Common Reasons for Google Merchant Center Suspension and their Fixes

In this video, we cover the most common reasons for Google Merchant Center suspensions and provide solutions to resolve them. Learn how to fix issues like insufficient contact information, missing legal policy pages, payment method visibility, and more. We also explain how to raise manual review requests to reinstate your account. Follow the steps to ensure your store meets Google's policies and avoid suspension! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP1eBSm-578 Reference Link

1. Help-Link for Landing Page Requirements for Shopping Ads: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265?hl=en
2. Help-Link for Checkout requirements and best practices from Google: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778?hl=en
3. Help-Link for Google shopping schema markup's requirement: https://support.simprosys.com/faq/google-shopping-schema-s-requirement-in-the-store-s-theme
4. Help-Link for Shipping Settings: https://support.simprosys.com/faq/how-to-fix-missing-shipping-information-error
5. Link to contact Google for the re-evaluation of Google Merchant Center Account: https://support.google.com/merchants/contact/suspended?from=cuf_fix_acc_suspension

Refer to the below major scenarios for Google Merchant Center, which cause an unexpected policy issue which leads to the suspension of Google Merchant Center.

Scenario 1: Google Merchant Center shows an “Insufficient Contact Information” message.

A Contact Us page or a footer section of a website must contain at least two information from the below:

1. Physical Address
2. Email Address
3. Contact Number

We have observed many of our merchant’s websites only contain the “Contact Form” or “Contact Us” page which is not sufficient for Google to approve your contact details.

Once the above details are added to the Contact Us page, one can contact Google directly for the manual review of their account. A direct Link to contact Google Support is attached in the description.

Scenario 2: Please make sure to add all the legal policy pages to your online store as per applicable local regulations and legislations of your target market(s) that can be easily accessible to all the visitors for your stores. Required Policy Pages are as follows:

1. Privacy Policy
2. Shipping Policy
3. Return Policy
4. Refund Policy
5. Terms of Service
6. Contact us page

Scenario 3: It is also necessary that your store lists all accepted payment methods, prior to a user starting the checkout process. You can add accepted payment method icons in the Footer Section of your store where it is easily & prominently displayed to your visitors.

Scenario 4: If your Google Merchant Center is suspended due to any reason or policy violations, you will receive a notification email from Google with further details. Also, messages regarding Shopping ads policies and account suspension are temporarily stored in the account and message archive of the impacted account.

Other Common Reasons for Google Merchant Center Suspension:

1. The back button is DISABLED on the Online store.
2. Mismatch of Price, Availability, Shipping Charge or Tax rate between a Landing page and value submitted in the Feed. This is also affected if there is an issue with Schema Markup added to your store. So, please also make sure to add the correct Schema Markup for your store with the help of your developer. Follow the link appearing on your screen in the above I button to know more about schema markup requirements for Google Shopping Ads: https://support.simprosys.com/faq/google-shopping-schema-s-requirement-in-the-store-s-theme
3. Asking for personal details before allowing visitors to make purchases or take any action.
4. Content is not easy to navigate or so many pop-ups are appearing on the landing page.
5. Insecure Checkout
6. The store is still password protected
7. The landing page is not working: Please try to go through all the requirements for the Landing page for Google Shopping Ads.
8. The store is not globally accessible or might have blocked a few selected countries or IP Locations.
9. Do not use a Currency Converter based on the location of the visitor. Like if your store’s default currency is USD and if any user visits your store from India it must show USD instead of INR. Under Google's Shopping Ads Policy: Each unique product/variant you submit must list the same exact data from the data feed, visually on the landing page, and in the structured data because Google automatically converts the currency based on the targeted location.

For Eg: If you are targeting India as per the above case then the Shopping Ads will be shown in INR as Google will automatically convert the currency based on the targeted country.

Raising manual review requests from Google Merchant Center.

If you don’t resolve your issues after your first request for review, you can make a second request for review at any time. If your issues aren’t resolved after the second request, this will trigger a one-week cool down period during which the review button will be blocked. Your account will remain suspended during this period and you won’t be able to request another review. This one-week cool down also applies to all the subsequent requests for review. You can see the end date of any cool-down period by navigating to the Diagnostics page of your Google Merchant Center account and clicking the Account Issues page.

If you are still facing any issues or having any further queries then please raise a ticket at support@simprosys.com