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Common Google Merchant Center Feed Errors and How to Fix Them

By HelloEcom Team · 13 October 2026 · 3 min read

Key takeaways
  • Most disapprovals come from a handful of causes: identifiers, price or stock mismatches, images and missing attributes.
  • Fix problems at the source (your store or feed), not just in Merchant Center.
  • Review the "Needs attention" area regularly rather than waiting for sales to drop.

If your products are disapproved in Google Merchant Center, they will not show in Shopping ads or Performance Max, and your ad spend goes to a smaller catalogue than you think. The good news is that most problems repeat across stores. These are the ones we see most often on Shopify, Magento and WordPress feeds, and how to fix them.

1. Missing or invalid product identifiers (GTIN)

Cause: Branded products usually need a valid GTIN (barcode), and a wrong or placeholder value gets flagged.

Fix: Use the real barcode from the manufacturer or your barcode supplier. For custom or handmade products that genuinely have no GTIN, follow Google's guidance on marking identifiers as not applicable. Never invent a number.

2. Price mismatch

Cause: The price in your feed is different from the price on the product page, often because of sales, currency conversion or tax display.

Fix: Make the feed pull the live price, and check how tax and currency are shown on the page versus the feed. Update the feed on a schedule that matches how often prices change.

3. Availability mismatch

Cause: The feed says "in stock" while the page says "out of stock", or the other way round.

Fix: Sync stock status automatically and refresh frequently. If you sell fast-moving stock, a once-a-day update may not be enough.

4. Missing required attributes

Cause: Required fields such as title, description, link, image link, price or availability are blank. Some categories also need extra fields, for example for clothing: colour, size, age group and gender.

Fix: Check the required fields for each category in Google's product data specification and fill them from your store data. Use item_group_id to group variants correctly.

5. Image problems

Cause: Images that are too small, blurry, have watermarks or promotional text, or show a placeholder instead of the product.

Fix: Use clear, high-resolution images on a clean background that show the actual product, with no overlays such as "SALE" badges or logos stuck across the picture.

6. Weak or non-compliant titles and descriptions

Cause: Titles stuffed with promotional text, all capitals, or missing the details shoppers search for.

Fix: Write titles that lead with what the product is, followed by key attributes such as brand, type, size, colour and material. Keep promotional wording out of the title.

7. Shipping and tax settings

Cause: Shipping or tax settings are missing or do not match what the checkout charges.

Fix: Set shipping and tax correctly in Merchant Center for every country you advertise in, and check they match the checkout.

8. Website and policy issues

Cause: Account-level problems such as missing return policy, unclear contact details, or a checkout that does not work properly.

Fix: Make sure the site shows clear contact details, return and shipping policies, and a working, secure checkout.

A simple routine to keep the feed healthy

  1. Open the "Needs attention" area in Merchant Center each week and sort issues by number of products affected.
  2. Fix the cause at the source, in your store, plugin or feed, so the same error does not return.
  3. Use a supplemental feed for quick fixes to titles or custom labels without rebuilding the whole feed.
  4. After fixing, request a re-review where possible and allow time for Google to reprocess.
  5. Check the share of approved products against your total catalogue every month.

Menu names and policies in Merchant Center change from time to time, so always check Google's current documentation when fixing a specific error.