Google Merchant Center Requirements Checklist (2026)

Most setup guides start with the feed. We start with the footer.

The reason is the misrepresentation policy. Google treats some violations, such as dishonest pricing, as egregious: the account is suspended on detection, with no warning. That is why we treat the site as part of the feed.

• 1. Contact information is easy to find

  A contact form, email, phone number or social business profile link. Google's Merchant Center guidelines accept any of these. A displayed address must be real.

• 2. A return and refund policy is published

  What the customer must do, the return window, when the refund arrives. Publish one even if you don't accept returns.

• 3. Policy pages are linked site-wide

  Returns, shipping, payment and terms sit in the footer, where reviewers look first.

• 4. Total cost is visible before payment

  Hidden fees or shipping costs (return shipping included) count as dishonest pricing.

• 5. Checkout works end to end

  A shopper can add to cart and pay on your site. Place a real test order on mobile.

• 6. One conventional payment method or more

  Credit card, debit card, invoicing or payment on delivery.

• 7. The store runs on HTTPS

  Google requires SSL wherever card numbers are collected. Serve the whole site over HTTPS anyway.

• 8. You sell the products directly

  No affiliate or pay-per-click links to another seller. Approved Comparison Shopping Services are the exception.

• 9. One language from site to feed

  The site, the product data and the registration language match. Each language gets its own data source.

• 10. The site is live and finished

  No pages under construction, parked domains or broken templates, per the Shopping policies.

Two Shopify traps

Shopify's Google & YouTube channel wants your refund policy and terms added under Settings > Policies and linked in the footer with the Policies link type. A refund policy built as a normal page fails the check.

The channel also asks you to confirm your contact details, because it can't detect them. Shopify warns that Google can suspend the account if you confirm requirements you don't meet.

This is the part of Google's product data specification that decides approval.

• 20. Every variant has its own GTIN

  Two items sharing a GTIN and the same variant attributes in one country and language is an error (Google).

• 21. No guessed identifiers

  Google's rule: unsure of a GTIN, don't submit one. Private label uses brand plus mpn. More on when you need a GTIN and what to do without one.

• 22. Titles lead with what the product is

  Product type and the defining attribute first. Google rewrites weak titles.

• 23. Descriptions describe the product

  Materials, dimensions, fit, use. Plain text, no shipping or store info.

• 24. Images pass the rules

  JPEG or WebP, under 16MB, no overlays or borders (Google).

• 25. product_type mirrors your catalog tree

  "Women > Jackets > Waterproof Shell". It drives campaign structure.

• 26. Apparel attributes are words

  color: slate blue, not a code; size as printed on the page.

• 27. Optional fields that answer questions are filled

  material, pattern, product_highlight, product_detail. Optional for approval, important for matching.

Where we spend less time than most guides

Many checklists say to map google_product_category by hand. Google assigns one to every product automatically, and the attribute is optional outside a few cases such as Ads targeting or alcohol (Google). We'd rather spend that time on titles and identifiers. If you do set it, go two to three levels deep; we explain how to map your catalog to Google's product taxonomy step by step.

The same fields feed Meta and AI channels too. Our product feed optimization guide covers each channel, and if you are choosing software to run them, we compare the best feed management tools for Google and Meta ads.

• 35. Needs attention reviewed weekly

  Products > Needs attention. Fix the largest groups of affected items first.

• 36. Diagnostics cleared

  Fix, then Request review. Reviews typically take 3 to 7 business days; account warnings run 28 days (Google).

• 37. Refresh rate matches price changes

  Scheduled fetches or the Merchant API. Daily at minimum if you run frequent promotions.

• 38. Content API integrations are migrated

  Google sunset the Content API for Shopping on August 18, 2026, with progressive errors from September 1 (Google for Developers). Old plugins may still call it.

• 39. New products are checked before upload

  GTIN, brand and images on the import file, before Google sees them.

• 40. Seasonal shipping and returns are updated

  Holiday cut-offs and return windows, then back to normal.

• 41. Conversational attributes where useful

  question_and_answer, related_product, variant_option and three more. Optional, best sent via a supplemental data source; they don't affect approval (Google).

• 42. Titles match what shoppers type

  Check search terms against titles each quarter. The Merchant Center guide covers title structure.

Why this matters beyond approval

Free listings can appear in Search, Images, Lens, YouTube, Maps and Gemini (Google). In AI Mode, the assistant answers from the data and settings you configured above, return policy and shipping speed included.

"Waterproof" and "3-layer" come from the title and attributes. The delivery time is your shipping policy; the free returns are your return policy.

That's the idea behind Agentic Commerce Optimization: the data that gets you approved is the data AI agents use to choose.