Google Merchant Center
Your products in Google's shopping layer.
Merchant Center is Google's product catalog — a structured feed of your products that powers Shopping ads, free shopping listings, Buy on Google, and the Shopping tab. Getting products approved and visible is table stakes for any serious online store. Getting the feed optimised is where the real ROI lives.
Feed health · Products overview
Last sync · 24 min ago
10,000
Products
Active
8,20082.0%
Pending review
1,24012.4%
Disapproved
5605.6%
Top disapproval reasons
560 items affected
Missing GTIN / MPN
320
Image quality too low
180
Price mismatch with landing page
60
Target countries
IE
UK
DE
FR
IT
ES
Google Shopping result
Live preview
Ad appears in Shopping results as:
Sponsored
Handwoven Wool Throw — Heather
€71.20€89.00
ClothCraft · clothcraft.ie
4.8(127)
Free delivery
Optimised feed typically drives 2-4× more clicks than baseline at same cost
Feed attributes that matter
12 attributes Google cares about.
Get these right and your feed flies through approval. Get them wrong and you'll fight disapprovals for weeks.
id
Required
Unique product identifier (SKU). Must stay stable — Google tracks performance against it.
title
Required
Max 150 chars. Front-load brand + product type + attributes. This is the ad headline.
description
Required
Max 5,000 chars. Used for relevance matching — include variations, benefits, specs.
link
Required
Landing page URL. Must match product exactly. HTTPS only. Mobile-friendly required.
image_link
Required
Main product image. ≥100×100px (800×800 recommended). White/neutral background.
availability
Required
in_stock / out_of_stock / preorder / backorder. Update via feed ASAP when stock changes.
price
Required
Must match landing page price exactly. Include currency. Don't game this — Google auto-checks.
gtin / mpn / brand
Usually required
GTIN (barcode) required for most branded products. MPN + brand acceptable for custom/private-label goods.
condition
Required
new / refurbished / used. Defaults to new. Set correctly — wrong value = disapproval.
shipping
Required
Shipping costs per country + service level. Or set global shipping in account settings. Affects Shopping rank.
google_product_category
Highly recommended
Google's taxonomy. Proper category = better matching. Set it — don't rely on auto-detection.
product_type
Recommended
Your own taxonomy (e.g. 'Home > Textiles > Throws'). Used for bid groupings + campaign structure.
How feeds get into GMC
5 ways to push product data to Google.
Pick the one that matches your CMS + technical setup + feed size. Each has tradeoffs.
Content API
Effort
Dev-heavy
Freshness
Real-time
Push product updates programmatically whenever catalog changes. Best freshness. Required for large (10k+ SKU) or fast-changing catalogs.
Fits: Custom platforms, high-velocity sellers, real-time pricing
Shopify / WooCommerce app
Effort
Easy
Freshness
Hourly
Official GMC integration apps (for Shopify) or plugins (WooCommerce/Magento). Auto-syncs catalog on a schedule. Default for most Irish SMBs.
Fits: Shopify / WooCommerce stores, non-technical owners
Scheduled feed URL
Effort
Medium
Freshness
Daily
Your site exposes a feed URL (XML/CSV); Google fetches daily at a scheduled time. Simple + widely compatible. Stale if catalog changes mid-day.
Fits: Stable catalogs, custom CMS with feed export
Manual upload (sheets)
Effort
Tedious
Freshness
Ad hoc
Upload Google Sheets or CSV via GMC UI. No automation. Fine for <500 SKUs that don't change much. Not scalable.
Fits: Tiny catalogs, one-off tests, proof-of-concept
Third-party feed tools
Effort
Medium
Freshness
Real-time
DataFeedWatch, Channable, ProductsUp. Take your raw feed, transform it per channel rules, push to GMC + other shopping channels. Mid-market standard.
Fits: Multi-channel sellers (GMC + Meta + Pinterest + Amazon)
Fix disapprovals fast
The 6 most common disapproval reasons — and how to fix them.
Disapprovals mean lost visibility + wasted setup. These are the 6 reasons that hit 80%+ of Irish Merchant Center rejections.
Missing GTIN on branded products
Fix: Add the product's GTIN (barcode). For private-label with no barcode, use `identifier_exists: false` attribute. Don't leave it blank with a known brand — instant disapproval.
Image with text / watermarks / borders
Fix: Google rejects images with promotional text, logos overlay, watermarks, or borders. Re-shoot or edit to a clean white-background product-only image.
Price mismatch with landing page
Fix: Feed price must match exactly (within rounding tolerance) what's shown on site. Google bots crawl your page — they'll catch differences. Update both together.
Landing page returns 404 / redirect chain
Fix: Every product link must resolve to a live product page (not a redirect, not a category page). Automated feeds catch broken URLs via scheduled site checks.
Shipping cost not declared
Fix: Set shipping in account settings (global) or per-product via `shipping` attribute. Even "free" must be explicitly declared. Missing = disapproval.
Product condition misdeclared
Fix: Selling refurbished as new is a policy violation. Set `condition: refurbished` — Google actually rewards correctly-declared refurb with specific Shopping features.
Feed optimisation levers
The 6 levers that move Shopping performance.
Title keyword density
Your title is a match query. Rewriting "ClothCraft Throw" to "Handwoven Irish Wool Throw — 150×200cm Sofa Blanket · Heather Grey" dramatically expands match potential.
Primary image quality
Product on white, taking up 75-90% of frame. Sharp, professional. Big uplift in CTR. Most SMBs ship photos that look okay — Google ranks the ones that look great.
Product reviews feed
Separate feed type — review data from trusted sources (Yotpo, Trustpilot, Feefo) flows into Shopping ads as aggregate star ratings. Massive CTR impact.
Merchant Promotions
Coupon codes, free shipping, % off badges appear on your Shopping ad. Standalone feed type. Easy win if you run any promos.
Price competitiveness reports
Merchant Center shows you how your prices compare to competitors per SKU. Flags overpriced items that are killing your Shopping performance.
Regional inventory feeds
If you have multiple warehouses, expose region-specific availability. Google shows "In stock in Dublin" to Dublin users. Serious conversion lift for local purchases.
Frequently asked
Merchant Center questions.
Yes — typically paired with Google Shopping / Performance Max campaign work. Initial setup + feed audit: €1,500-4,000 flat. Ongoing optimisation as part of PPC retainer: €500-1,500/mo for feed management depending on SKU count + change frequency.
Get your feed approved, optimised, converting.
45-minute Merchant Center audit. Share your account; we review feed health, disapproval reasons, attribute quality, country coverage. Prioritised 3-5 fixes that unblock the most products + drive the biggest performance lift. Flat-fee execution after.