Froogle lets you search for information about products that are for sale online. It's a comparison shopping service that uses the same search technology as Google. Froogle is an extension of the Google search engine that millions of people around the globe use daily to research products before they purchase. Listing your product in Froogle is a free way to extend the reach of your marketing efforts to millions of new customers.
When your web pages are indexed by Google, your products should automatically be included in Froogle results. See Preparing Web Pages For Google. If your product website meets Froogle acceptance guidelines, you can submit Froogle Data Feeds with current refreshed data daily, weekly or monthly. Submitting a data feed is the most efficient method of product inclusion in Froogle. Visit Froogle Merchant Information for additional detail.
If you spend just a little time surfing around Froogle, you'll see very quickly that some products have clear and enticing descriptions, while others seem to be random snippets from the product page. Those with clear descriptions are from the sites that have taken the time to give Froogle a data feed. It's not enough to show up in the search, if the searcher doesn't click through to your site.
Submission of data feeds gives you time-sensitive control over current freshness, accuracy and latest price changes rather than waiting for Google spider updates. Data feeds can be submitted at any time but at least once a month to avoid automatic Froogle expiration. A significant advantage is the flexibility of creating compelling, keyword rich product descriptions versus “snipped” Google descriptions which sometimes are incoherent keyword gibberish. Data feed content must be the same as the visible content on the web page. Image, URL, description, product titles and specified price(s) must also be consistent to actual web page content.
Doing a good job of building your data feed, with effective product names and descriptions, will certainly bring you more traffic. Once you get them to your store, there are three things you *must* do: close the sale, follow up on the sale, and provide a reason for that visitor to start their shopping excursion at your store next time, instead of with Froogle. This is doubly true if you decide to offer substantial discounts, or even loss-leaders, to bring visitors to your website.
