Google Merchant Center Suspended - Misrepresentation & Broken Landing page

[tegusuk]

Hi,

My Google Merchant Center account got suspended due to Misrepresentation and Broken Landing Page. 

First my Google Ads account got suspended then I unsuspended it and requested review for my Merchant Center cuz it was suspended too cuz of Ads account. But after my review request it was suspended. And this is the reasons in my mail: 

"Your Merchant Center account is in violation of the following policies:

Broken landing page

DESTINATION URL DOWN (EDITORIAL AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS)

Usefulness
Google Shopping doesn’t allow the promotion of content that is unnecessarily difficult or frustrating to navigate."

www.tegusuk.com This is my website, what caused this suspension? I don't know which landing page it is about. 

I had removed some of my products from Merchant Center, Could it cause this broken landing page error? 

And my products on Merchant Center have the same info on my website. I've only a few categories, why should it be frustraitng to navigate?

I am open to any suggestions and help.

Thanks.

[tegusuk]

@Mattfemi Sorry I couldn't understand what you mean?

[tegusuk]

@Mattfemi Are you from Nigeria?

[tegusuk]

Then you must be from India or Pakistan because I blocked visitors from these countries. If you are not from any of these countries then I should disable the country blocker.

[tegusuk]

Can you please check it again? If you can see my store, I am open to any suggestions.

[tegusuk]

it is already mentioned above but here it is www.tegusuk.com 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Misrepresentation refers to trust related signals about your business.
 
For instance, inconsistencies may arise when the actual physical location of your business aligns differently from the information provided on your website, Google Merchant Center settings, public social media profiles, or other connected accounts. All these details must align and reflect the physical reality of your business.

Be clear about your business modle and how you operate.

Operating your business in one geographic region while asserting that the corporate entity is based in a different jurisdiction.

Not providing an official business name and not having this matched accros the web.
 
The practice of setting up a virtual address or business in a location where your company does not operate is a typical example of misrepresentation.
 
Additionally, the overall quality of your website can be a form of misrepresentation. Therefore, it's essential to improve your website and populate it with original, high-quality content and not to copy-paste information from other websites.

Not including social links such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
 
Trust indicators such as your Google Business Profile, Better Business Bureau (BBB) accreditation, and genuine customer reviews are critical to fostering a sense of legitimacy and reliability.

Show certificates from offiical 3rd party sources.
 
Neglecting to include essential policies such as shipping, returns, privacy in the footer of your website can lead to misrepresentation. Instead, ensure all necessary policies are articulated and accessible to users for transparency and compliance.

Another example of this could be advertising a discounted price for an item, even though the product has not been sold at its alleged original price in recent history.

Copying content from other websites, including details items such as "About Us" pages or policy statements, is regarded as misrepresentation. 

Not having an original authentic about us page.

Failure to maintain inventory or lack of knowledge regarding stock quantity levels.

Missing or limited contact method.

Do not have any placeholder text or images.

Do not have any redirects or broken links.

If you have published a blog post, make sure customers can read the article.

Any discrepancy on your website or in your Google Merchant Center account that deviates from absolute truthfulness can be perceived as misleading, which could potentially be the reason for suspension.

[AmandaJansen]

Thanks for the Awesome information!

[tegusuk]

@EmmanuelFlossie Thanks. When I read your suggestions I checked them for my store and potential problems are like:

- Overall quality of my website is a relative term. Is my website quality or not? How can I understand that?

- I've not made any sells so I can't add any customer reviews, ratings. How can I overcome this problem?

- I wrote my policy pages with Shopify's examples. Is it a problem?

- About inventory, since I couldn't sell anything, I've no problem with my inventory but should I show somehow that they are all in stock?

- And I've same kind of products like T-shirts with different designs. All the product details except the design are the same. Does it effect? If so, what should I do?

- I use Shopify's AI description generator, could it cause "copy content from other websites"?

- And my other suspension reason is Broken Landing Page but I've no broken page. But I use an app to prevent visits from Nigeria, India and Pakistan but I display my products for both Merchant Center and Google Ads in only USA. Should I disable the country blocker?

Thank you very much. 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

@tegusuk When I look at your website, the main thing I see is that google will assume you are print on demand, which will violate this policy: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127#:~:text=Unavailable%20promotions

With regards to the quality of the website, I would say this is good. Nothing stands out of the ordinary.

To get reviews, you can sell via other marketplaces such as Facebook, Microsoft or even the classic SEO.

I would use a websites such as https://termly.io/ for writing policies

The only way to show you have them stock is by having a track record of reviews.

I would have unique content for each product, otherwise Google will see this as a generic landing page.

Using AI is not a problem, as long as the details presented is grammaticly correct, correctly describes your product.

Yes blocking countries is an issue, you can not block countries from accessing your website, this will also be a reason for suspension.

[tegusuk]

@EmmanuelFlossie  To be honest, I use Printify to upload products to my Shopify store. Is it against Google poicies? If so, can I overcome it by getting customer reviews as you mentioned above or should I do something else?

Different content for each product: I sell same products with different designs. I try to write different description for each designs but their titles, URLs and meta descriptions are similar cuz of the character limitations and cuz they are the same product actually. And the product details like raw material, package type etc. are the same. Are all of these against Google policies? Should I sell only one product from each category? What should I do?

Could you please check these two pages? Do they look the same, generic or are they ok?

https://tegusuk.com/products/skull-and-leaves-cotton-unisex-t-shirt 

https://tegusuk.com/products/gothic-skeleton-girl-cotton-unisex-t-shirt 

And how many times can I request for review and appeal for unsuspension, are there any limits?

Thanks a lot.

[EmmanuelFlossie]

quote: Promoting products that are not stocked

Reference: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127#:~:text=Unavailable%20promotions

The above should answer your question.

The generic landing page error, is very new, so I don't have any further info other then, make sure it is not the same. The generic landing page error started a month ago, and I am not sure why it is all of a sudden starting to show. 

Most likely Google created a new AI bot to check for generic content.

[CaliCityApparel]

You mentioned POD violates a policy, providing a link.  I went to that link and didn't see anywhere it says POD is a policy violation.  Please clarify.  

I have a site - CaliCityApparel.com - that has been suspended with no clear directions on how to fix.  They tell me there is a problem, yet don't tell me what the problem is or how to fix it.  That is mind numbingly ridiculous.  How can I fix a problem, when you don't tell me what the problem is?  I'm not here to play guessing games.  Tell me what the problem is and I'll be more than happy to immediately fix said problem.  Why is that so hard for Google to outline what the problems are so we can fix them?  What a big waste of so many people's time. JUST TELL US THE PROBLEM!

[EmmanuelFlossie]

When reading policies, it is recommended not to read at face value.

For example, Google says products must be in stock.

Quote: Promoting products that aren't stocked, promoting a deal that is no longer active, call-to-action in promotion that isn't easily achievable from the landing page.

Considering print on demand as a finished product is not in stock, that would violate this policy.

But you can read it however you like, I am merely sharing my experience.

Nobody, will get any help from Google when they are suspended, regardless who you are.

The reason Google does not help is because there are lots of bad actors, and since 2020, Google does not share details to avoid these bad actors from learning how to circumvent policy violations.

It's unfair for the honest merchant, I know.

[CaliCityApparel]

Thanks for your response. Yes, it's super frustrating. They're taking out the honest guys, just to try to curb the bad players. Astonishing.

[demandconvert]

If you guys can figure this thing out, that would be great. I believe Google doesn't approve Dropshipping website or PODs. I've been going through it for over 3 months. Luckily we still have Meta/Instragram Catalog ads and TikTok. Build an audience, collect emails to your newsletter and use Klaviyo to send timely promotional emails. I hope everyone uses ChatGPT to get information and stop using Google. F them.

[CaliCityApparel]

Yeah, it's interesting b/c we have another website that is mainly POD (99%), with about 10 other products that are not POD (i.e., a very small percentage of overall products), yet have not run into any GMC acct suspension issues with that domain.

With this new site, we were running for a bit on GMC, but then we changed our domain name (a rebrand) and after that is when we hit the suspension issues. So I'm not sure they're totally against POD, but they def don't like domain name changes - as they were labeling us as misrepresentation. A learning experience - don't change your domain name. Had no idea it would be so damaging to the GMC presence. Surprising and pretty lame really.

I'm with you on F Google. Gotta use the other channels until they stop taking out the honest guys to stop the bad guys.