Why my Google Merchant account gets suspended for my Magento Online Store website?

I was surprised to receive an email from Google stating that my Google Merchant has been suspended as it violated some of the policies.

This can be a nightmare for any eCommerce website owners who are running paid shopping campaigns through Google for their online shop on Magento. Whether you have a website with Magento 1 or Magento 2, having your Google shopping ads banned from search engines can be frustrating and depressing.

You contact Adwords support team and ask them to submit your website for the second review. It can be miserable to know that there’s nothing that can be done to lift the suspension. The website owners get around 1-2 weeks to resolve the issue. One needs to be quick before the deadline gets over.

If your account is suspended, you could be losing millions of dollars of revenue each week.

What can you do when the merchant account is suspended?

If the merchant account is suspended, the main doubt in the mind of store owners can be:

  • Why is the account suspended?
  • What policies have been violated by my online store?
  • How to fix the issue?

Get started with,

How will store owner know if your account gets suspended?

You’ll receive an email from Google Merchant stating that your account is suspended. The same email will mention that your website violated the Merchant Center Terms of Service or the Shopping ads policies and suggest you the right steps to restore the account along with a time frame.

Impact on your traffic and sales as seen in Google Analytics (if it’s connected)


Why do Google shopping accounts get suspended?

Google and its partner advertising websites aim to provide a safe and secure shopping experience to the users. This requires a well-defined set of policies, rules, and regulations from the merchants. If merchants break the rules on a regular basis, then their account may be suspended by Google Merchant Account.

Top Reasons for Account Suspension:

Additional resources to know the top reasons behind the suspension of your google shopping ads.
Shopping Ads Product Data Specification
Shopping Ads Policies

List of Item Errors, and Feed Warnings

Invalid value [gtin] Ambiguous value [gtin] Unsupported value (restricted) [gtin]
Unsupported value (reserved) [gtin] Missing value [gtin] Missing or invalid data [condition]
Text too short [description] Missing value [description] Missing value [shipping]
Low image quality [image link] Unavailable mobile landing page Unavailable desktop landing page
Invalid value [price] Incorrect Images Using old data
Unsecure Checkout No Tax or Shipping Restricted Products
Target Location without Shipping and Tax

Magento Development Issues Responsible for Google Shopping Suspension

Id – Incorrect id – Users can make use of their SKU number or the ID generated by the website platform. It can be a good idea to use the same product in a different language if you wish to sell the same item in multiple languages.

Title – Long title – Users should keep the product name and important keywords in the first 35 characters of the title of the product. Make sure that the product title is short (between 55-70 characters). You can include product details like size, brand, material, etc. in the feeds.

Description – Missing Description – Avoid keep the product pages Meta description as “default text.” The product descriptions can make or break your brand. Include all the product details such as features, dimensions, use cases, etc. The maximum length of the Meta description can be up to 175 characters.

Links – Generic Landing page – It can be a good idea to keep a direct link to the product page instead of home page by including the https:// or http://. Store owners should give a separate link for mobile in feeds to attract mobile users.

Image – Small image/ Generic Image / Image not found – Use high quality images, 800px x 800px and higher can be used. Avoid using placeholders or sample images for products.

Price – Product Price Mismatch – The price and currency of the products should match the countries you are targeting. Make sure that the prices include VAT or other tax applicable in your country.

Landing page – Important attributes of landing page missing – Once the user clicks on the ad, he/she would reach your landing page irrespective of the device your site is being accessed on. The landing page will display product offers that are identical to the product listing you’ve submitted to Google. You can adjust parameters like location, and target audience for your ads.

Index Coverage Issue – Page not found 404/500 errors – If Search Console has identified that your website is affected by a new Index coverage, that it can have a negative impact on your Google Search results. It is essential to fix this issue. The site should be categorized well according to the latest SEO practices so that the website is crawled and indexed by Google Spiders. Make sure that you fix 404 errors on your website.

Unclaimed URLs – Dynamic URLs – Avoid having URLs with.html.html, with SID, and dynamic URLs as they may lead to account suspension.

Hidden Images – Only placeholder is being shown – Remove the images that are not displayed properly in the ads.

Product Landing Page Issues for Suspension of Shopping Accounts

We’ve listed a few top products landing page issues that can lead to Google Merchant Account Suspension. You can seek help from expert Magento developers to fix the issue.

1)Users find generic or non-functional pages based on their location or IP address.
Store owners should make sure that the landing pages are very specific for the product that is targeted. Make sure that it has a proper product title, Meta description, images, price, shipping, and other information.

2)Error status codes (such as 404 error) on Landing pages
Check your product pages for 404 errors. You can use Google Webmaster to identify and fix 404 errors if any.

3)Check your inventory and specify the “availability status” of different products on your website. You can mention the items that are “out of stock”. Even if the products do not have a landing page or if it is under maintenance, you should mention the same so that such out of stock products can be filtered out by the users.

Google merchant not allowed to show out of stock product adds. So we need to filter those products whose have 0 quantity or Out of stock status.

For this go to Magento Admin and follow below path :

Products > Manage Filters > Add New Filter

Example:-

4) Missing value [image link]:
Store owners should use high-definition images to all the product pages. Please check that product image are properly added or not on backend and frontend.

5) Invalid image [image link]
Provide a proper image link according to the Google merchant guidelines.

  • Accurately display the product you’re selling
  • Use an accepted format: non-animated GIF (.gif), JPEG (.jpg/.jpeg), PNG (.png)
  • For apparel products, use an image of at least 250 x 250 pixels
  • Don’t submit an image larger than 64 megapixels or a file larger than 16MB
  • Don’t include promotional text, watermarks, or borders

6) Image too small
Some developers or store owners make use of CDN or third party tools to add the images to their website. One should ensure that the size and quality guidelines of the images are followed properly.

  • For products, use an image of at least 250 x 250 pixels
  • Don’t submit an image larger than 64 megapixels or a file larger than 16MB

7) Generic images
Avoid using generic and placeholder images for ads. Don’t use an image which has placeholders and also uses a different name for multiple images.

Examples of generic images that are not allowed include images that are logos or use the text “No image available”. Items with generic images will remain disapproved and will not show on Google Shopping until you have updated the images.

8) Invalid value [gtin] :
Use the gtin attribute to submit Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs). A GTIN uniquely identifies your product. This specific number helps us to make your ad richer and easier for users to find. Products submitted without any unique product identifiers are difficult to classify and may not be able to take advantage of all Google Shopping features.

In Magento generally, Gtin number is considered as a UPC number.
Please find the below steps for adding Gtin :
Step1: Go to Products > Catalog > Select your product > Find UPS attribute and then add it.
Step2: Then Map this UPS attribute on feed. For this go to Products > Feeds > select your feed and edit > Go to content setting and then Map UPS attribute.

Example

9) Unavailable desktop landing page
For this first of all check on your site product URL is working or not. If it is working then check page must work in all countries without any IP or country blocking. Check your server, scripts for any blocking methods and remove it.

If any product is disabling on your site and those products are added in Google merchant then it might possible this issue has occurred. So to solve this added filter for disable product.

Example

10) Unavailable mobile landing page
The landing page was not found on the server. Please make sure to specify a proper URL of the landing page with the ‘link’ attribute. Could not connect / HTTP 5xx response: When we tried to access the landing page the server was not available (e.g. because of maintenance work). Please make sure that your website is always available.

11) Invalid value [price]:
Match the price of products on the website and feeds. Please check that the price of the product on your site and price of the product on Google merchant is matched or same.

Otherwise, Google merchant will show the product price invalid error.

12) Missing value [gtin]
If your products don’t have GTIN Values, then add it. Please Go to Products > Catalog > Select your product > Find UPS attribute and check that UPC is added or not.

13) Violation of shopping ads policy
Google Merchant is very strict with its policies. So, one should verify the shopping ads policy before going live. Google show to online shoppers is safe, secure, and complies with legal requirements. So add the product content and images and other information as per Google merchant guidelines.

14) Missing identifiers [gtin, mpn, brand]
Add any 2 identifiers from 3 – GTIN, MPN, and Brand.

15) Value too high [shipping weight]
Divide the shipping weight and cost according to the product type, area, and location.

The shipping_weight attribute lets you include the weight to use when calculating shipping costs through your Merchant Center settings.

Format

Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure we understand the data you’re submitting.

Type
Number plus unit
Supported Units For imperial:
0–2000 lbs
For metric:
0–1000 kgs
Repeated field:
No

Key Takeaway
One should not wait for fixing Google Merchant Center errors as you could be missing out a lot of sales and profits, need help? check our Magento Development Services. Identify the issues and fix them ASAP to keep your Magento store running smoothly. Get started now.