Common Google Merchant Center Errors + How to Fix Them

Google Merchant Center is a powerful tool for e-commerce businesses, bridging your products and millions of potential customers searching on Google. It allows you to upload and manage your product data, making it easier to showcase your offerings across Google Shopping, Search, and other Google services.

However, like any robust system, it’s not without its challenges. Errors in the Merchant Center are more common than you might think, and they can disrupt your product listings, reduce visibility, and ultimately impact sales.

But here’s the good news: these errors aren’t as daunting as they seem. With proper guidance and consistent effort, they can be identified, understood, and resolved effectively.

This article will explain some of the most common Merchant Center errors and show you exactly how to fix them. This will ensure that your products receive the attention they deserve.

Let’s dive in!

At its core, Google Merchant Center works by using product feeds – structured data files that contain all the details about your products, such as titles, descriptions, prices, images, and availability. These feeds act as a roadmap, telling Google exactly what you’re selling and how to display it to potential customers.

Google Merchant Center errors occur when something in your product feed doesn’t meet Google’s requirements or fails to align with their policies.

Some of the common causes of errors are:

• Data Mismatches: Inconsistencies between your product feed and website, such as differing prices or availability statuses, can trigger errors.
• Policy Violations: Listing products that don’t comply with Google’s Shopping policies, like prohibited items or misleading information, can lead to disapprovals or suspensions.
• Missing or Incorrect Attributes: Omitting required product details or providing inaccurate information can result in warnings or disapprovals.

While some errors may limit your product’s performance, others can lead to disapproval or even suspension of your entire account. These errors can directly impact your product feeds, causing your listings to disappear from Google Shopping and Search, reducing visibility, and ultimately cutting your sales.

The good news is that most errors are fixable with the right approach.

Although errors in Google Merchant Center may initially appear to be small technical issues, they can greatly influence your product listings. These errors can determine how, when, or even if your products show up for potential customers who are searching for them.

Let’s explore how these errors affect your listings and why resolving them is essential for your business’s success.

• Reduced Visibility

Errors in your product feed can cause your products to be disapproved, meaning they won’t show up in Google Shopping results or ads. Without visibility, your products won’t reach the shoppers actively searching for them, putting you at a disadvantage against competitors.

• Decreased Trust and Credibility

When errors lead to inconsistencies like price mismatches or outdated stock information, it creates a poor user experience for customers. Shoppers expect accurate and up-to-date information, and when they encounter discrepancies, it can erode trust in your brand.

• Poor Ad Performance

Even if your products aren’t outright disapproved, errors like missing or incomplete data can lower the quality of your listings. Poor-quality listings result in less effective ads, lower click-through rates, and higher costs per click.

• Frustrated Management and Maintenance

Management and maintenance can be frustrating. Errors lead to additional work for your team, demanding time and effort to troubleshoot, update feeds, and make corrections. This can become a bottleneck, particularly for businesses that manage large inventories.

Warnings indicate that some products may have data or policy compliance issues. Although these products might still appear on Google, their performance could be restricted. If these issues are not resolved, warnings can lead to disapproval.

Disapprovals mean that disapproved products are taken off Google platforms. To get them reinstated, you must resolve the specific issues and ensure they comply with Google’s policies.

• Warnings: These indicate that certain products have data or policy compliance issues. While such products may continue to appear on Google, their performance could be limited. If unresolved, warnings can escalate to disapprovals.

• Disapprovals: Disapproved products are removed from Google platforms. To reinstate them, you must address the specific issues and ensure compliance with Google’s policies.

• Account Suspension: If you don’t address account-level warnings, your account may be suspended, which means all your products will be disabled on Google. It’s crucial to immediately fix the problems and ask for a review to get your account reinstated.

To understand these in detail, you can visit the Google Merchant Center Help page.

Know that the ideal solution to overcome these errors and ensure an accurate feed is to rely on a product feed plugin. WebToffee’s WooCommerce Product Feed plugin can streamline the feed generation process, ensuring you have well-optimized and precise product data feeds tailored exactly to Google’s recommendations. This way, your listing is always accurate and appears positively in search results.

1. Missing or Incomplete Attributes

One of the most frequent problems in Google Merchant Center involves product data quality, which happens when your product listings lack certain attributes or have incomplete information.

Attributes like product title, description, price, or GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) are crucial for Google to understand and showcase its products to potential customers accurately.

Why It Happens

This issue typically occurs when the data submitted during product uploads is either incorrect or incomplete. For instance:

• You might upload a product without providing a GTIN, which is necessary for its unique identification.
• The description could be too vague or miss key details, making it difficult for Google to align your product with relevant searches.
• Titles might lack essential keywords, resulting in a listing that is harder to find.

For example:

If you upload the product feed without including the GTIN or using a vague title like “Wireless Earbuds,” your product may get flagged or have low visibility in search results. By providing complete information, such as “Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds with Noise Cancellation – Black,” a GTIN and a detailed description, your product will be more discoverable and better aligned with Google’s standards.

How to Fix:

• Use Google’s Product Data Specification Guide

Google offers a comprehensive guide that details all the necessary and optional attributes for each product category. Make this your primary resource when preparing your product feed to ensure every listing complies with Google’s standards.

• Fill in All Required Fields

Ensure you’ve included all essential attributes like title, description, price, and availability. For items that need unique identifiers (like GTIN or MPN), confirm that you’re using accurate and valid codes.

• Optimize Product Details

Craft clear and descriptive titles that incorporate relevant keywords (e.g., “Men’s Black Leather Jacket – Large” instead of just “Jacket”). Provide thorough product descriptions that emphasize key features, benefits, and specifications.

• Regularly Update Your Product Feed

Product data is subject to frequent changes – prices, availability, or even descriptions may need adjustments. Plan regular updates to your product feed to keep it in sync with your website and Google’s requirements.

2. Pricing and Availability Mismatch

Another frequent error in Google Merchant Center is a mismatch in pricing and availability. This occurs when the details in your product feed do not match what is shown on your website.

For example: Imagine you’re selling a “Wireless Gaming Mouse” for $29.99 on your website but forgot to update the feed, which still lists it at $34.99. A shopper sees the ad, clicks through, and notices the price difference. Not only does this create confusion and a poor experience, but Google might also flag or disapprove your listing, causing it to disappear from Shopping results.

Why It Happens

This problem usually occurs when updates to products, such as price changes or stock availability, are made on your website but are not reflected in your product feed. Here are some scenarios that might lead to this:

• You might run a flash sale or change prices on your website, but your product feed isn’t updated immediately.
• Stock levels can change rapidly (for instance, a popular item might sell out), but the feed still indicates the item is available.
• Manual feed uploads may not capture dynamic or frequent updates on your site, resulting in inconsistencies.

How to Fix

• Automate Feed Updates with Real-Time Data

Utilize a product feed management tool or plugin that connects with your website to sync updates automatically. This ensures that your feed consistently reflects accurate pricing and stock levels. For instance, WebToffee’s WooCommerce Product Feed plugin can simplify this process, aligning your data with Google’s requirements.

• Cross-Check Details Before Uploading

When uploading feeds manually, verify all product details to confirm they match your website. Pay attention to key attributes such as price, availability, and sale start/end dates to ensure accuracy.

• Regularly Audit Your Feed and Website

Set up regular audits to compare your product feed with your website to identify and resolve discrepancies early on.

3. Incorrect Product Categories

Assigning your products to the wrong Google Product Category is a common data quality issue that can greatly impact how your listings perform. The Google Product Category is a standardized classification system that helps Google understand what you’re selling. It ensures your products are displayed in the most relevant searches and Shopping results.

When products are categorized incorrectly, they’re less likely to appear in the searches of the right audience, leading to lower visibility and missed opportunities.

Why It Happens

• Lack of Familiarity with Google’s Categories: With thousands of categories to choose from, it can be overwhelming to find the most accurate one.
• Rushed Feed Setup: When setting up feeds quickly, merchants may assign generic or broad categories instead of more specific ones.
• Complex Product Range: For stores with diverse inventories, manually categorizing each item can lead to errors.

How to Fix

• Use Google’s Taxonomy Guide

Google offers a comprehensive taxonomy of product categories. Take some time to explore or search through the guide to identify the category that best matches each product. Opt for the most specific category available.

For instance, rather than selecting “Home & Garden > Furniture,” go for “Home & Garden > Furniture > Living Room Furniture > Sofas.”

• Automate Category Assignment

Numerous feed management tools and plugins, such as WebToffee’s WooCommerce Product Feed plugin, can assist in mapping the precise categories for your products to the corresponding Google categories, which saves time and minimizes errors in product data.

• Regularly Audit Your Feed

Make it a habit to periodically review your feed to confirm that all products are accurately categorized, especially after introducing new items or making updates.

4. Missing or Incorrect Shipping and Tax Information

Another common issue is missing or incorrect shipping and tax information. This error occurs when your product feed doesn’t include the necessary details about shipping costs or tax rates, which are critical for providing a clear and accurate shopping experience for customers.

For example, if a shopper clicks on your listing for a “Ceramic Coffee Mug” priced at $15 but finds no information about shipping costs. When they proceed to checkout and discover an unexpected $10 shipping fee, they might abandon the purchase. Worse, Google may flag your listing for missing essential details, reducing its visibility in search results.

Why It Happens

This issue typically arises when shipping and tax settings haven’t been configured in the Merchant Center or are incomplete. Here’s how it might happen:

• You forget to set up shipping rules or tax rates for specific regions.

• Your shipping costs vary based on location, weight, or delivery speed, but these variables aren’t reflected in your Merchant Center settings.
• Tax information for regions with specific requirements isn’t included, making it unclear what customers will pay at checkout.

How to Fix

• Configure Shipping and Tax Details

To do this, go to Google Merchant Center and click Shipping and Returns. Here, you can set up the shipping and tax details for your products. Refer to this documentation on adding shipping data and configuring tax.

• Set Up Accurate Shipping Rules

Establish shipping rates based on delivery speed (like standard or express), product weight, or geographical area. If you provide free shipping, make sure this is clearly stated.

• Add Region-Specific Tax Information

Make sure to include tax rates for the regions where you collect taxes. Google offers options to apply standard rates based on the country or to specify custom rates manually.

For example, if you’re selling in the US, set tax rates according to state-level requirements, as these can differ. For international sales, ensure you comply with local tax regulations.

5. Duplicate or Conflicting Product Listings

Duplicate or conflicting product listings happen when two or more products in your feed share the same product ID. The product ID is a unique identifier Google uses to differentiate between your items. If multiple products have the same ID, it creates confusion, leading to errors in your listings.

Why It Happens

Duplicate product IDs typically occur when:

• You’ve uploaded the same product multiple times, intentionally (to test changes) or accidentally, without updating the IDs.
• Your feed generation process assigns identical IDs to different products, often due to errors in the configuration or naming convention.
• Products with variations (e.g., size, color, or style) are not assigned unique IDs for each variation.

How to Fix

• Assign Unique IDs to Every Product

Ensure every product in your feed has a unique and consistent ID. This ID should remain constant even if you update other details like price or description. For products with variations, assign a unique ID to each variation.

• Consolidate Duplicate Listings

If the same product appears multiple times in your feed with different data, merge them into a single listing. Use the most accurate and complete information for the consolidated product entry. For example, if you have two listings for “Men’s Running Shoes” with IDs “Shoe001” and “Shoe001A,” decide which entry to keep and remove the duplicate.

• Review Your Feed Generation Process

Check your feed generation plugin to ensure it’s not generating duplicate IDs automatically.

Implement a system or naming convention that guarantees unique IDs for every product.

• Run Regular Feed Audits

Use Google Merchant Center’s diagnostics tool to identify and resolve duplicate ID issues. Schedule periodic reviews of your feed to catch duplicates early.

By assigning unique IDs to each product and regularly auditing your feed, you can prevent these conflicts and ensure your listings are accurate and visible.

6. Missing Inventory Data

If you select Local inventory ads under physical stores, you may encounter a “Missing Inventory” error. This happens because, to use Local inventory ads, your Merchant Center account must be eligible for one of the following:

• Product pages with in-store availability.
• Store-specific product pages with in-store availability and pricing.

Why It Happens

The missing inventory error could occur due to 2 reasons.

1. You have chosen the option Local inventory feed but haven’t uploaded the local inventory feed.
2. You have uploaded the local inventory feed but it doesn’t contain quantity.

How to Fix

• Disable Local Inventory Ads

To fix this error, go to the data source settings and edit the marketing methods option. Click the pencil icon next to it and uncheck “All for physical stores.”

7. Getting Stuck While Uploading Feed

This can occur when adding a product source if the feed label is missing. Without this label, you won’t be able to proceed, as the “Continue” button will remain greyed out. Adding a proper feed label allows you to categorize and identify your products easily.

How to Fix

• Add Feed label

To enter a feed label, click the pencil icon next to it. Choose a name that helps you easily categorize and identify your products. Note that the feed label must be in uppercase and can include digits, hyphens, and underscores.

8. Image Errors

Image errors in Google Merchant Center occur when the images in your product feed fail to meet Google’s quality or accessibility requirements. These errors can prevent your products from being displayed properly or result in disapprovals. Since images are often the first thing shoppers notice, having clear, high-quality visuals is crucial for attracting and engaging potential customers.

Why It Happens

Image errors usually occur for one of the following reasons:

• Broken Links: The image URL provided in your feed doesn’t lead to a valid or accessible image file. This can happen if the URL is outdated, incorrect, or points to a removed file.
• Low-Resolution Images: Google requires images to meet minimum quality standards, and low-resolution or blurry images fail to comply.
• Watermarks or Overlays: Images with promotional text, logos, or watermarks can be distracting and don’t provide a clear view of the product, leading to disapproval.
• Unsupported Formats: If the image isn’t in a supported format (like JPEG or PNG), it won’t display properly in Google Shopping.

How to Fix

• Provide High-Quality Images

Make sure to use high-resolution images that effectively showcase your products. Google suggests images should be at least 800 x 800 pixels, but larger sizes typically yield better results. The image must be clear, well-lit, and free from distortion or blurriness.

• Avoid Watermarks and Overlays

Opt for clean images that do not have watermarks, promotional text, or logos. Google prefers images that are distraction-free so that customers can concentrate on the product itself.

• Use Direct and Accessible URLs

Ensure your image URLs lead directly to the image file and are accessible to Google. Steer clear of URLs that require authentication or result in errors.

Addressing Google Merchant Center errors promptly is essential for keeping your product listings visible and performing well. By fixing issues like incorrect data, missing information, or policy violations, you can ensure your products stay compliant and accessible to potential customers.

Being proactive is important. Regularly checking your diagnostics and performance reports can help you identify problems early on. Utilize Google’s support resources and troubleshooting guides for extra assistance.

To make the process even easier, tools like WebToffee’s Product Feed Plugin can assist you in creating accurate, well-optimized feeds that meet Google’s standards.

Although errors may appear daunting, they can be managed with consistent effort and the right strategies. With dedication and the appropriate tools, overseeing your Google Merchant Center can be a smooth and rewarding journey, allowing your products to reach the right audience and enhancing your e-commerce success.