Let’s start by clarifying two crucial concepts: product visibility and product status. You can find both in the Product section of Merchant Center under the All Products tab. Next to each product, there’s a column for visibility and another for status.
Product visibility determines where and how your products appear on Google, such as which countries or marketing methods to use. Product status, on the other hand, indicates whether a product meets Google’s policies and data quality standards and whether it has been approved to show in listings or ads. In the All Products tab, you can filter items by visibility, status, country, and marketing method to quickly assess potential issues.
Now, let’s uncover the most common culprits behind product disapprovals:
- Missing data – Forgetting to provide essential details like the title, description, price, or a clear image almost guarantees disapproval.
- Policy issues – Google enforces strict guidelines to ensure a safe and trustworthy shopping environment. Always make sure your products comply with these rules.
- Inaccurate data – Price mismatches between your website and Merchant Center listings are a common trigger for disapprovals.
- Technical issues – Broken links or incorrect formatting in your product data can also cause disapprovals.
Next, let’s talk about the Needs Attention tab – your command center for addressing product issues. Access it by navigating to the Product section and selecting Needs Attention. This tab provides a comprehensive overview of issues affecting your products at both the account and product levels. Each issue is displayed in a card format, clearly outlining the problem, its impact, suggested solutions, and links to relevant help articles.
You can filter and sort issues by various criteria, allowing you to prioritize and resolve them strategically. For eligible issues, the Request Review button is available to initiate a product or account review or to dispute a disapproval.
