As we continue to look into reasons behind merchants facing disapproval with their Google Shopping product feed we return back to our previous topic based on website content and bad data.
In looking in the Google Merchant Center Dashboard start with the ‘Data Feeds’ tab on the menu placed left hand side of the screen. Here Google lists any missing, incorrect or invalid attributes it expects to see clean within your feed. The warnings and errors differ depending on what merchant sells within their inventory, but amongst these most commonly arising are as follows:
Missing recommended attributes
Colour, Size, Gender, Weight, Price, and Shipping, MPN (Manufacturer Part Number), GTIN (Global Trade Item Number), which are typically EAN (European Article Number) or UPC (Universal Product Code in the USA)
Also visible in this area will be missing descriptions / description encoding errors.
Should any of the above specifics related to products sold within your feed be either incorrect or missing in the first instance Google will likely flag these issues for your attention. If not addressed promptly these could lead to disapproval.
Within the ‘Data Quality’ tab (which can be located in the same menu you found the ‘Data Feeds’ option) you will see a similar list of warnings Google have flagged as ‘critical errors’ to be addressed. Most commonly occurring in most merchants feeds are:
Image Problems, Long Titles, Short Descriptions and product crawl issues.
Warnings are items which should be addressed as they will affect the positions and performance of the relevant products. Large numbers of warnings may trigger a review of the entire account, can lead to products being disapproved and/or account suspension in the worst case.
The Dashboard will flag problems with length of titles and descriptions issues with the image link/s and landing pages for products. See our article about image error messages – landing page problems can stem from the same issues of page response times, but typically are generated from real page errors (products which do not exist on the pages quoted).
We are always happy to assist merchants with any of these issues, and offer advice as necessary. Contact us if you’d like our help.
