Your feed is uploaded, your products are sitting in Merchant Center and nothing is showing. Or worse, the Status column says “Not approved”. This guide is for new store owners waiting on a first review and for owners with disapproved products. By the end you’ll know what Google checks, how long Google says the first review can take, how to fix the problem and how to request a review. That’s the whole path to Google Merchant Center approval.
Approval comes down to three areas. Your account setup must be complete, your product data must match your website and your website must let a shopper add a product to the cart and check out[2][4]. Fix whatever Merchant Center flags, then request a review from the Needs attention tab[3].
Everything below follows the order you’d work in: diagnose, fix, check.
Step 1: Understand the five statuses
Open Products and look at the Status column. Merchant Center uses five statuses: Under review, Processing, Approved, Limited and Not approved[1].
- Processing: Google is reading your data. This may take up to 15 minutes[1].
- Under review: Google is still reviewing the product[1]. Keep your website online while you wait.
- Approved: Google has finished reviewing the product and it’s showing[1].
- Limited: a separate status from Not approved. Our guide to what it means is at https://oxfordimpulse.com/google-merchant-center-limited-status-meaning/.
- Not approved: the product can’t be shown[1].
Watch out
“Pending initial review” is not one of the five statuses in Google’s documentation[1]. If you see that wording elsewhere, look in your own Status column for one of the five.
Step 2: Finish the setup Google needs before it reviews anything
According to Google’s help documentation, before the review starts you need[2]:
- A data source for the country you’re targeting.
- A claimed and verified website URL.
- A verified business address.
- Shipping settings.
- Tax settings, if you’re selling in the US.
Go through your Merchant Center account and check each item is complete, not just started. If you haven’t set up your account yet, follow https://oxfordimpulse.com/how-to-set-up-google-merchant-center/ first. Identity verification matters later too, because the review request buttons can be inactive until it is complete[3]. Our guide to it is at https://oxfordimpulse.com/google-merchant-center-identity-verification/.
Step 3: Know how long the first review can take
When you upload products for the first time, Google reviews both your products and your website[2]. For Shopping ads, Google says this can take up to 3 to 5 business days, and it may be longer for other programmes[2]. Features such as free listings can take a few weeks[1].
Treat those as Google’s estimates, not guarantees. A failed initial review does not mean your account is suspended immediately. Look at the issues Merchant Center shows for your products and work through them.
Tip
Avoid big changes to your site, such as switching themes or domains, while a review is running, so Google always finds a working store.
Step 4: Check what Google actually checks
Google’s guidelines say it checks three things: that your products comply with Shopping policies, that they are available for purchase on your store and that users can add to cart and complete checkout[4]. Test your own site the way a stranger would.
- Open your store in a private window, logged out.
- Pick three products from your feed and open each product URL directly.
- Add each to the cart. Does the price in the cart match the feed?
- Go all the way to the payment step. Can you reach it without errors?
- Tip: as a practical check of our own, not a Google requirement, look at the footer. Can you find contact details, a returns policy, shipping information and a privacy policy?
If you accept no returns, state that explicitly[4]. Don’t leave the returns information blank.
Also check a few things that are easy to forget: a password-protected store, a site that only loads from some countries and product pages blocked by robots.txt. Google can’t review a page it can’t open. These are practical checks rather than a list quoted from Google.
Step 5: Diagnose why a product is Not approved
Open Products, then the Needs attention tab and read the issue listed for each product[2][3]. Common causes of Not approved are policy disapprovals and data quality issues[5][6]. Two data quality problems that Google documents are a mismatched price and an unavailable landing page.
Mismatched product price
Your feed says one price, your page says another. Google compares the two[5]. Open the product page, note the price a shopper sees, including any sale price, then compare it with the price and sale_price attributes in your feed. Fix the source. If your price sync runs once a day and you change prices manually in between, the mismatch can keep returning.
Product page unavailable
Google couldn’t load the landing page[6]. Open the URL in the link attribute for an affected product and see what a shopper sees. Look for an error page, a redirect to the homepage, a timeout or a login wall. Fix the page or correct the link in your feed.
If the issue names a policy instead, read the policy wording in the issue itself and change the product or page it points to. If nothing seems wrong and products still aren’t showing, work through https://oxfordimpulse.com/fix-products-not-showing-google-shopping/.
Step 6: Fix the source, then request a review
Request a review only after the fix is live.
Once you’ve fixed it, here’s how to request a review[3]:
- In Merchant Center, go to Products.
- Open the Needs attention tab.
- Find the issue and click “Fix” in the Status column.
- Choose “Request website check” or “I disagree with the issue”.
If those buttons are inactive, complete identity verification and make sure at least one product is in a data source[3].
Reviews take up to 7 business days, and approved products show within 24 hours[3]. Website checks for price or page issues may take up to 12 hours[5][6].
Watch out
Choose “I disagree with the issue” only if you have checked and believe Google’s finding is wrong. Otherwise, fix the problem first.
Step 7: Keep products approved
Staying approved means following Google’s guidelines, so keep your feed and your website consistent[4].
- Sync price and availability automatically and as often as you can.
- Remove or update products that are discontinued.
- Check the Needs attention tab weekly.
- Test checkout after every theme or plugin change.
Approval checklist
For the wider picture of how the account, feed and ads fit together, see https://oxfordimpulse.com/google-merchant-center/. If a disapproval stays stubborn, Oxford Impulse can review it with you.
FAQs
How long does Merchant Center approval take?
What does Not approved mean in Merchant Center?
Why are products Not approved when the feed looks fine?
How do you request a review in Merchant Center?
Go to Products, open the Needs attention tab and click “Fix” in the Status column. Then choose “Request website check” or “I disagree with the issue”[3].
Why are the review buttons inactive?
Google says to complete identity verification and make sure at least one product is in a data source[3]. Complete both, then check the buttons again.
How long does a review request take?
What is the difference between Limited and Not approved?
Does a failed initial review suspend your account?
Not immediately. A failed initial review does not mean your account is suspended on the spot. Read the issues, correct them and request a review[3].
What do you need before Google reviews your products?
You need a data source for the target country, a claimed and verified URL, a verified business address and shipping settings. US stores also need tax settings[2].
Do you need a returns policy to get approved?
Google’s guidelines say that if you accept no returns, you should state that explicitly[4]. Make sure your return information is clear and easy to find.
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help: Check product visibility and status in Merchant Center support.google.com
- Google Merchant Center Help: Issues in Merchant Center support.google.com
- Google Merchant Center Help: Request a review of your issues support.google.com
- Google Merchant Center Help: Follow Merchant Center guidelines to keep your account approved support.google.com
- Google Merchant Center Help: How to fix: Mismatched product price support.google.com
- Google Merchant Center Help: How to fix: Product page unavailable support.google.com
