** 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.
