Synthetic Industry

Collection · updated 2026-10-11

Merchant Center products flagged: work through account, file, price, stock, images and review in order

An ordered process map for flagged Shopping products: separate account-level issues from item issues, then fix file fetch and format, price and availability, images and identifiers, then plan the refresh route and review.

1. Is it the account or the items?

Read the message. An account-level suspension, a misrepresentation review or a policy notice is not fixed by editing product data, and changing prices to chase it can make things worse. Item-level issues are what the rest of this order handles. If the account message is the only problem, follow Google's account route.

2. Can Google fetch the file?

If the data source's report shows a failed fetch, nothing at item level can be seen. Check the address, access, redirects and schedule. The scheduled fetch guide covers it; the fixed job is merchant-center-feed-file-fetch-processing-errors, £245.

3. Can Google read the file?

File-level errors in the latest-update report come from format, header, tabs, XML escaping, tag case, extension, compression or encoding. The file format guide covers each. Compare the items read with the rows in your file.

4. Do price and availability match the page?

For each flagged product compare feed, page, checkout and markup for the same country and variant. Tax inclusion, stale feeds, variants, sale prices and stock changes explain most mismatches. The guides on price and on availability and refresh timing cover them; the fixed job is merchant-center-price-availability-mismatch, £345.

  • Correct the data, resubmit, then request a review; a failed review starts a waiting period.
  • A fresh crawl after a fix usually takes one to two days according to Google's page.

5. Are the images acceptable?

Image issues are type, size, address, access and content. The image guide separates them, and the generic address-check guide shows how to classify links before products reach the feed. For flagged images in the file you send to Merchant Center, the work sits inside merchant-center-clear-disapproved-items, from £1,900, which checks addresses, types and sizes and lists pictures that need replacing, such as overlays or placeholders, as needing your action. If the bad addresses arrive in a supplier feed that you import, the fixed job is feed-image-url-validation-before-import, £345; it cannot judge overlays or placeholders.

6. Identifiers and categories

Brand, product identifiers and category values are separate fault families. For Shopify products rejected for missing brand identifiers, the existing fixed job shopify-merchant-brand-identifier covers it; do not invent identifiers.

7. Plan the refresh route, then the watch

Once the data is right, keep it right: a written refresh route so price and stock changes reach the feed within a stated time, then a regular look at diagnostics. For a defined body of flags with several causes, merchant-center-clear-disapproved-items starts from £1,900 after a quote; to watch a data source month by month, merchant-center-keep-feed-approved is £295 a month. Prices are untested proposals, and payment follows the agreed checks and your sign-off. Nothing is booked or charged by an enquiry. Google's review and recrawl timing and decisions are its own, and approval is never promised.

Sources and limits