6 Most Common Errors in Google Merchant Center

One of the most-used channels for e-commerce is Google Merchant Center. Although it is advanced and usable, it is possible to encounter errors from time to time. In today's blog, we will look at these errors, their causes, and solutions. It should not be forgotten that one of the most important causes of these errors is feed.

It is possible to encounter an infinite number of different errors, but today we will take a closer look at the 6 most common errors.

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1- Non-compliance with Google Policies

Google has restrictions on some products or product specifications that you should take into consideration. These restrictions might apply because of inappropriate images, the promotion of products that can be considered dangerous like guns, firecrackers, and that are restricted by governments such as liquors.

Re-check your feed and remove these forbidden and restricted items and check the regulations of the country that you are planning to sell. Sometimes product descriptions and images might cause violation so removing or changing them would be a good idea, too.

You  might come across “Pending Initial Review” after renewing your feeds and correcting all the errors. Give some time to Google to review your products again, it might take up to 3 business days.

2- Inappropriate product titles, descriptions, and images

The first thing that your customers are interested in is titles and then descriptions. That’s why it is really important to be careful when it comes to picking the best fit. Your titles might be long (more than 60 characters) and your descriptions might have some promotional texts. These might cause you to encounter errors.

Review your feeds and check Google’s guidelines. If you have lots of products that need to be corrected, it means that you need a feed management tool.

3- Out of stock products and Incorrect Price

This error is about unmatched prices with your website and feeds. Google is being sure that your prices are the same everywhere. If you are using sale price on Google but not your website, that will cause an error.

First be sure that your feeds are fresh and updated frequently (as your prices and stock levels change consistently) and next time you can try to use “Sale price effective date”. With this attribute,  you can tell Google how long you want to show your sale price to users.

4- Inappropriate Google Product Categories

Google uses Google Product Categories to analyze your product better and to show to the right customer who might be interested in your product. Uploading your feed with wrong categories, will not cause an error in GMC, but performace of your ads will decrease.

To solve this problem, you should detect wrong categories and products that do not have categories at all. After that, you should fill these categories according to Google requirements. You can find more information and examples here.

5- Missing or Invalid GTINs

GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is really important to detect a product. As a requirement, you should provide this information if your product is new. Google uses this number to categorize products correctly. If you are missing GTINs or they are invalid, your ads still will be visible but performance of your ads will decrease.

Make sure that you are providing accurate GTINs for all your products. If it is needed, you can also create GTINs. Also, do not forget to check the Google guide for GTINs.

6- Targeting different countries with one domain

If you are targeting different countries with the same data, it is inevitable to have errors. Your product feed should be proper for the country that you are targeting. These mistakes might be happening because of not proper local currencies, titles, and descriptions in the local language. Also, your website might not be matching with local details.

Make sure that you have different feeds for each country that you are targeting. It will allow you to manage each feed depending on the local requirements and this flexibility enables picking the best strategy for each country. Having different sub-domains of the website for each country is another solution that should be kept in mind.

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As it is mentioned earlier, there are lots of problems that you may encounter. These 6 common errors will create a path for you to check your feed. If you need more information and support about your feeds, do not hesitate to reach us!

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