What causes Google Merchant Policy violation?

Nicopify
New Member
8 0 0

I don't know why my Google merchant Account for my webshop at mytimeislimited.com got suspended. Can you give me any clue on what's exactly wrong with the webshop?

"We have reviewed the Merchant Center account associated with the Google Ads account and the policy disapproval remains because the Merchant Center account continues to be in violation of our policy.


Google Shopping requires that merchants provide transparency into the product that's being promoted. It has come to our attention that your Google Merchant Center account doesn't comply with our Program Policies. We have therefore disabled your Google Merchant Center account. Please review the article for more information about our policies.

As outlined in our Terms of Service mentioned in the article, Google reserves the right to terminate any user's participation at any time.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but unfortunately we will not be able to reinstate this account and the current status of the products and the account may be beyond fix. Google’s primary objective is to provide safe, relevant experiences for our users. The decision to suspend your account was made after careful review of your account and the low quality landing page experiences promoted through your website. We won't be able to provide you with any further details regarding the suspension of the account.

As you may recall, the Terms and Conditions to which you agreed to when you signed up for Ads state that Google reserves the right to disable any ads when deemed necessary.

Since the Merchant account is suspended, we are unable to review the Google Ads account.

Please Note: As a precautionary health measure for our support specialists in light of COVID-19, some Google Ads support options may be unavailable or delayed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.

Again, we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. We appreciate your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Mamik
Google Ads Team "

Replies 9 (9)

EmmanuelFlossie
Shopify Partner
2955 221 710

For example, no contact info in the footer.

For example, no contact telephone number in the contact page.

For example, business address registered to different companies.

 

There could be many reasons, I recommend having a look at the following policies:

 

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310?hl=en

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265?hl=en

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970?hl=en

 

The most common issues are:

Not adding full contact details page linked from the footer (email, phone number, address, contact form): https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310?hl=en

Not having a valid checkout: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778?hl=en

Not having returns and refund, delivery, privacy policy and terms of service pages

Selling products that are not allowed: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150006

Selling products that are not stocked: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127#:~:text=Unavailable%20promotions

Not adding any added content, and simply copy-pasting other sites

Having multiple websites in the same niche

Not being honest with what you sell or how you portray the business

Having a low trust factor or no track record of order fullfilment

You can ask Google for specific examples of policy violation. To do so ask here and check the box, I need more info : https://support.google.com/merchants/contact/suspended

 

Hope this helps.

Get in touch with Emmanuel: a Google Shopping Specialist, Google Ads Diamond Product Expert, and also a a Google Product Expert Education 2021 & Tailwind 2023 Award winner.
Need Google Merchant Center or Google Shopping support?.
Nicopify
New Member
8 0 0
No, it doesn't help at all, as the website seems to meet all these
requirements already.
EmmanuelFlossie
Shopify Partner
2955 221 710

A common pattern with some merchants is that they tend to ignore or not go the extra mile to get approved by Google. I deal with suspensions on a daily basis and the ones that follow all my requirements tend to get approved again. Some not of course as the trust level is too low and requires time to build.

For example I mentioned you need to add a phone number, you did not add one.

The success of your approval is in your hands.

Get in touch with Emmanuel: a Google Shopping Specialist, Google Ads Diamond Product Expert, and also a a Google Product Expert Education 2021 & Tailwind 2023 Award winner.
Need Google Merchant Center or Google Shopping support?.
Nicopify
New Member
8 0 0

Well, the phone number was already mentioned several times in the linked contact page, the privacy policy page, refund policy page, terms of service page, shipping policy page and so on.
And now it's even mentioned in the footer on every page.
But the latter part you mention about trust, how do you deal with that for the specific webshop on mytimeislimited.com ?

EmmanuelFlossie
Shopify Partner
2955 221 710

It seems your misunderstanding the requirements.

The contact page, where you have the address and contact form requires the additional following: telephone number, business hours. Currently, this is not the case.

Having the telephone in the footer, does not count. It needs to also be on the contact page itself, ie in the content page. Footers and headers are not part of the content.

If you like more insight, you are welcome to hire me.

Get in touch with Emmanuel: a Google Shopping Specialist, Google Ads Diamond Product Expert, and also a a Google Product Expert Education 2021 & Tailwind 2023 Award winner.
Need Google Merchant Center or Google Shopping support?.
Nicopify
New Member
8 0 0

Yes, I've added business hours as well now.

And yes, I'd like to hire you to get my Google Merchant account fixed.

EmmanuelFlossie
Shopify Partner
2955 221 710

Thank you for your interest, you can click on my website under my name and go to contact page. Thanks.

Get in touch with Emmanuel: a Google Shopping Specialist, Google Ads Diamond Product Expert, and also a a Google Product Expert Education 2021 & Tailwind 2023 Award winner.
Need Google Merchant Center or Google Shopping support?.
Nicopify
New Member
8 0 0

Contact inquiry was sent.

I'd like to keep for public record if you could solve it in the end or not.

The issues for Adwords were:
"Your account is suspended: Your account doesn't comply with our Google Ads Policies and our Google Ads Terms and/or Conditions." despite that it has all the mentioned contact info on the website now.

And

"Your account is suspended: We've detected suspicious payments in your account." Despite  that  there was only a 20 Euro prepaid payment through creditcard that went through fine.

 
While for Google Merchant the issues were:
"Account suspended due to policy violation: Unacceptable Business Practices"
"Account suspended due to policy violation: Misrepresentation"
 
 
EmmanuelFlossie
Shopify Partner
2955 221 710

Sure, it is absolutely possible you are still suspended after applying my recommendations. Google has a policy that states they can suspend you regardless of following policies. And depending on the initial violation, you can be permanently suspended.

So please do not hire me if you are expecting 100% approval. There is also a 0% chance.

My assistance is based on checking your business against Google policy requirements and recommendations, my experience, and trust signals.

If you check out my reviews, you will see a few that are approved. But there are also those that are not approved.

If you like to learn more: https://feedarmy.com/google-merchant-center-suspended-get-back-on-google-shopping/

Get in touch with Emmanuel: a Google Shopping Specialist, Google Ads Diamond Product Expert, and also a a Google Product Expert Education 2021 & Tailwind 2023 Award winner.
Need Google Merchant Center or Google Shopping support?.