Google Shopping Eligibility Requirements: What Products and Stores Need

To appear in Shopping ads or free listings, a product has to clear several sets of requirements at once. Some apply to your whole account and website, such as policies and contact information. Others apply to each product, such as required attributes, a working landing page and shipping for the target country.

This guide brings those requirements together in one checklist, based on Google’s Merchant Center documentation, and points to the detailed guide for each area.

The layers of eligibility

It helps to think of eligibility as four layers. A product shows only when all four are in order.

Layer	What Google checks	Where problems show
Account	Business information, verified and claimed URL, account activity, identity verification when requested	Home banners, Needs attention summary cards, emails
Website	Contact info, return policy, payment, secure checkout, site requirements	Account-level issues, warnings or suspension
Product data	Required attributes, identifiers, correct formats, policy-compliant content	Product issues in Needs attention
Landing page and targeting	Crawlable product page, matching price and availability, shipping for the target country	Product issues in Needs attention

Policy requirements

Google’s Shopping ads and listings policies are organized into four areas:

• Prohibited content: counterfeit goods, dangerous products, products that enable dishonest behavior, inappropriate content and unsupported Shopping content.
• Prohibited practices: abusing the Shopping network (malicious content, low-value traffic sites, gaining an unfair advantage, bypassing review), data collection and use (such as sensitive data over non-secure connections) and misrepresentation.
• Restricted content: sexual content, alcohol, copyrights, gambling, healthcare and medicines (which may need preauthorization), political content (for Shopping ads), trademarks, foods high in fat, sugar or salt (no targeting minors) and protections for children and teens.
• Site requirements: accurate display URLs, no gimmicky words or symbols, no under-construction, parked or non-working sites, no disabled back button, and pages viewable in common browsers.

Google enforces these with automated systems and human review. Actions include disapproving listings, temporarily capping impressions for some flagged accounts and suspending accounts for repeat or egregious violations.

Misrepresentation is the policy most often behind account-level problems. Google says egregious violations can lead to suspension without prior warning. See how to troubleshoot misrepresentation.

Country-specific policies are enforced separately for each country, so a product can be eligible in one target country and not another.

Website requirements

The Merchant Center guidelines set out what your website must show:

• Visible contact information.
• A return and refund policy, stated even if you don’t accept returns.
• A conventional payment method.
• A working, secure checkout.
• A supported language.

The same guidelines say you need to sign in to the account at least every 14 months; inactive accounts are at risk.

Google’s Shopify warning guidance lists missing return policies, insufficient contact information and misrepresentation as common reasons for account problems. It also suggests removing placeholder text, fixing broken links and making sure business details are consistent across the site and Merchant Center. The website requirements checklist covers these in detail.

Account requirements: business info and URL

Google requires basic, verifiable business and identity information. Under Settings > Business info you set the business name, business address, customer service contact details (a working URL with contact information, an email at your domain and a valid phone number), the online store URL, the checkout link and accepted payment methods. Google notes that formatting issues here can cause warnings, disapprovals or suspension.

Your online store URL must be verified and claimed. One URL can be claimed by only one Merchant Center account; to share a claim, use a Multi-Client Account, whose sub-accounts inherit it. See how to verify and claim your website.

Google may also require identity verification before reviewing an account.

Product data requirements

Every product needs a set of required attributes. Google’s free listings article lists these, some of which apply only in certain cases:

Attribute	When required	Key rule
id	Always	1 to 50 characters, unique and stable
title	Always	1 to 150 characters, describes the product on the landing page
description	Always	1 to 5,000 characters, about this product only
link	Always	Product page on your verified domain
image_link	Always	Large enough, no promotional content
price	Always	Must match the landing page
availability	Always	Must match the landing page
condition	Used or refurbished items	new, used or refurbished
brand	Where clearly associated	The manufacturer’s brand, or your store name for your own products
gtin	Where assigned	Never invented or copied
mpn	If no GTIN	Manufacturer part number
item_group_id	Variants	Same value for all variants of one product
color, size, age_group, gender	Apparel	Must match the landing page
multipack, is_bundle	Where applicable	Multipacks and bundles you define

Google’s product data specification also covers sale_price with sale_price_effective_date, identifier_exists, shipping_label, return_policy_label, excluded_destination and pause.

Identifiers deserve particular care. Google says identifiers must not be made up, guessed or copied from similar products, and incorrect ones may cause disapproval. See how to fix missing product identifiers.

Landing page requirements

Google’s free listings documentation says only product pages are eligible, not homepages, policy pages or category pages. The page has to be one where the shopper can buy that product.

Google routinely crawls landing pages, and if a page can’t be accessed, the product is disabled until it can be. Errors Google lists include 404s, too many redirects (keep it to two or fewer), server errors, an inaccessible robots.txt, DNS failures and URLs that don’t start with http:// or https:// or don’t use your verified domain.

The landing page also has to agree with your data:

• The price in the HTML must match the price in your data exactly.
• Availability must match: an active buy button for in-stock items, a clear sold-out state for out-of-stock items.
• For preorder and backorder items, the page must show the expected date, and availability_date is required.
• For variants, the page must reflect the selected variant’s title, color, price, availability and image, and each variant needs a distinct URL.

See how to fix landing page errors.

Shipping and country requirements

Google requires shipping settings or the shipping attribute in a long list of countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. Shipping costs must use the same currency as the product price; Google says items may be disapproved if no shipping service matches the currency and target country. See how to configure shipping settings.

Other country rules from Google’s documentation:

• You must ship to all locations your listing supports. In-store-pickup-only products aren’t supported, except in Argentina and Chile.
• Target countries are set in the data source (or with the shipping attribute). Multi-country shipping settings don’t change targeting by themselves.
• For Shopping ads, Google Ads location targeting must match your Merchant Center target countries.
• Use the correct currency for each target country, matching the price prominently shown on the page.

Marketing method settings

Even with everything above in place, products must be enabled for the right marketing method. Free listings are on by default in most cases; check the Free listings card under Marketing > Marketing methods (admin access is needed to change it). Shopping ads additionally need a Google Ads campaign.

A product is also kept out if it’s paused (pause, up to 14 days) or excluded (excluded_destination). Check these before assuming a policy problem. For the differences between the two channels, see Google Shopping vs free listings.

How to check what’s blocking a product

1. Check Home for account-level banners or warnings.
2. Open Products > Needs attention and read the summary cards.
3. Turn off Prioritized fixes to see every issue.
4. Open the Issue Details Page for each issue to see affected products and suggested actions.
5. Compare the product’s data with its live landing page.
6. After fixing, request a website check (up to 12 hours) or a review (up to 7 business days), as the issue page offers.

Google says approved products become eligible within about 24 hours. See how to use Merchant Center diagnostics.

When to get help

If you can’t tell which layer is blocking your products, or the account itself has a warning, a structured audit helps. Our Merchant Center service covers setup and eligibility, and the suspension service covers account-level issues. Google makes every approval decision; we help you meet its documented requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Google Merchant Center Help — Shopping ads and listings policies
• Google Merchant Center Help — Merchant Center guidelines
• Google Merchant Center Help — Free listings for products
• Google Merchant Center Help — Add your business information
• Google Merchant Center Help — About online store URL verification
• Google Merchant Center Help — Product data specification
• Google Merchant Center Help — About unique product identifiers
• Google Merchant Center Help — How to fix: Product page unavailable
• Google Merchant Center Help — Availability [availability]
• Google Merchant Center Help — Item group ID [item_group_id]
• Google Merchant Center Help — Set up shipping settings for an entire account
• Google Merchant Center Help — Show products in multiple target countries
• Google Merchant Center Help — How to fix: Mismatched product price
• Google Merchant Center Help — Request a review
• Google Merchant Center Help — The Needs attention tab

Last reviewed October 10, 2026 against the official documentation listed above. Google changes Merchant Center features and policies regularly — always confirm details in your own account.