Shopify and other ecommerce platforms offer basic apps that allow merchants to quickly connect their online stores to Google Shopping, but these solutions are often just a way to pass raw data from point A to point B (Shopify feed to Google Shopping feed). Unfortunately this approach doesn’t allow you to do any kind of data optimization or segmentation needed for long-term success. Most merchants who aim to grow their businesses will inevitably want more in the way of product optimization, scalability, and support than these apps can offer.
If you’ve recently made a switch from Shopify’s Google app to a data feed management solution like Feedonomics, you’ll want to disconnect your Google Merchant Center account from within Shopify. If you don’t disconnect your Google Merchant Center account, the product feeds that Feedonomics uploads to the Merchant Center will be intermittently overwritten with unoptimized data from Shopify’s Google app.
Allowing your Shopify content API to send conflicting product data to the Google Merchant Center can hurt performance in a number of ways. For example, you may notice an increase in item disapprovals, the content API from Shopify could overwrite your optimized product titles, and you could lose valuable custom labels that enable better segmentation for ad campaigns.
To prevent any interference with the product data in your feed, deactivate your Shopify API connection to the Google Merchant Center by following these steps:
- Log in to the Shopify admin
- Navigate to “Sales Channels” on the left sidebar and then click on the “Google” channel
- Click on the “Settings” tab, or select “Manage Your Account” next to your Google account
- In the Google Merchant Center account section, click the “Disconnect” button to deactivate the Shopify API that feeds to the Google Merchant Center
- Click “Save”
Brian Roizen is the Cofounder and Chief Architect of Feedonomics, a full-service feed optimization platform that optimizes product data for hundreds of channels. He has been featured on numerous podcasts and eCommerce webinars, and regularly contributes to Search Engine Land and other industry-leading blogs. Brian graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.
