Google Merchant Center moderation checklist

• The site complies with Google Merchant Center policy:
  • Merchant Center guidelines
  • Shopping ads policies
• Your niche and product range do not conflict with the rules on prohibited content or prohibited business activity.

Single-language site

• Every page — home, payment, returns, shipping, contacts — is in one language. Mixing several languages at once is not allowed.
• Category, product and filter-page descriptions, meta tags and on-site banners are all in that same language.
• The product feed sent to Google is in one language.

Several language versions

A sloppy machine translation, or the same untranslated content served on two language versions, is what triggers a misrepresentation suspension.

• Language versions are linked to each other with hreflang.
• The home page and every static page reachable from the menu — payment, shipping, returns and the rest — is genuinely translated on each language version.
• Category, product and filter-page descriptions, meta tags and banners are translated on each language version. For Merchant moderation, a meta tag in the wrong language is worse than no meta tag at all.
• A separate feed for each language.
• On every page reachable from the menu the translation is current, and there are no empty categories or empty static pages.

• Discounted items also appear in a dedicated “Sale” section, make up no more than 10% of the catalogue, and rotate — one product stays on sale for six months at most.
• Everything in the feed is in stock, physically in the warehouse and ready to ship. Anything that isn’t is marked out of stock.
• Product pages carry only two statuses: in stock and out of stock. Never “made to order”, “ships in X days” or similar.
• Feed prices match the prices on the product page and the price charged at checkout.
• Made-to-order items are listed as in stock with a clearly stated delivery date.
• Products have a correct title, complete attributes and a real description.
• Every product has photos, and video wherever you can manage it.

• A paid SSL certificate.
• The XML sitemap is submitted in Search Console.
• Robots.txt links to sitemap.xml.
• The domain is older than six months.
• A working responsive or mobile version.
• A dedicated reviews page where a customer can actually leave a new review.
• Complete contact details: as many ways to reach the company as possible, including a real physical address.
• Shipping, Returns, Payment, Contacts, About us and Privacy Policy pages are filled in and linked from both the header and the footer.
• Meta tags are in the right language, with no duplicates and no empty Title or Description.
• Anything that can be added to the cart is in stock.
• Everything stated on the site is true — no false or impossible promises.
• No spelling mistakes on the static pages — translation slips especially — or in the content of any page reachable from the menu.
• Product photography is good quality, and products without a photo are pulled out of the feeds.
• 80%+ of pages are in the Google index.
• Pages load fast, LCP above all.
• Pop-ups and banners never cover the product information.
• No empty pages, particularly ones reachable from the menu.
• No malicious scripts or malware on the site.

• Online card payment exists, with fields for the 16 digits, expiry date, CVV and cardholder name.
• The payment method is literally named with the words “online” and “card”.
• A separate “Payment” page states that online card payment is available.
• Online payment is available for every shipping method, local pickup included.
• The cart total equals the amount the payment provider actually charges.
• Payment methods at checkout match the ones described on the static payment page.
• Payment methods at checkout match the ones described in the product description blocks.
• The checkout page links to the static payment page.
• Payment methods are correctly translated on every language version.
• Visa, Mastercard and the other card marks you accept are in the footer.
• After a successful card payment there is no message telling the customer a manager will get in touch.

If you have a minimum order value, state it on every product page and on the payment page (or the combined shipping and payment page).

• A dedicated “About us” page exists.
• Real company details: how long you have traded, the team, the specifics.
• A stated USP and your advantages.
• The story of the business and the problems it solves — this matters most for EU, US, CA, UK and AU targeting.

• A dedicated contacts page, linked from the header and the footer.
• The real registered address of the legal entity and of the store.
• A Google Business Profile that is verified or at least pending verification.
• A landline phone number, an email address and opening hours.
• A contact form with a stated response time.
• The details on the contacts page match the details in Google Merchant Center.

• A dedicated “Privacy policy” page.
• It spells out exactly what you collect, tracking tags included — Google Analytics, Meta Pixel and so on.
• It describes how you use that data: remarketing, email, SMS.
• For advertising in Europe: a separate “Terms and conditions” page, and tags that are genuinely blocked until the visitor consents.

• It says what you do and what the site sells.
• Internal links to the main categories.
• Current banners in the current language — if the page is in English, the banner artwork is in English too.
• A best-sellers block.
• Customer reviews.
• Copy about the company.

• Website ownership is verified and claimed.
• Business information is complete and identical to what the site says.
• Shipping is configured with at least one address delivery service that exactly matches the site.
• Brand colours and logo uploaded. Phone number verified by SMS and identical to the static number in the site footer.
• The feed — or feeds — are connected.
• Basic product errors are cleared: low-resolution images, missing attributes such as clothing size or colour, descriptions that run too long.
• All serious disapprovals are fixed, and anything you cannot fix is removed from the feeds.

• Products sat active in Merchant Center for 10 days without losing approval, and only then did you build Standard Shopping and PMax campaigns.
• If this is a new ad account after an earlier suspension, you added a brand-new payment method that has never been used in any Google service before.
• At least $100 was spent on other campaign types first — search, video, display, local — before anything Shopping-related went live.
• Standard Shopping and Performance Max were switched on only once that $100 of other spend had actually cleared.

• A “Shipping” page, or a combined “Payment and shipping” page, exists.
• Shipping and payment details are identical across every language version.
• The page states door-to-door delivery and nationwide coverage for the country you are advertising in, and the address form accepts postcode, region, city or town, village, street, building and apartment.
• No delivery exclusions inside the country you target.
• Every carrier that does address delivery is added in Merchant Center as its own shipping service.
• Delivery times, delivery cost and order handling time are written out.
• A shipping cost is stated for each individual method.
• You say that a tracking number is issued after purchase, so the customer can follow the parcel.
• Free shipping terms, if you offer them, read identically on the shipping page, at checkout, in product descriptions and in Merchant Center.
• International shipping is documented separately, with the details.
• The shipping page matches Google Merchant Center.
• The shipping page matches what the product page says.
• The shipping page matches the methods offered at checkout.

• A dedicated “Return and refund policy” or “Exchange and returns” page.
• It walks the customer through what to do to return an item.
• It lists the conditions a return has to meet, and which items cannot be returned at all.
• It states the return window, counted from the date the customer received the item.
• It says who pays for return shipping, and who pays if the seller cannot accept the item back.
• It says where to send the item and how the return label is generated.
• It states how long a refund takes and by which methods it is paid out once the claim is approved.
• Refunds back through the payment provider are offered.
• The exchange procedure is written out in full.
• Return terms match what you entered in Google Merchant Center.

If some or all of your products cannot legally be returned, publish that with the specific statutory citations and the exact product categories the exemption covers.