Google Merchant Center - "Website Needs Improvement" and "Misrepresentation".

[SidekickCamera]

Hey Everyone,

I've had a nightmare of a time trying to get Google Shopping ads running for my Shopify site - https://sidekickcamera.com/

All of our products were approved in Google Merchant Center, but about one day after the start of our Google Shopping Ads campaign our GMC account was suspended for "Website Needs Improvement."  I reached out to Google support almost every day for several weeks and got the same copy and paste response.  Finally I was able to talk to someone helpful who reviewed the site with me and they confirmed that everything looked good and as soon as my GMC cooldown period was over they would push through our account (they put their name in my help ticket and said to get it sent to them).  I reached out to Google again once the cooldown was over and none of the support techs were willing to forward the ticket to the helpful person I spoke with.

Since then I've continued to reach out to their support every day in the hopes of talking to someone that can help (I'm happy to make any necessary changes - I just need to know what they are) and each time they "send my case to the wider team" and I get sent an automated suspension e-mail in a day or two.  Today I went through this process again, but they changed my suspension to "Misrepresentation" from the initial "Website Needs Improvement" suspension.

Has anyone been through this and successfully gotten their account unsuspended?  I want to have a great website that meets all of their policies, but they provide zero tangible things that I can change to meet their policies.

Thanks!

[WhiteWater_Web]

Any more info on what the 'misrepresentation' was about - branding, country, etc?

Cheers.

WhiteWater Web

[SidekickCamera]

Thank you for your help!  Here is what it says - 

Based on the information available about your business, there is reason to believe that customers are being misled on Google. Review the Misrepresentation policy and make changes to your Merchant Center and/or online store.

Make sure your Merchant Center and online store follow the following best practices / guidelines

• Provide transparency about your business identity, business model, policies and how your customers can interact with you
• Promote your online reputation by showing reviews or highlighting any badges or seals of approval
• Use a professional design for your online store that includes an SSL certificate help_outline
• Provide information in the business information settings in your Merchant Center help_outline
• Follow SEO guidelines, improve your eligibility for seller ratings and match your product data in your Merchant Center with your online store

[WhiteWater_Web]

For starters, check out the 'branding' area of your Google Merchant Centre.

[SidekickCamera]

I just check the branding area and uploaded all of our logos/colors.  Thank you for the suggestion.

After reading this new suspension I checked out the Domain section of Shopify and it says "Your domain has too many A records."  I went to our domain provider and deleted the extraneous A record.  Could this potentially be throwing things off?

[WhiteWater_Web]

Yes, it certainly cannot hurt to have perfect DNS records/domain names, as associated with your Shopify store!

Do you have a Google Search Console profile setup, as well as GA4 too?

[SidekickCamera]

Yes, we do have a Google Search Console profile set up!  It looks like I haven't set up GA4 for this yet, could that be impacting things?

[EmmanuelFlossie]

There does not seem to be a business registerred under the name on the website for your business address. Make sure for example that you have a valid business.

For example register with BBB and Google Business Profile.

Missing availability status on the product landing page (in or out of stock)

Be careful with trademarked names, not sure if you will have issues with the name sidekick 

Make sure that the business name is consitent, sometimes you say sidekick, sometimes sidekick camera. Make sure it's all the same, both in images and text.

Make sure your email address is hyperlinked.

I am sure there are more issues, so have a look here: https://community.shopify.com/c/Ecommerce-Marketing/Checklist-Suspended-Google-Merchant-Center-Accou...

[SidekickCamera]

Thank you for your detailed response!  I will go through these right now and check out the link.

Our landing pages do have an out of stock tag for any item that we don't have available.  Is there something more required than what we already have? 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

I recommend you show both the availability for in stock and out of stock.

You can read the requirements here: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265

[SidekickCamera]

I wanted to provide a follow up to this in case there are any other sellers in a similar situation.  Our GMC account was finally approved!

It is unclear exactly what the issue was, but I think fixing the "Your Domain Has Too Many A Records" warning under Settings -> Domains menu was helpful.  I also hired someone on Upwork to do an audit and push through our account which could also have helped.

My recommendation to people in a similar situation is to consistently reach out to Google and to try multiple avenues of improving your website.  There are always little things that can be improved that may flag Google's system.

[fragrom]

Hi,

I am running into similar issue. Could you please let me know what you have done to fix it. Could you help with who did you hire to fix the issue? I would appreciate your kind advice. Our website Fragromance.co.uk

[SidekickCamera]

I'm sorry to hear that you are dealing with a similar issue.  I encourage you to keep trying everyday to reach Google support for more information and do everything you can to improve your website (speed, contact information, policies, etc).

Here is a video from the person that I used to help restore my account - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1UtDImJKLw

[manspacesuk]

Hi I have been through the exact same process, spent about 9 weeks working what I thought might need improving, getting the non descriptive response, finally that cleared and instantly I got a notification that my sight was violating a misrepresentation policy, but again NO indication as to what the issue is. It likes they are stopping spending money with them. The hours of wasted time, on our side and googles, why can't they just tell you what the issue is and remove the guessing games. 

They let you advertising through Googles Ads quite happily, but G Shopping. 

Do you know if you have to have a Ltd company for Google Shopping? I'm currently a sole trader, looking to move to a Ltd once I get going. 

Thanks 
Jason

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Sorry to hear you are suspended, Google is pretty brutal.

No, you do not need a LTD company to get approved on Google hopping.