Recognizing that Google is a factor in driving traffic to product listings, no matter where they sell online, many sellers send their product feeds to Google Base (Google Merchant Center). But there are a lot of questions as Google makes major changes to its program, including changes that take direct control away from marketplace sellers.

In September, Google announced it would retire the Google Base accounts of individual sellers who list on marketplaces. (If you have your own website, you may still submit product feeds to Google directly - the announcement only affected sellers listing on marketplaces.)

AuctionBytes consulted an expert in search engine optimization and search marketing to get his take on what was going on and explain what merchants should know about Google these days.

Tom Critchlow is Head of Search Marketing at Internet marketing company Distilled that specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) and Online Reputation Management. Based in London, England, Tom has worked with many large brand-name companies building custom online marketing campaigns and has a wealth of experience in SEO, PPC management and all forms of Search Engine Marketing across businesses of all sizes.

In a three-party interview series, he shed some light on how Google works and offered tips for sellers to help them optimize their marketplace listings, including such things as:

• Using All Caps and exclamation points in listing titles to make them stand out in search results can get you in trouble on Google.
  
  
• The most important ranking factor is the number of reviews that you have, and this is the factor which most small retailers struggle to compete on.
  
  
• SEO isn't about gaming the system; Anytime you try and trick Google you stand the risk of being penalized.
  
  

There was also some major news from Google last week when the company announced the launch of its Product Search Marketplace Partner program and named its inaugural partner-marketplaces: eBid, eCrater and Etsy.

Google did not explain its selection of partners but gave the three sites an endorsement. This does not mean that other marketplaces are excluded from sending feeds to Google, but sellers were left to wonder whether product listings from those three partner marketplaces would get better exposure in Google than listings from non-partners.

You can read the fulltext of our interview with Tom Critchlow on the following pages, and we'll continue to cover developments in AuctionBytes Newsflash. Leave your comments on the AuctionBytes Blog.

Part 1: Google Feeds and Marketplace Sellers - link

Part 2: Google, Checkout, and eBay Item Condition - link

Part 3: What Sellers Need to Know about SEO - link