Diagnostics Analyzer for Google Merchant Center

How to analyze Google Merchant Center diagnostics

Google Merchant Center diagnostics list every product with a problem, but a long download is hard to act on. This analyzer groups the rows by issue, counts the products behind each one and attaches Google's fix and “How to fix” page, with disapprovals at the top. Issue names and severities follow Google's Issues in Merchant Center page.

1. Download the affected products. Go to Products › Needs attention, turn off the prioritized fixes toggle, and click the download icon.
2. Drop the .csv in. Google doesn't publish the column names of this file, so the analyzer finds the issue, product ID, title and impact columns by name. Check the matches and fix any that are wrong.
3. Read the fix plan. Issues are sorted by disapproved products first, then by how many products they touch. Each matched issue gets Google's fix in one line and a link to its help page.
4. Download the fix list. One row per product and issue, in priority order — hand it to whoever edits your store or feed.
5. Keep the summary. The issue summary file is a short to-do list for the team or a client update.

How issue names are matched

The analyzer knows 30 issues by their English names on Google's help pages, including older names such as “Limited performance due to missing identifiers” and close variants such as “Image too small for upcoming enforcement”. Matching ignores capitals and punctuation. Anything else — often policy issues or names in another language — is still grouped and counted, with a link to Google's issues page.

What to do next in Merchant Center

1. Fix at the source. Correct prices, GTINs, images or availability in your store or feed file, then upload or fetch the data source again. Google's fix pages describe this bulk route for most issues.
2. Or edit single products. In Products › Needs attention, click a product title, choose Edit product, change the value and save.
3. Check file-level errors. Under Settings › Data sources, open the source, then Latest update and Download report. It lists file issues with the line numbers of affected products.
4. Request a review where the issue offers one. Price and availability mismatches often need a website check after the fix.
5. Download again after a few days. Allow 24–72 hours, then run the new file through the analyzer and compare the counts.

Merchant Center issues and fixes you will see most

Mismatched product price

The price in your data doesn't match the price Google reads from the landing page. Googlebot checks the HTML your server returns, so prices filled in later by scripts can confuse it. Also check sale price dates and their time zone.

Missing or incorrect GTIN

Send the manufacturer's GTIN, or brand plus MPN. Use identifier_exists set to no only for products that truly have no identifiers, such as one-of-a-kind or vintage items.

Image too small

Google's minimum is 100 × 100 pixels (250 × 250 for apparel) today, and 500 × 500 becomes the rule for all products from January 31, 2027. Warnings named “for upcoming enforcement” are an early notice — fix them before they turn into disapprovals.

Product page unavailable

Google hit a 404, a server error, a broken redirect chain or a blocked robots.txt. Open the link from a clean browser and make sure it lands on the product, on your verified domain.

Missing shipping costs

Set up shipping in Products & store › Shipping and returns, or add a shipping attribute with its country to each product.

Misrepresentation

This is a policy issue, usually for the whole account. Make your business identity, prices, delivery and return terms clear on the website, then request a review.