Market Your Products on Comparison Shopping Engines

In this economy, where people are flocking to discount stores and deal sites, your presence on comparison shopping sites is very critical to advertise your products and drive qualified buyers to your site. Here are some tips on optimizing your product feeds for comparison shopping engines.

* Titles. The title provided for your product is essential to Become's algorithm. Titles cannot exceed 80 characters and generally speaking should be ordered as follows: Brand>Model>Descriptive Copy>Product Type. An example of this would be: Gap Red Fitted Women's Cotton Sweater.

* Promotional messages. Most CSE's provide a feature where you can specify "promotional test" for your products. This allows you to distinguish your products by calling out special promotions like "free shipping" or "special discount" either in the merchant center dashboard provided by the CSE or adding a separate column in the feed. Speak with your account manager to ask if there is a specific section for "promotional messages."

- Proper categorization is very critical. CSE's like Become.com offer related products and similar search options, so if your products are correctly categorized, they will show up in additional locations such as related products, accessories for the searched product or similar searches.

- Customize product descriptions for seasonal events. Most CSE's like Become.com will create special pages around events such as Valentine's day or Halloween and your products are more likely to be featured on these pages if they include descriptions or promotions for seasonal events.

- Location data. If you have data about the local stores that carry the product, include the locations in the product data. When CSE's provide data on local stores that carry the product or shipping cost by zip code, users will have all the information they need to move ahead with the purchase.

For more information, visit http://www.become.com