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How to handle products in Google Merchant Center (GMC) that are disapproved

by | Mar 13, 2017 | Shopping Channels

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Have you ever physically torn your hair out from dealing with products in Google Merchant Center (GMC) being disapproved? Figuring out what the disapprovals mean, why they are happening and who to talk to can take years off your life.

If this is you, then follow our logical process and find solutions to get your products approved in Google Merchant Center (GMC).

Step-by-step process to get products approved:

1. Export your GMC diagnostic report
2. Review the GMC issues systematically with your tech team and prioritise fixes
3. Update your product data to meet Google’s specifications for each issue
4. Re-submit your product feed to GMC with the changes made to either your feed,
website or both.
5. Google will crawl your site and compare it to the information in your product feed
to resolve issues
6. You’re done unless Google decides they don’t like the changes you’ve made.

What if GMC still disapproves my products?

You think you’ve made all of the necessary changes to get your products approved but then you go back to GMC, and there are still errors. Unfortunately, Google’s approval process isn’t a perfect science. That’s when you start looking at how you can tweak individual product data. A variety of technical issues could raise a flag for Google. I’m not going to lie, troubleshooting at this level can be tough and time-consuming.

What if you’re not able to make the changes necessary to get your products approved in GMC?

Here are examples of disapprovals that may be very challenging to fix.

1. Item requires a GTIN

It’s not an easy task to source product GTINs. You can go to the manufacturer or your merchandising team and speak with some people, and none of them will have an answer of how to get the codes. Keep trying! The numbers exist, you just need the right connection or method to source them.
In some cases, products don’t require GTINs. In this case, you can follow Google Merchant Center’s documentation on how to label these products in your Google Shopping feed.

2. Invalid color name in attribute color

Google is not a fan of complex color names. Your tech team can use a color mapping technique using look-up tables to standardize product catalog colors specifically for your  Google Shopping feed.  An example of this would be mapping “lilac” to “light purple”. Any instance of the product color “lilac” would be automatically replaced with “light purple” for present and future products.

When it comes to multi-colored products, Google requires you to choose the dominant colour. Finding the dominant colour can be a painful and sometimes manual process that is necessary to get your products approved. Here are some tips from Google on what they’re looking for when it comes to including multi-colored products in your feed.

3. Temporary item disapprovals due to incorrect prices.

If you are selling products in more than one country, Google is going to expect your website to display the prices in the currency of that country. It may seem easy because you have a website that dynamically changes the currency to the IP address of the user. This redirect method provides the user with a good experience, but it doesn’t allow a comparison of prices in your feed to the prices on your website. Google is looking for a unique URL for each country. For instance, if you use the same URL for the US as you do in the UK, Google will see a discrepancy in price. Updating your website to fix this issue can be a lengthy and labour intensive process, but it is not impossible.

GOOGLE MERCHANT CENTER FORUM RE-POST
QUESTION
Hi, I have a number of items disallowed disapproved on Google Merchant.  When clicking on the error it says:
Diagnostics
  • Example : Uvex Classic Black Ladies Boot 9482
  • Item ID : 1099
  • Sampled at :Jan 06, 2015 16:03:10 UTC
  • Value in feed : 47.99GBP
  • Value on website : 69.94GBP
  • Current status : Disapproved
  • Input system : Feed Id:
  • When I check on our website we have the 47.99 display (like the feed and 69.94 is no where).  How do I resolve this problem ?

ANSWER:

Many e-commerce shopping-carts have a default currency (locale) that is made semi-permanent after a user selects a currency; this is also not allowed; the landing-page must be identical for all users.

The most common methods to correct the issue are to either use a separate link landing-page or domain per target-country or url parameters to pre-select the appropriate country or currency; e.g.

Also, the price submitted and on the landing-page must include vat. Be certain that if any display information can be changed that the proper display is pre-selected in the link url submitted to google; e.g. http://www.example.com/products/toys/wagon-9482?country=GB&vat=included&color=red

For example, if a user selects vat-excluded but later returns to that same landing-page via google-shopping, the price must include vat. Also, if any variants are being submitted (e.g. size) be certain those variants are submitted using google’s rules and policies for variants — especially if the variant might effect the price of the submitted item — e.g. identical item_group_id for all variants in the variant-group, at least one variant identifier that is unique among all variants inthe variant group (e.g. size), and either a separate lading-page or a url-paramter that pre-selects the exact variant submitted. http://www.example.com/products/shoes/shoe-9482?currency=gbp&size=uk5 otherwise, only the default variant on the page should be submitted.

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These tips are just a snapshot of GMC disapprovals Highstreet.io handles for our clients on a daily basis. Let us know your experience with fine-tuning your Google Shopping disapprovals in the comments or contact us directly with questions. We are happy to provide consulting services or offer a full-service product feed management solution that will take care of all your product listing needs. Highstreet.io has a wealth of experience with maximizing shopping campaign performance in the areas of fashion, apparel, consumer electronics and household item products listings.