Google Merchant Center suspension guide
Google Merchant Center product data and feed issues
Last reviewed against Google policy: October 2026
Product data issues are usually item-level at first: a missing price, availability that does not match the page, an identifier Google asked for, or a landing page that shows a different product. Enough of those, or a pattern Google treats as misleading, can escalate. The product data specification is the attribute list. The landing page has to show the same product, price, and availability a shopper would expect from the listing.
Product data specification on Google Merchant Center Help
Where the feed and the page have to agree
Google’s landing-page requirements say the page should display the title, description, image, price, currency, availability, and a buy path for the product you submitted. They do not have to be character-for-character identical, but they have to refer to the same product, and the price and availability the shopper sees should not contradict the data.
Structured data (schema.org Product / Offer) is how Google prefers to read price and availability from the page. If the visible price is only injected late by a script, a crawler can miss it and disapprove the item. A “call for price” or a login wall has the same effect: there is no price to match. The steps for a crawled price that does not match are in how to fix a price mismatch. A URL Google cannot open is covered in how to fix an unavailable landing page.
What a public scan can see
Without a Merchant Center login, a scan cannot list your disapproved item IDs. It can open the storefront, sample a product page, and, on Shopify, read a limited slice of the public products feed. The free scan caps that sample at 25 products and skips the AI pass. Paid plans raise the product cap and, on the agency and scale plans, scan more of a Shopify catalog.
Use the free scan to find site problems that cause data mismatches, then use Merchant Center diagnostics for the item-level list. Fix the page and the feed together so the next crawl sees both.
After the data matches
Google documents a “fetch now” on the data source and a review request in Diagnostics. Fetching again does not help if the landing page still shows a different price. Change the page, update the feed, then ask for the crawl. Start with the price mismatch guide when the issue is the amount, and with the unavailable landing page guide when the crawl cannot open the URL.
What the free scan checks
- A sample product page with a visible price, image, and description
- Structured data types on that page
- Call-for-price and login-walled price patterns
- On Shopify, a capped pass over the public products feed for missing fields
Questions
Why are products disapproved when the feed file looks valid?
Merchant Center compares the feed with the landing page. A valid file that says $20 while the page says $24, or a page that does not show a price, is a mismatch even if the file itself parsed.
Does the free scan replace a feed audit?
No. It does not download your Merchant Center data source and it samples at most 25 Shopify products. It is a public-site check. The paid plans are what raise that product limit.
Are GTINs required for every product?
Google’s product data specification says which identifiers are required for which products. A scan of the website cannot see the identifier column in your feed. Check the specification and the item issues in Merchant Center for the attributes you are missing.
Will automatic item updates fix a suspension?
Automatic updates can correct some price and availability mismatches on items. They do not rewrite your policies or clear an account suspension by themselves. Use them for the item issues they cover, and fix the site for everything else.
Run a free scan
Rule-based checks on the public site. The AI pass is part of the paid audit.
Related guides
Other guides: What a Google Merchant Center misrepresentation suspension means · Google Merchant Center policy violation suspension · Google Merchant Center “website needs improvement”