Google Merchant Center (GMC) is showing limited performance on some (or most) of your products in Diagnostics. Shopping performance is dropping and you need to act fast. What now?
Here are the 10 most common disapproval reasons. For each, you'll find a detailed fix you can implement directly from your e-commerce admin or in GMC. These are concrete steps based on real-world audits. If Google suspended your entire account for a vague reason, my follow-up article on misrepresentation covers that issue. For a primer, check out my guide on what a product feed is.
3 levels of problems
Before you start fixing, it helps to understand Google's hierarchy of issues. There are three levels, each with a different weight and priority.
- Account level: A suspension of your entire merchant account. This is the worst-case scenario, where no ads run at all. The typical cause is a systematic feed issue or a suspension for misrepresentation. Recovery is often a slow process.
- Product level: Affects specific items. This is the most common type of issue. Usual causes include missing data like GTIN or brand, poor-quality photos, or a price mismatch. A fix typically takes 24 to 72 hours to process.
- Policy level: Blocks an entire product category. Examples include selling alcohol without age verification or supplements without required warnings. Fixing this takes 3 to 7 days.
Store Quality program: your e-commerce store's overall score
Google tracks the quality of every store through an automated program called Store Quality. Your score is calculated from four main areas, based on data from your feed and your website:
- Shipping: delivery speed and cost.
- Returns: return windows and the cost of sending items back.
- Site experience: photo resolution, how many photos there are, and page load speed.
- Purchase process: how well your promotions work and support for modern payment methods.
The best stores earn the Top Quality Store badge. Chronic feed issues (like poor-quality photos or missing data) lower your visibility in free listings and can erode trust when shoppers see the badge on your competitors' listings but not yours.
Top 10 disapproval reasons + how to fix them
1. Missing GTIN
What you see in GMC: A "Missing identifier: GTIN" warning. The product stops showing in Shopping ads.
Cause: Google requires a GTIN for known brands in its database. Without it, Google can't match the product correctly.
Fix: Download the list of disapproved products from the Needs attention section. For branded goods, find the actual EAN on the packaging or in your supplier's B2B portal. If you sell custom or handmade products without a GTIN, set the identifier_exists attribute to false and use your store name as the brand. Never invent GTINs. Fake codes can lead to a permanent account suspension.
2. Image quality issues
What you see in GMC: "Image too small" or "Promotional overlay on image".
Cause: The policy forbids promotional text, logos, watermarks, or collages in the main image. The product must occupy at least 75% of the frame. The current minimum size is 100×100 px (250×250 px for apparel), but a stricter 500×500 px limit is coming.
Fix: Check your images in GMC under the Preview tab. If your e-commerce template overlays sale labels directly onto the image, you must remove them. Ideally, submit clean product photos on a white background at 1,000×1,000 px. This allows Google's algorithms to use them more effectively in modern AI-driven ad formats.
3. Price mismatch (feed vs website)
What you see in GMC: "Mismatched product price".
Cause: Googlebot regularly crawls your site, comparing the price in your feed to the price displayed on the page and in the structured data. It doesn't account for VAT differences or special prices for logged-in B2B users.
Fix: Open the product page in an incognito window. The price on the site must exactly match the price in the feed. Watch out for cached prices on your site and time-zone mismatches affecting promotions. As a safety measure, enable Automatic item updates for price in your GMC settings. This allows Google to pull the current price directly from your site's code if a mismatch is detected. Correctly configured structured data is also critical. The rule is simple: the price in the feed, on the page, and in the structured data must all match.
4. Shipping mismatch
What you see in GMC: "Inaccurate shipping costs".
Cause: The shipping cost at your store's checkout is higher than what you've configured in your Merchant Center settings. Google penalizes merchants who quote lower shipping prices in ads to protect customers.
Fix: In GMC, go to the Shipping and returns section and check the configured rates for each carrier. If you use weight-based rate tables, you must copy them exactly from your e-commerce platform. If you offer free shipping above a certain order value, set the same threshold in GMC too. It's better to set a shipping price a few dollars higher in Merchant Center than the other way around.
5. Missing return policy
What you see in GMC: a "Missing return policy" banner.
Cause: Google requires you to have a clear refund and return policy, both on your site and in your GMC settings.
Fix: In the Shipping and returns section, create a new return policy. Fill in the return window (e.g., in the Czech Republic, the legal minimum is 14 days), the return method, and any return shipping fees. Ensure the terms and conditions or returns page on your site is accessible and loads correctly. For digital products or subscriptions, clearly describe your cancellation terms. The same applies if you sell made-to-order goods.
6. Restricted product
What you see in GMC: "Restricted product".
Cause: Google's system polices the sale of restricted goods like alcohol, weapons, supplements, and medical devices. Sometimes, Google's automated systems misclassify ordinary products.
Fix: If the system flagged a product by mistake (e.g., classifying body lotion as a medical product), edit its google_product_category and remove any problematic keywords from the description. If you actually sell alcohol, set up the required certification in GMC and implement age verification on your site. If your entire account is at risk of suspension, immediately remove the risky products from your feed as a precaution.
7. Inaccurate availability
What you see in GMC: "Mismatched product availability".
Cause: Mismatches are often caused by data lag. Your e-commerce platform updates stock status instantly, but your feed might only update once a day.
Fix: Increase your feed generation frequency. Enable automatic item updates for availability in GMC. For sold-out products, don't let the product page return a 404 error. The page must remain live with the buy button disabled, and you should send an out_of_stock status in the feed.
8. Landing page issues
What you see in GMC: "Page not found (404)" or "Page not crawlable".
Cause: Googlebot cannot load the product page. Common reasons include deleted products, server errors, or a block in your robots.txt file.
Fix: Download the list of broken URLs from Diagnostics and test them with the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. Verify that your robots.txt file isn't blocking crawler access. Be aware that security services like Cloudflare can accidentally block Googlebot, which often crawls from US IP addresses. Cloudflare's bot protection is strict, so configure it carefully.
9. Brand mismatch
What you see in GMC: "Invalid brand".
Cause: The brand attribute must contain a real brand name. Google's system rejects generic values like "N/A", "Generic", or "No brand".
Fix: For each product, provide the actual manufacturer's name. For your own products or unbranded goods, use your official store name as the brand. The brand name in the feed must exactly match what customers see on your product page.
10. Missing required attributes (fashion and cosmetics)
What you see in GMC: "Missing required attribute: gender / size / color".
Cause: For apparel and footwear, you must always submit color, size, gender, and age_group. While this data is strongly recommended for paid ads in the Czech Republic, omitting it will cause Google to significantly limit your products' visibility.
Fix: Add the missing data in bulk using your e-commerce admin or feed rules. Use standard values: for gender, submit male, female, or unisex; for age_group, use infant, toddler, kids, or adult. For category attributes, use text paths instead of numeric IDs. If you don't want to wait for a primary feed update, use a supplemental feed in Google Sheets, where you can add the missing attributes in minutes.
Emergency fix protocol: what to fix first
In a crisis, prioritize fixes based on their impact:
| Priority | Type of problem | Why | Recovery time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical (P0) | Account suspension, 404 errors, site-wide blocks | Ads are down; entire store is at risk of suspension. | 4 to 48 hours |
| High (P1) | Widespread price mismatches, missing GTINs | Mass disapproval of best-selling products. | 24 to 72 hours |
| Medium (P2) | Shipping cost mismatch, missing return policy | Limited performance and auction penalties. | 12 to 72 hours |
| Low (P3) | Image quality on individual products, missing attributes | Minor impact on performance of individual items. | 24 to 48 hours |
How to track recovery
After implementing fixes, monitor your recovery in three steps:
- GMC Diagnostics Chart: The error count in the interface must start to visibly drop. If the numbers haven't changed after 72 hours, your fix likely didn't work.
- Google Ads Impressions: Monitor the daily impression stats for the affected products. A return to previous levels usually takes about three days after the fix is processed.
- Conversion Volume: Track your overall order trend. It can take one to two weeks for CPC and conversion rates to stabilize after the incident.
When to bring in a specialist
You can handle most errors yourself, but in some situations, it's better to bring in an expert:
- Your account has been suspended for more than two weeks, and Google support is only providing generic responses.
- You received a suspension for misrepresentation, and Google has not provided a specific reason.
- The system repeatedly disapproves products from restricted categories even though you have the correct certifications.
Summary
Regular data checks are the best way to prevent revenue loss. If you ignore warnings in Diagnostics for weeks, Google will eventually suspend your entire account. Set up a quick data check once a month. This allows you to fix problems before they impact your ad performance.
