Google Merchant - Website needs Improvement

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner faced a Google Merchant Center suspension after changing their domain and brand name in late 2024, despite being previously approved for 12 months. The suspension cited “Website needs improvement” with issues around domain matching, broken links, placeholder content, and product data accuracy.

Potential trigger: The problems began after adding multiple target countries in Merchant Center, possibly creating policy conflicts with country-specific regulations.

Identified issues:

  • Branded logos and watermarks on product images
  • Missing stock availability information on product pages
  • Hidden footer links in checkout (white text on white background)
  • Possible trademark/branding violations

Resolution steps taken:

  • Updated refund, terms, and shipping policies
  • Fixed broken pages and links
  • Removed all target countries except UK, Ireland, and Isle of Man
  • Addressed image and checkout visibility issues

A community member provided extensive Google Merchant Center compliance resources and specific technical fixes. The issue has since been resolved.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Hi everyone.

We’ve had our store open since January 2024. Since November-December time we changed our domain, and brand name.

Until then google approved us and everything was fine. Until we got an email from google notifying us of policy issues.

Tried everything, but still not approved.

Been Approved before for almost 12 months, and now suddenly out of nowhere denied.

There was a problem identified with your website. Update your entire website to provide a useful and transparent shopping experience for customers.

Make sure that your website meets the following requirements

  • Your website should have a domain name that matches the uploaded domain name

  • Your entire website shouldn’t have any broken links

  • Your website shouldn’t contain any placeholder images or text

  • The product details and categories should match those that you provide in your product data

  • Your website shouldn’t contain generic information and shouldn’t miss crucial information about products

    In shopify within our google and youtube and sales channel it also states this.

    Account suspended due to policy violation: Website needs improvement
    Go to Google Merchant CenterOpens in new window

    I’ve just made a bunch of changes to our refund, terms and shipping policies, I’ve fixed a bunch of broken pages and links that existed and now I can send another manual review after having to wait 4-5 days after submitting 2 reviews.

    HOWEVER before I do this, I want to make sure I’ve checked everything so I don’t have to wait another week. THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN GOING ON FAR TOO LONG AND WE ARE LOSING MONEY.

    One thing that we did which may have triggered this is select a bunch of countries in the merchant centre to expand our market, after that this is when we had these issues.

    Since then I have removed ALL of those countries and I’m only targeting the UK, Ireland and Isle of Man. Maybe possibly I tried to make these policies in our merchant and website available to all these countries which wasn’t applicable to each countries laws, which triggered a chain reaction of manual review.

    This is all I can think of, but that’s where it started, any help is greatly appreciated!

    WEBSITE LINNK - https://www.reinhartautohaus.com/

Make sure you are allowed to use the branded logos on your website.

Don’t have logos, watermarks, branding on your images. https://www.reinhartautohaus.com/products/masata-bmw-n13-f20-f30-aluminium-chargepipe-turbo-to-intercooler-pipe-114i-116i-118i-120i-316i-316li-320i-ed

Missing in or out of stock info on the product landing page.

All your links in the footer of the checkout are hidden. Make sure the font color for links is not white, like the background.

You will have more issues, so make sure to check:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-guide/304792695
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127
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
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150244
https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-guide/241068758

THIS ISSUE HAS NOW BEEN RESOLVED.
PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT US ON OUR WEBSITE OR EMAIL.
YOU WILL BE BLOCKED IMMEDIATELY FOR SPAM.

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