Home›Topics› Fix Google Shopping Feed Disapprovals
🛑 Disapprovals
Fix your Google Shopping disapprovals fast
Disapprovals cost you impressions, clicks, and revenue. Most Google Merchant Center disapprovals are caused by the same 10 issues. This guide covers every common UK disapproval type and exactly how to fix each one — with Trajekt handling most fixes automatically.
✓ Most disapprovals fixed automatically✓ Price mismatch detection✓ Image validation included✓ Missing field alerts
60%
of product disapprovals are caused by just 3 issues: price, availability, and image quality
24-48h
typical review time after fixing a disapproval and resubmitting
0
disapprovals Trajekt allows through from avoidable field issues
30 days
Google will expire products not refreshed — Trajekt prevents this
Features
Fix Google Shopping Feed Disapprovals
💰
Price mismatch fix
Trajekt logs warnings when your feed price may not match your website price. The most common cause of disapprovals — and fully preventable with daily feed updates.
🖼️
Image validation
Images under minimum size, with watermarks, or returning 404 errors are flagged before submission. Trajekt validates image accessibility automatically.
🔢
GTIN issue detection
Missing, incorrect, or non-numeric GTINs cause disapprovals. Trajekt validates barcode format and flags products that should have GTINs but don't.
📝
Required field check
Every required field is validated before feed submission. Missing brand, condition, or title fields are flagged with the specific product ID.
📅
Feed expiry prevention
Google expires products not refreshed within 30 days. Trajekt's scheduled refresh prevents expiry disapprovals automatically.
🔗
Landing page check
Products linking to redirecting or unavailable URLs are flagged. Trajekt validates that your product URLs return HTTP 200 before submission.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
The top 10 Google Shopping disapproval causes: 1) Price mismatch between feed and website, 2) Missing GTIN for products that should have one, 3) Low-quality or incorrectly sized product images, 4) Product URL returning a 404 or redirect, 5) Availability mismatch (feed says in_stock but website shows out of stock), 6) Missing required fields (brand, condition, description), 7) Mismatched title between feed and landing page, 8) Policy violations (prohibited products, deceptive content), 9) Expired feed (not updated in 30 days), 10) Invalid shipping or tax configuration.
A price mismatch occurs when the price in your Merchant Center feed differs from the price on your product page. Fix: ensure your feed updates daily to capture any price changes on your website. If using JavaScript to display prices, Google may not read them — use static HTML prices or ensure structured data (Product schema) matches your feed. Trajekt's daily updates prevent most price mismatch issues.
Common image disapproval reasons: image is smaller than the minimum (100x100px for non-apparel, 250x250px for apparel), image contains promotional text or watermarks, image has a coloured or complex background (for apparel), image URL returns a 404 or redirect, or image shows multiple products (not the single listed product). Fix each issue and resubmit the affected products.
A GTIN disapproval occurs when: you submit an invalid barcode format (GTINs must be 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits), your GTIN doesn't match Google's barcode database, or your product exists in Google's catalogue with a different GTIN. Fix: verify your product barcodes against the manufacturer's EAN. If your products genuinely have no barcode (custom/handmade products), set identifier_exists: no.
After fixing a disapproval and resubmitting your feed, Google typically reviews within 24-48 hours for most disapproval types. Policy-related disapprovals (prohibited products, misrepresentation) may take longer. Item-level fixes through Merchant Center UI can sometimes process faster than full feed resubmissions.
A mismatched title disapproval occurs when the product title in your feed significantly differs from the title on your product's landing page. Google crawls your landing pages and compares them to your feed. Fix: ensure your feed title matches your website's main product heading (H1) or product title. Avoid keyword-enriched feed titles that diverge significantly from your website titles.
Policy disapprovals are more serious than data quality disapprovals. Common UK policy disapprovals: prohibited products (weapons, adult content, counterfeit goods), unsafe supplements, misleading pricing or promotions, inadequate return policy disclosure, and alcohol advertising without compliance. Policy violations can result in account suspension — review Google's Shopping Ads Policies if you receive policy disapprovals.
Google expires products not refreshed within 30 days. To prevent expiry: set up a scheduled feed URL in Merchant Center that Google fetches at least every 30 days (we recommend daily). Trajekt's scheduled feeds prevent expiry automatically — as long as your feed runs successfully at least once per month.
Yes. In Google Merchant Center, go to Products > Diagnostics to see all disapprovals by issue type. You can filter by disapproval reason and use the "Fix" functionality for some issues. For feed-level fixes, correct the issue in your source data (via Trajekt rules) and resubmit your feed — Google will re-review all affected products.
Shipping disapprovals occur when your Merchant Center shipping settings don't cover the products in your feed. Fix: ensure your shipping settings in Merchant Center are configured for all the countries you're targeting in your feed. You can set up shipping in Merchant Center (Tools > Shipping and Returns) or include shipping in your product feed via the shipping attribute.
In Google Merchant Center: go to Products > All Products and filter by Status: Disapproved. Or go to Products > Diagnostics for a breakdown by issue type showing affected product counts. Trajekt's feed run logs also flag any field-level issues detected before submission.
Trajekt validates your feed against common disapproval causes before submission — price format, required fields, image accessibility, and URL status all checked automatically.