Why are my products being rejected in the Merchant Center?

Merchant Center rejects products when their data does not meet the product data specification or when the product or landing page violates Google’s Shopping ads and listings policies. Typical causes are missing or invalid attributes such as GTIN or price, differences between the feed and the landing page, unusable images and policy violations. Disapproved products do not show until the issue is fixed and the product is approved again.

Not every issue is a disapproval. Google distinguishes between warnings, which only limit performance, and disapprovals, which stop a product from showing. Unresolved warnings can later become disapprovals, so it is worth fixing them early.

Why are products disapproved?

• Missing or invalid attributes. Required attributes such as ID, title, link, image link, price and availability must be present and correctly formatted. Products with a manufacturer-assigned GTIN should submit it; a wrong GTIN can lead to problems.
• Mismatch with the landing page. Google compares price and availability in the feed with the product page. If the shop shows a different price or the product is out of stock while the feed says “in stock”, the product can be disapproved.
• Image problems. Placeholder images, promotional overlays, watermarks or images that cannot be crawled are common reasons for image-related issues.
• Landing page not reachable. Pages that return errors, redirect to the home page or are blocked for Google’s crawler cannot be checked.
• Policy violations. Prohibited or restricted products, misleading claims or missing business information violate the Shopping ads and listings policies.

Where do I see the reason?

1. In Merchant Center, open Products and select the tab Needs attention. There you see all products with issues, grouped by issue.
2. Open an issue to see the affected products and Google’s explanation of what needs to change.
3. Open individual products. The product detail page also shows a “Needs attention” section with the exact reason.
4. Check whether there are also account-level issues. These affect all products and appear as a banner at the top of Merchant Center.

How do I get products approved again?

1. Fix the source. Correct the data in your shop system, feed tool or data source, not only in Merchant Center. Otherwise the next feed update brings the error back.
2. Align feed and website. Make sure price, availability and structured data on the product page always match the feed, especially after price changes or sales.
3. Update the data. Upload the corrected file again or send the update via the API. Google crawls changed products again; according to Google, crawls usually finish within 24 to 48 hours.
4. Request a review or appeal. For policy disapprovals, request a review once the fix is live, or appeal if you think the decision is wrong. Google states that initial reviews for Shopping ads take 3 to 5 business days.

Work through the “Needs attention” tab issue by issue, starting with the issues that affect the most products. Fix data at the source, keep feed and landing page in sync, and only request a review once the fix is live.

Sources

• Merchant Center Help: Issues in Merchant Center
• Merchant Center Help: Product data specification
• Merchant Center Help: Shopping ads and listings policies

Want your products back in Shopping ads quickly? We analyse the issues in your Merchant Center, fix feed and shop data and stay on the reviews until products are approved. Book a free intro call or read more about our Google Ads and Shopping services.