Merchant Center policy update: Google now requires good shopping experiences

Google this month updated the Shopping Policy in Merchant Center. Google introduced the “Website needs improvement” policy.

According to Google, the new “Website needs improvement” policy is intended to protect users from poor shopping experiences, such as incomplete websites, confusing or inaccurate product information, broken links on the website.

Merchants with websites that do not meet these requirements will see a “Website needs improvement” policy status and have their accounts suspended until requirements are met.

Google says merchants need to make sure their websites are fully functional, have content specific to their business, and the information available is easy to understand and complete. Besides, websites shouldn’t have broken links, templated content, or placeholders of text or images.

Advertisers use Merchant Center to create shopping ads. In 2019, Google introduced Shopping Ads on YouTube.