Google Sales Channel, Merchant Center, Structured Data & Shopify

Shopify Apps

Topic summary

Goal: Use Google Merchant Center (GMC) “website crawl” to ingest JSON-LD structured data from Shopify product pages for ads and free listings.

Current status: The crawl option doesn’t appear, even after removing the main Content API feed. Structured data validates in Google and Schema.org tools, but may not be “qualified” for GMC.

Key conditions shared: Crawl becomes available only if (1) valid structured data is detected and (2) no other active feeds exist. Checks advised: structured data completeness, no existing feeds, GMC account not suspended, robots.txt not blocking Googlebot. Google’s automated feeds documentation linked; contacting Google support suggested.

Important caveats: The web crawler is slow and limited (delayed updates, incomplete product ingestion). A professional feed app was recommended; OP tested one and found it insufficiently customizable (can’t treat items as “books” instead of “products,” can’t include product ratings), and not cost-effective.

Clarifications: In GMC, all listings are “products”; use category/product type to identify books. Product ratings are not accepted in the product data feed; use a separate product review feed connected directly to GMC via a supported review platform.

Outcome: Unresolved. OP intends to use Content API as the main feed and a crawl feed as supplemental; expert requested more details to advise further.

Summarized with AI on February 6. AI used: gpt-5.
8

To understand what you are trying to do can you provide more info?

First of all I can’t change the entries to books instead of or addition to products

All listings will be products, only two fields help identify the product type, this is category and product type, which can be set to correctly identify what you sell. However I’m unsure what you are trying to do. Please provide more details.

and second of all I can’t route it to pick up information about my product ratings.

Yes, that sounds correct in terms of the product data feed. You will not be able to pull this data as Google does not accept it.

However, if you mean product review feed, then the app I think is limited to a few review platforms. The best option is to directly link it up to Google merchant center, to know if your review platform supports this, reach out to the support team.

The questions above, is for me to understand what you are trying to do. As I manage feeds day in and day out, I like to learn what people are trying to do.