In this article
How page crawling works
Googlebot routinely crawls your website landing pages and compares the price [price] attribute in your data feed with the prices on your landing page or in your structured data markup (if implemented). This ensures quality and price consistency so that your customers can have a better experience. When a mismatch is found between your price on the landing page when it loaded and price [price] in the data feed, the product with the mismatch may be disapproved.
Googlebot crawls the data present in the HTML returned from your web server. If data on your website is passed dynamically with JavaScript after the page is loaded, this will trigger an error. Prices reflected in the HTML need to match exactly the prices uploaded in Merchant Center.
Googlebot automatically re-crawls disapproved products over the next few hours or days to recheck the price. If the price on your landing page matches with the price [price]
attribute in your data feed after you've fixed your issue, the products will be reapproved once they've been crawled again.
Note: Page crawling is subject to the server domain’s capacity. If the domain is at maximum capacity, page crawling may take longer as Google doesn’t increase page crawling rates to avoid crawl latency on your website.
Reasons why the issue is happening
Some product prices that you submitted in your product data are different from the information on your website. This may lead to an account suspension.
Common reasons for price mismatch
- Time differences between updates on your website and Merchant Center product data. If your product prices are updated frequently, you may want to set up a schedule for product data uploads from a file, or set up the Content API for Shopping, as these will regularly update your prices in Merchant Center automatically.
- Structured data markup on your website is incorrect. Google uses structured data markup to understand prices on your product landing pages. You can use the rich results tool to test your landing pages. Learn more about how to use rich result reports
- If you’re using the sale price
[sale_price]
attribute, make sure that the time period in which the sale is active is specified correctly with the sale price effective date[sale_price_effective_date]
attribute and that the time zone is correct. When a sale is active, the sale price is shown as the current price in your Shopping ads and listings. - The price mismatch between your landing page and your product data was discovered and reported at a specific date and time (check notification timestamp). It’s possible that this data may have been updated and reapproved in the meantime. You can find the current approval status of a product in the “Status” column on the “All products” page (under “Products”).
- If you have a minimum order quantity or items are sold in bulk quantities, the total price for the minimum number of items sold must be submitted. Ensure that the price provided via the price attribute in your product data matches the one displayed on the corresponding product landing page.
How to fix this issue
Update the price in your product data to the same price listed on your website and use the appropriate currency for the country that you’re targeting.
Step 1a: Fix products one by one directly in Merchant Center
Go to Products in Merchant Center, then select the Needs attention tab.
Use the filter icon above the table to find all products affected by your issue.
Click on the title of the product you want to fix, then click Edit product.
Update the product price so that it matches your website.
Select Save.
Step 1b: Fix multiple products at once
Go to Products in Merchant Center, then select the Needs attention tab.
Use the filter icon above the table to find all products affected by your issue.
Select the Download icon to download a list (.csv) of all affected products for all issues or this particular issue.
Cross reference the downloaded list with your uploaded product data, and make sure that the product prices for the affected products match the prices on your website (using the price [price]
attribute).
Reupload your corrected product data to Merchant Center using your chosen upload method.
Step 2: Request a review
If your account or product gets disapproved you can either fix the problem and request a review, or disagree with the issue and request a review. There may be additional steps you can take, such as verification options, depending on the issue.
If the review is successful, your issue will disappear. In some cases, there's a limit on how many reviews you can request. This limit will be specified.
If the disapproval remains and you’re uncertain with how to proceed, contact us for support.
Next steps
After making the requested changes, check that you’ve fixed the issue by making sure it’s no longer listed on the “Needs attention” page.
Keep in mind: It may take some time for your change to be reflected on the “Needs attention” page.