When products are disapproved in Google Merchant Center, they stop showing across Google, both in Shopping ads and in the free listings. The good news is that Merchant Center tells you exactly what the problem is, and most causes fall into a few fixed types.
Work in order. First check whether the problem is at the account level or the product level, then go through the common causes one by one (page access, price and availability, product identifiers, images), and only after you have fixed things, request a review. For each cause I explain here how to tell that it is the one and how to fix it. If you are chasing Google Merchant Center disapproved products on a store, this is the order I use.
Where to see why your products were disapproved
In Merchant Center go to Products & store, then Products, and choose the Needs attention tab. Every issue is listed there, and next to each product it says what is wrong.
According to Google’s help center, there are two types of product-level issues:
- Warning: the product keeps showing, but with limited performance.
- Disapproval: the product stops showing on Google entirely.
Account-level issues appear in a banner at the top of the account, and they affect all products, so you deal with them first.
Cause 1: An account-level issue in Merchant Center
When all or most products were disapproved at once, and there is a banner at the top of the account, the problem is at the account level. According to Google, an issue like this can lead to a warning or a suspension of the account.
Here you need to read the banner and the emails Google sends, and check your website against the policy. One well-known cause is the Misrepresentation policy, which deals with misleading presentation of the business or the offer. According to Google, for serious violations of it the account is suspended immediately and without prior warning. Among the things the policy prohibits:
- Not showing the total price, including taxes and fees.
- Showing an incorrect identity, business name or contact details.
- Not clearly disclosing additional fees.
If you are sure you did not violate the policy, Google lets you submit an appeal and explain why. But before that, fix everything on the website that the banner and the emails point to.
Cause 2: Google cannot access the product page
In this case the issue shown is Unable to do quality & policy checks on product pages, or a message about a broken link. According to Google, the reasons are a block in the robots.txt file, HTTP errors on the page, or a barrier such as a login that stops the crawler from reaching the page.
You find robots.txt at the root of the site, and you need to make sure both Google crawlers are allowed in it. This is the setup Google itself shows in its help center:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow:
User-agent: Googlebot-image
Disallow:Googlebot crawls the product pages, and Googlebot-image crawls the images. Besides that, check that the product page opens without logging in and does not return an error. According to Google, the products stay disapproved until the crawler manages to reach the page.
Cause 3: The price or availability does not match your website
This is one of the most common reasons products get disapproved in Merchant Center. Google compares the data in your feed with what appears on the product page, and when there is a gap it may disapprove the product in advance (Preemptive item disapproval) so it does not show a wrong price.
In that case the issue is a price or availability mismatch between the product data and the landing page. According to the help center, these are the reasons to check:
- Feed out of sync: a sale started or ended on the website and the feed did not update at the same time. The solution is a regular feed update coordinated with changes on the site.
- Structured data (schema) mismatch: the price or availability in the structured data markup differs from what is shown on the page. You can test the page with Google’s Rich Results Test.
- More than two prices: Shopping supports only two prices. The lower price should be the prominent one, and sent in the
sale_pricefield. - A price that changes by user: the price on the page should not change by location, cookies or device.
- Variants: each variant needs its own URL, which loads with the variant already selected.
Google also recommends turning on Automatic item updates, which automatically fixes small gaps in price and availability.
Availability and sale prices: two gaps that keep coming back
Within the previous cause there are two cases that cause the most confusion, so check them separately, one product from the list at a time, against what a customer sees on the page.
The first is availability. The availability field has four values: in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder and backorder (ships when it is back in stock). According to Google, the availability in the product data must be identical to the one on the product page and at checkout. If the product is marked “out of stock” on the site and the feed still sends in_stock, there is a gap. For preorder or backorder you also need to send the availability_date field with the date the product will be available for shipping, and show that date on the product page too.
The second is the sale price. When there is a discount, you keep sending the regular price in the price field, and the discounted price in the sale_price field. According to Google, the sale price must be lower than the regular price and match what is shown on the page and at checkout. So that a sale does not start in the feed before it starts on the site (or continue after it ends), use the sale_price_effective_date field, which sets when the discounted price is valid. Without it, exactly the case I described earlier can happen: the sale ends on the site, the feed keeps sending the old price, and Google disapproves the product.
Cause 4: A missing or incorrect product identifier (GTIN)
Here the issue shown is a missing, incorrect or invalid GTIN.
According to Google, the solution is to add the brand (brand) together with a GTIN or MPN. The GTIN is the number the manufacturer assigned to the product, usually printed under the barcode on the packaging, and you must not make it up. If the product is handmade, one of a kind or vintage, you do not need an identifier, and you set identifier_exists to false.
Cause 5: The image does not meet the requirements
Here the issue is text on the image, an image that is too small, or a missing image.
According to Google’s requirements, a product image must be at least 500 by 500 pixels (Google recommends 1500 by 1500 or more), and no larger than 16MB. It must not contain:
- A placeholder or generic image.
- Promotional text, a call to action or a price.
- A watermark, a border or a store logo that is not part of the product itself.
You can replace the image on the website and update the feed, or turn on Merchant Center’s automatic image improvement, which tries to remove promotional text and overlays from the image.
After the fix: how to request a review in Merchant Center
According to Google, after a fix it takes 24 to 72 hours for the change to show on the Needs attention page. If you need a manual review, the way depends on the type of issue:
- Product-level issue: in the Needs attention tab find the product and click Fix. Choose Request website check if you fixed it, or I disagree with the issue if you think Google was wrong, and then submit.
- Account-level issue: choose View setup and policy issues, then I fixed the issue or I disagree with the issue, and finally Request review.
The review takes up to 7 business days. And before you click, know that according to Google you may have only one chance to dispute the issue, and that after failed attempts you enter a cooldown period during which the review button is grayed out. So request a review only after all the fixes are already live.
When to stop and call an expert
It is worth stopping when one of these happens:
- The account is suspended for Misrepresentation, and you are not sure what exactly on the website violated the policy.
- You already used the appeal and got a rejection.
- The prices in the feed and on the site look identical to you, and products are still disapproved for a mismatch.
- The problem is in the site code, for example in the structured data, in variants or in a server-side block.
In these situations another attempt without knowing the problem can burn your only review. You can read the full details in Google’s help center on Merchant Center issues and in Google’s guide to price mismatches. And if products on Google Shopping are only part of the traffic you are after, it is also worth reading how to increase organic traffic to your website. People who already visited the store and did not buy can be brought back through remarketing.
Frequently asked questions
Why were my products disapproved in Google Merchant Center?
According to Google, the common reasons are a price or availability mismatch between the feed and the website, a product page the crawler cannot access, a missing or incorrect product identifier, an image that does not meet the requirements, or a policy violation. The exact reason appears in the Needs attention tab.
What is the difference between a warning and a disapproval?
A product with a warning keeps showing, but with limited performance. A disapproved product stops showing on Google entirely.
How long does a review take?
According to Google, a review takes up to 7 business days. A change you fixed yourself usually shows on the Needs attention page within 24 to 72 hours.
What do I do when a product has no barcode?
If the product is handmade, one of a kind or vintage, you do not need a GTIN. Set identifier_exists to false. Do not make up a number.
Can I appeal more than once?
According to Google, you may have only one chance to dispute an issue, and after failed attempts the review button is locked for a cooldown period. So fix everything before you request a review.
Why did Merchant Center suspend my whole account?
A suspension is an account-level issue and affects all products. One reason is the Misrepresentation policy, where for a serious violation Google suspends the account without prior warning. The details appear in the banner and in emails from Google.
If you went through all the causes and the products are still disapproved, you can contact me, and I will check the account and the website and find where it is stuck.