SEO, AdWords, affiliates, advertising, and promotions
A comprehensive checklist for merchants that are suspended from Google Merchant Center
Business Details VS Payment Details
Ensure your business details match the payment details on all platforms. Especially all Google platforms.
One Account
Only have one Google Ads and One Google Merchant Center account. Creating multiple accounts when suspended is considered circumventing policy violations.
One Website
Only have one website linked to your business. Only in certain situations can you have multiple websites, in general, merchants that are suspended have multiple websites for no valid reason other than to gain an unfair advantage.
Existing Suspensions
If you already have existing suspensions on other accounts, you must first resolve these issues before resolving your additional accounts’ problems.
Track Record of Order Fulfillment
Make sure you generate reviews from orders placed on your website. Ensure all reviews are real, and you have a mix of positive and negative reviews.
Reviews
If you get reviews that are not verified from a purchase, remove the review.
Phone Number
Make sure your phone number is answered during business hours listed on the website and Google My Business.
Google Maps
Your business address must easily be found on Google Maps. And connected to Google My Business, BBB, Facebook if eligible.
Accessibility
Your business premise must have the ability to accept packages and legal documents. And have someone at the premises during business hours listed on the website and Google My Business.
Verify
Track all availability, pricing, applicable taxes and shipping policies are accurate and listed on the website.
Selling Products
Validate and or confirm you have the appropriate reseller license and certificates from your distributor.
Availability
Verify your product status, is in stock or out of stock, and that this is verified with actual stocked goods—both on your website and in your data feed. Also, avoid frequent availability changes during one day. Google requires stable availability information.
When ordering products, make sure no-one can purchase more than stocked. For example, do not allow customers to order 1000 products when you only have 20 in stock.
Payment Logos
Add the payment methods used in plain text on your product landing page just above or below the add-to-cart button. Or with logos, have the plain text under the logos.
Pricing
As with the availability status, make sure you have accurate product pricing and are up to date in the data feed, and that Google has collected this info.
Only list 1 product price, if you have multiple products, consider submitting different landing pages for each product.
Don’t Sell Products You Can’t Deliver
Don’t sell products you can not deliver to the customer. And don’t sell products you can not deliver within 1.5 weeks.
Content
Make sure to not copy-paste the same images and text from the manufacturer and or other resellers. At the moment it seems identical to any other reseller. You will increase the quality of your ranking by taking your own images and writing quality content.
Copying content from others will also lower your trust score.
Google may see you as low quality due to not adding additional or different content. The reason behind this is that Google wants to provide users with good listings and user experience, if you are not different from any other merchant, there is no benefit.
BTW: just as a side note, this is also for organic listings. You can rank better by having your own content.
PopUps
Generally, PopUps are not allowed. When for example, a pop-up or banner blocks or covers important content and or information for your customers. Instead have a small icon in the bottom corners that show / hide the newsletter subscription.
Reference: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265?hl=en
Discounts
Don’t have side wide discounts when you have never sold the item at its original price. Listing discounts when they are not real is considered misleading.
Misleading Content
Do not mislead, make false claims or statements. Such as:
If you are selling products related to healthcare, medicine or supplements, remove any claims or statements not approved by the target country government body.
If you a reseller and not an official partner, do not show images, or quotes that you are.
Don’t suggest you have certificates when you don’t
Contact Page
Make sure to have a contact page with the below listed items and linked in the footer of all pages.
Physical business address (Virtual Offices or PO Boxes or Distribution centers are generally not allowed)
Telephone number
Email address (same domain as website)
Contact form
Contact Hours (even for online businesses)
Also add the physical business address, telephone number and email address in the footer of all pages. And if possible also your business registration number.
Make sure to also add your exact same business address in Google Merchant Center > Wrench > Business Information > About Your Business
Do not add FAQ’s to the contact page, separate this on a FAQ dedicated page.
Footer Links
Make sure the below links are visible and accessible to anyone on a desktop, tablet or smartphone.
Payment Methods
Clearly show with image icons in the footer of the page which payment methods you accept on all pages. Also, add the same info written in the terms and conditions page.
Delivery / Shipping Page
Add a delivery page with your handling time, estimated delivery time, pricing and warehouse location. Make sure to write the information clearly, and can be easily read.
Link this page in the footer of all pages.
Terms and Conditions Page
This is a rather technical page and should be written by professionals / lawyer. Some eCommerce platforms such as Shopify have a template available for you to use.
Link this page in the footer of all pages.
Privacy Policy Page
This as with the terms and conditions page is a technical page and should be written by professionals / lawyer.
Link this page in the footer of all pages.
Disclaimer
A disclaimer is used primarily to notify or warn users of the limit or the extent to a website’s liability to a user if there is a legal action.
For example, if you have a disclaimer that states you are not liable for any issues a user may have when they click on a third-party link on your site and a user does end up having an issue, that disclaimer can protect you.
Disclaimers are a key way a website can prevent potential future liability from the use of their site or errors and omissions on the site. Any website or app should have disclaimers for protection, but they are highly recommended for ecommerce sites.
Including these statements can protect an ecommerce store from any issues in shipping, returns, refunds, third party partners, or affiliates. Ecommerce stores are unique because people often rely on these websites to not have issues. However, sometimes things do happen and disclaimers act as safeguards against this.
People sometimes confuse disclaimers with other agreements on a website, such as a Terms of Use or a Privacy Policy. While including all of these is essential to protect your site, disclaimers do offer something different.
Returns Page
Do not merge the return info into the refund policy page. I recommend creating a separate page just for the return policy. I received an email from Google suggesting this to be best practice.
The return policy should be based on the delivery day. Not purchase day. The reason is that an item could theoretically be in transit beyond the refund policy days, meaning a consumer can never return the goods. In this case, it is considered dishonest. So make sure it is based on the delivery date.
Under what circumstances you offer a return. For each of the listed items below, you need to explain what happens for each scenario.
Explain the initial steps a user must take to initiate a return, such as do they need to call you, do they email you or do they need to submit a contact form?
Also explain what documents they need to show and if they need to take a picture of the product.
Also explain the complete steps to initiate a return, such as an address, email process, what info they need to give you, etc.
Do not mention things you don’t sell. For example you mention VHS or flowrs, you don’t sell this? This policy page seems to be a copy paste from somewhere else. You need to write a professional policy page. To do this, contact a lawyer or policy professional.
In short, provide as much information a client needs to understand the full process of a return.
Refund Page
Separate the return policy info from the refund policy. And have this linked in the footer of all pages.
Under what circumstances you offer a return. For each of the listed items below, you need to explain what happens for each scenario.
Explain when your user can expect a refund.
The refund policy should be based on the delivery day. Not purchase day. The reason is that an item could theoretically be in transit beyond the refund policy days, meaning a consumer can never return the goods. In this case, it is considered dishonest. So make sure it is based on the delivery date.
Explain the initial steps a user must take to initiate a refund, such as do they need to call you, do they email you or do they need to submit a contact form?
Also explain what documents they need to show and if they need to take a picture of the product.
Explain the complete steps to initiate a refund, such as an address, email process, what info they need to give you, etc. It only explains this for exchange, not for refunds.
In short, provide as much information a client needs to understand the full process of a refund.
Remove User Based Modifications
Remove all IP, browser, user modifications. Such as automated currency conversions or changing the website content or design. All users must see the same exact info, regardless of where they are located.
Checkout
Allow for guest checkout and do not force customers to accept terms and conditions.
The checkout requires the following policies linked from the footer of the page.
Read All Policies
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265
https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6015406#:~:text=Sensitive%20events
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9811449
https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020954
Complete All Google Merchant Center Settings
Complete all the settings found in the top right corner > gear icon >
Verify Phone Number
You also need to verify your business phone number.
You can verify your phone number by going to GMC > Gear Icon > Business Information > About your business
Advertise Only Products Google Allows
Make sure you sell what Google allows: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970
Submit Accurate Product Identifiers
When submitting product identifiers the following rule applies.
If a manufacturer has assigned a bar code, then submit brand, mpn (if available), GTIN and set identifier exists to yes.
If the manufacturer has not assigned a bar code, then remove the values brand, mpn, gtin and set identifier exists to no.
References:
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324351
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324461
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324482
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324478
Resolve Disapproved Products
Ensure all products don’t have any errors or warnings. To check go to Google Merchant Center > Products > Diagnostics
Remove Disapproved Products
If you had disapproved products before receiving the suspension and you are not able to resolve the individual product disapproval, then remove the products from the feed.
Accurate Shipping & Tax Settings
Ensure in Google Merchant Center you have accurate shipping and tax settings. You can test the shipping and tax prices on individual products by going to Products > All Products > click on your product > scroll to the center of the page.
This needs to be accurate so double check your product information page.
Structured Data
Ensure that the SKU in the structured data matches the product id in the data feed submitted to Google Merchant Center.
To check the id in feed, go to Google Merchant Center > Products > All Products > and view the Item ID column. These values need to match with the SKU in the structured data.
Double check you have no errors here: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
Promotions
Offering a promotion or discount that does not exist.
Not Adding Accurate Product Information
Make sure you add accurate product information and that you follow Google’s editorial guidelines.
Excellent resourse @EmmanuelFlossie - thanks for sharing, so many people will find this helpful.
Pleasure @Sara32
I need your help with the google everything. SEO, Google Merchant Account, Google Profile,Google Ads.
@Versatility1 You may reach out to me if you like, or if you have questions that you like to share feel free to ask.
Excellent resource thank you,
Our account is suspended due to misrepresentation and we have already change a big chunk of the site but still failed at an appeal. There is more on this list that we will work through, thank you. Do you offer personal services that could assist? Our site is https://jnr-studio.co.uk
Hello @JNR-Studio Yes I do. You can contact me by going to my website on the left of this post. just underneath my name. And navigate to the contact page. Thank you in advance.
Hello Emmanuel,
If I already closed my old-suspended MC account (targeting US), and my brother open a new MC account for me but targeting different country with different website.
Will the new MC account (that target different country & have different website) get suspended because of circumventing?
That is possible yes, you have to remember that Google is very smart and can easily cross reference accounts. However if you are lucky you might get away with it.
But I would not do this as a standard solution as the consequences are higher than the rewards.
Regarding reviews - how can a new shop get accepted if it's too new to have reviews?
If I have real reviews from a market place where sold these items, could I use them or is it not allowed?
Why do websites need business hours on the landing page? It's a website.
Thanks!
You can get accepted with no reviews, just if you are already suspended your trust factor is low. Thus requiring you to go the extra mile and do as best as you can to improve your trust factors.
You can collect reviews by advertising on other platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft, etc.
If a consumer wants to contact your business, they want to predict when they can receive a reply, this can be done by knowing the business hours.
Also business hours are standard industry practices.
Thank you so much for your answers.
May I ask another?
We submitted 1 product to the feed as a test. That product has inventory tracking. But many items in our shop are not currently being tracked. (We do print-on-demand. I have seen other POD stores being accepted so I'd like to think we can find a way.) Do we need to change the inventory tracking on everything in the store even though we didn't put them in the feed?
POD only is not allowed, reference: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127#:~:text=Unavailable%20promotions
If other merchants are doing this, they may be violating the policy or they only list products that are not POD on Google Shopping.
Ok so if I am understanding this correctly, the aliexpress reviews I have been paying for is one of the reasons why my account was suspended and that some policies needed to be separated that may get my merchant store reactivated. It is frustrating, to say the least, that i have been paying for alireviews for months, thinking that people would purchase from a site that has reviews. Why is shopify allowing this crap being sold on their platform? Also, can you check my website?
I totally agree with your thinking.
Yes having reviews does increase the reputable trust of your business. However not if they are fake. IE not collected from sales made on your website.
I think the issue is that technically there is no issue for Shopify to import reviews from anywhere, but of course, Google does not like this as it is not real.
For example you are not allowed to collect reviews by providing an incentive.
I recommend that you share your opinion directly with Shopify so they can look into the legality of the app and maybe update their policies and improve their platform.
If you like my assistance, please click on my website URL under my name and contact me. I am happy to look into your issues.
Thank you so much for being able to spell it out! I have had so many issues……. But I am going to try all of this. You are awesome and thank you for sharing! If I am having issues still, can I reach out to you for some help?
Absolutely. Have a nice weekend.
Our account was suspended due to the inaccurate tax information. What happened is that the tax setting kept being switched to Manual Setup when Shopify syncs the product feed to the merchant center. We are using the Shopify <> Google sales channel and I went through your checklist to make sure everything is setup correctly, however, that still didn't solve the issue. Do you know what might be the cause to this?
As far as I remember, the tax settings can not be disabled for automatic imports. Only shipping settings.
So make sure your shopify tax settings are correct to ensure it is submitted correctly to Google.
If you don't want automatic imports for tax settings, you need to use a different app.
Thank you so much for this, because it's genuinely been extremely helpful for me.
Pleasure
I assume it calls for having an belief into the actual code of your cutting-edge Shopify subject post, some genuinely easy tweaks can be supplied absolutely thru reading code from the real website without getting access to it here.
Thank you for the detailed guide much appreciated.
Hello, our account has been suspended due to mispresentation. We have already tried to fix this but Google keeps ban it. Could you please help me to figure out what is wrong? We have tried to contact support but they couldn´t help us. Here is the website: https://zuty.de/
Are your products in stock? Or is it print on demand?
They are in stock.
For example the address does not pinpoint on Google Maps where you are located.
Missing contact link in the footer.
Make sure all products have product identifiers if the manufacturer has assigned barcodes.
For the rest, I don't see anything obvious, so I recommend you check in more detail everything from your website, to the data feed and merchant center settings. You might of overlooked something.
Thank you! We will take a look into this.
Hello, my google merchant (google shopping) was actived and suspended after 2 days, i sent “request review” but it still suspended, can you review it and tell me what is the problem with my site? Thank you very much, my site is www.allyourneed.store
thank you
I could not see a business matching your details at the listed address. That would be one of the main issues.
Based on the way you have written things, I guess you are not located in the US. If so, it is best to be honest where you are as this will have a much higher success rate then pretending.
And I recommend you target first your native country, in your native currency and language. Then expand into other countries step by step once you are more established.
Thank you!!!
Please can you check mine. I have the same misrepresentation issue. The website is https://collectionsforher.com Thank you
I recommend you add your business details in the footer. For example, business address, email, phone, business hours.
As you are using a DBA, if you have setup multiple dba's Google may flag your account. As generally Google expect 1 business = 1 account / website.
Make sure to show if an item is in or out of stock on the product landing page.
These are just examples, so make sure to check the below policies and guides to find more issues:
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127?hl=en
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310/follow-the-merchant-center-guidelines
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/13693865
No that is fine, you can also say, no instore visits.
Hello. I currently have been having issues for 3 months now for misrepresentation. I’ve hired 2 different people to help me and they were both unsuccessful. My link is: mobilitynest.com. If you can please help me you will be a life saver
OK.
I'll look at it today
@Cheinz The main thing I noticed is that no business exist at the listed address. Considering Google can not find your business they flag it as misrepresentation.
I have not looked any further so you may have more issues. But the missing business such as on Google Maps is the main issue.
Hi @EmmanuelFlossie I have same issue and I try & try to address the issues but still have "Suspended account for policy violation" I wonder if you could pls check out my shop too? https://petfinity.shop/
As you are most likely drop shipping, this comes with an inherited disadvantage, and that is trust. Consider improving your business, such as original images and content.
Google generally suspends drop shippers that look the same as all the other drop shippers. So by having original content, this may increase your trust signals.
I also recommend building up trust by collecting reviews.
Hi there! I too have been having issues with the misrepresentation issue with google. We had the issue about 7 months ago and were able to get it resolved however as of last week it has came back. Have hired a person to help however they have been unsuccessful so looking to get some more assistance with this. We were an Etsy shop before hand and imported all of our reviews from there over to our website (this was done 2 months ago when we closed our Etsy shop) so I don't know if that could be the issue with our issue but I would have thought if it was then Google would have issued this suspension way back then. other than that, there is nothing that we can really find to tell us what would be going on. Our site is ElegantEternity.com and any help would be greatly appreciated. We've had a manual review done as well and they are also saying there are still issues however they are not telling us what the issues are.
Yes, importing reviews is not allowed. As they are not from sales made on the website, and will be a reason for suspension.
Remove all reviews, and start collecting reviews from sales made on the website.
Hi,
We are also having issues with misrepresentation and cannot seem to see what the issue is. We have gone through our website and would be grateful if anyone could shed any light. The address is www.kcathome.co.uk
Thanks in advance and any help would be greatly appreciated.
You have very weird pricing, nothing is rounded. This is ofcourse not a reason for suspension, but it's a sign of drop shipping, and thus you need to demonstrate you can deliver what you offer.
As there are hundreds of merchants doing the exact same thing as you, Google will want trust worthy merchants.
Consider working on your reviews.
Thanks so much Emmanuel. I will look into the pricing and get it more rounded. Hopefully that will help sort the issue 🙂
Hi Emmanuel,
We are rounding up the selling prices as we speak to make them better and working on the reviews. Is there anything else that you can see which might hinder us before we try to get approved again?
Many thanks
Lianne
Can you please tell me if you have solved your problem yet?
Still getting banned for misrepresentation and I'm at my wits end, would appreciate any feedback please.
Without knowing your website URL, I would not know be able to give feedback.
Thanks for the response Emmanuel! here is the URL: https://dataes.clothing/
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I recommend having a look at the checklist, as there are lots of fundamentals that you have not added yet. For example look at the part where I explain the Footer links.
Also make sure you are not POD, print on demand is not supported by Google: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127#:~:text=Unavailable%20promotions
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