Google Shopping displays my products for only 3 hours per day!

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1

I’ve been using Google Merchant for over a year and never had any products expire. However, in March 2024, Google Merchant started showing that some of my products were expiring within 3 days. I found a solution to push data from Shopify to Google to refresh all the products so they wouldn’t expire. I just changed the shipping settings from manual to automatic and then back to manual within 15 minutes. The expiring products refreshed, and everything was fine.

There were no issues until the end of May. Products were about to be expire again. I changed the shipping settings again, but this time I kept them changed for more than 1 hour. After setting them back, Google stopped showing my products in Google Shopping. Support told me to wait 24-48 hours. Yesterday, my products reappeared in Google Shopping, but only for 3 hours before disappearing again. Today, it happened again. Sometimes my products appear in Google Shopping, sometimes in the main Google Search with the field that shows products from Google Shopping, and sometimes on both pages. This all happens within 3 hours.

Everything in GMC is fine. I use free listing ads.

Can someone explain to me why this is happening?

2

Hello,

If you create a support request with Google support within the application, they will help you.

Best // Shopiuzman

3

Products can expire if the feed isn’t updated every 30 days.

The second main reason is the [expiration_date] field in the product attributes. If the expiration date is within 3 days of the current date, it’ll expire. If you’re updating your product data daily, it’s okay to set short expiration dates but the products will be shown as “expiring” in your account.

4

Most likely the reason for dropping is due to disapprovals. For example if the shipping settings where deleted due to your actions, then the products will be disapproved due to no shipping details.

I am guessing you are using the google and youtube app, this is honestly not a great solution.

Depending on the data feed solution you are using, you may want to change to something else, for my clients I use: https://apps.shopify.com/multiple-google-shopping-feeds

5

I’ve been using the free Google and YouTube app for almost 14 months, but I only faced the expiring product issue in March, and then again at the end of May. However, the expiration issue is not the problem right now. The problem is why Google shows my products only for 3 hours per day?

6

hi,

did you solve the problem?

Thanks

7

Your products are not “showing only 3 hours.” Google is repeatedly re-evaluating eligibility because the feed sync is unstable after manual shipping changes.

Real issue: when you switch shipping settings back and forth, Shopify’s Google channel sends partial re-sync signals. Google Merchant Center temporarily accepts products, then another validation cycle runs and removes them from surfaces if shipping/feed freshness/data mismatch is detected. That’s why they appear, then disappear.

100% real fix:

  1. Stop changing shipping settings manually. Do not use shipping toggle as a refresh trick again.

  2. In Google Merchant Center, open Products > Diagnostics and Account issues. Check:
    shipping missing
    price mismatch
    availability mismatch
    policy warnings
    pending items

  3. In Shopify, verify every product has:
    correct price
    in stock status
    GTIN/MPN/Brand if available
    same shipping cost/time as Merchant Center
    no draft/archived variants

  4. Reconnect the Google & YouTube app properly:
    disconnect Merchant Center
    clear old linked account
    reconnect same GMC account
    force full product resync

  5. Wait 3 to 7 days after clean sync. Google Shopping visibility is not instant and rotates by relevance.

  6. If still unstable, move to a dedicated feed app. Shopify free Google channel is basic and sometimes sync delays happen.

Important truth: Free listings are never guaranteed 24/7 placement. Google ranks by trust, data quality, price competitiveness, demand, and feed health. But if products vanish daily after exactly few hours, that usually means feed/account validation issue, not ranking.

Most likely in your case: temporary shipping edits created inconsistent account-level shipping data, so products keep passing then failing checks. Rebuild shipping settings once, resync once, then leave it untouched.

8

Go to product sitting attributes and remove the expiration date. go to products and just below, there is an option for variant, and just below their is section for products attributes, if still not find it, select all the products in the product pages, and click on bulk edit, after all edit you will find their in the column and select the expire date.