Why did Merchant Center say my website needs improvement?

Direct answerMerchant Center disapproves Shopping listings when the store is hard to use, hard to trust, or hard to buy from. The editorial and professional requirements for Shopping, reviewed October 20, 2026, name broken pages, a parked domain, missing contact details, a missing return policy, a login wall, and a checkout the shopper cannot finish.

Read the label

Google sorts the failures into six groups.

• Website needs improvement. The site is not fully functional, lacks business-specific content, or shows incomplete product details. Examples: broken navigation, missing policy pages, placeholder text, placeholder images.
• Site inaccessible. The landing page or domain does not host the products. Examples: an expired domain, a host that is down, a 404 or 500, or a parked domain that is a placeholder, an ad-filled directory, or a generic search listing.
• Insufficient contact information. A core method such as a valid email or phone is missing, or the details on the site contradict Merchant Center.
• Missing return and refund policy. The page is empty, the conditions are incomplete, or the refund terms are hard to find. Google says to include timeframes, return methods, shipping fees, and refund processing cost and times.
• Login required. People must register to look at products or prices. Pop-ups and full-page ads that block the products are included. A site that requires an app or browser extension to open the product page is included.
• Users cannot complete purchase. Add to cart, Buy now, or checkout is broken. Checkout that forces a non-standard field, such as a business registration number or VAT ID, for an ordinary purchase is the other example.

A Google Ads label that the crawler could not open the URL is destination not working. A destination that is blocked in the targeted country is destination not accessible. A parked page with no unique store is also close to insufficient original content. The return policy, the contact match, and the VAT-ID checkout are this Merchant Center page.

This Shopping page does not print a 7-day suspension warning. Do not copy that clock from a different policy.

What to change, then what gets reviewed

1. Fix the website so the page that failed now meets the requirement. Pop-ups have to be easy to dismiss. The store has to open in a normal desktop or mobile browser.
2. Remove offers that still point at the broken experience from the product data source. Google says you will get an email describing the violations.
3. Update the product data in Merchant Center, or wait for the scheduled upload, before you ask for a review.
4. If you edited the product data, Google says those products are reviewed again automatically. If you removed the offers, it says no further review request is required.
5. If you disagree, use the appeal path. Some issues ask for a reason or documents. A bulk appeal exists for some policy issues when many offers are involved. Google does not say every issue qualifies.

A price in the ad that the cart does not honor is ecommerce price claims. A product type Shopping will not list at all is unsupported Shopping content.

Sources

• Google Merchant Center: Editorial and professional requirements

Reviewed October 20, 2026. Policies change. This is not legal advice.

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