For arlanix/product-feed 1.0
When Google rejects products
After the first fetch, Google reviews every product. It takes from a few hours to a few days, and a first review often ends with some products disapproved or limited. That is normal and rarely means the feed is broken: most reasons are a setting in Merchant Center, or one row of the mapping.
Where to look
In Merchant Center, Products lists every product with its status, and the products that need attention with the reason Google gives for each. Open one, note its ID: that is the SKU.
In Magento, open the feed, press Preview, and type that SKU into SKUs or product IDs. The row shows exactly what the feed sends for it, so you can compare it with what Google complains about.
The usual reasons
| Google says | Where it is fixed | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Missing shipping information, or missing return policy | Merchant Center | Not a feed matter. In Merchant Center, set the shipping costs and times and the return policy under the account's settings (Shipping and returns). Every product of the account waits for it. |
| Website not verified or not claimed | Merchant Center | Merchant Center must own your store's address. Its settings show how; usually a tag your developer adds once, or a Google Analytics or Search Console account you already have. |
| Missing value [gtin], or limited performance due to missing identifiers | Mapping | If your products have barcodes, map gtin to the attribute that holds them. If you make them yourself or they have none, follow the own brand recipe. |
| Mismatched value (page crawl) [price] | Products section, Mapping | The price in the feed differs from the price on the page. Check Prices for customer group and Prices with tax in the feed's Products section: they should give the price a visitor sees. For products in several sizes at different prices, see the sizes and colours recipe. A price changed during the day is in the feed only after its next run: run the feed more often in Schedule. |
| Mismatched value (page crawl) [availability] | Schedule | A product sold out after the morning run is still in stock in the feed. Run the feed every hour, or every few hours, in Schedule. |
| Invalid image, image too small, or promotional overlay on image | Your catalogue | The feed sends the product's main picture as it is. Google wants at least 100 × 100 pixels (250 × 250 for clothes), no text, logos or watermarks over the product, and no placeholder. Replace the picture on the product. |
| Unavailable desktop landing page, or page not found | Mapping, or the store | Google could not open the product's link. If the product is a size or colour of another, set the link to the parent's page as in the sizes and colours recipe. If the whole store is unreachable, for example behind a password, that is for your developer. |
| Text too long [title] | Mapping | The copied title row already cuts at 150 characters. If you changed it, the run's Details warn how many titles are over Google's length; add the truncate:150 modifier back. |
| Restricted or policy violation | Merchant Center | A rule about what may be advertised, not about the feed. Merchant Center links the policy; some can be appealed there. |
After a fix
The change reaches Google with the feed's next run and Google's next fetch: by the next morning for a daily feed. To hurry it, run the feed with Generate now and, in Merchant Center, open the data source and fetch it now. Google then reviews the changed products again, which may take another day.