Unlocking your Merchant Center account

This is the most common and difficult reason for blocking, which forces you to look for ways to unblock your account. Google believes that you are hiding something from the buyer. For example, there is no real office address, there are hidden payments, or the price in the ad does not match the price in the cart after adding the item. This also includes «fake» reviews and the use of other people’s photos of products in your online store. The algorithm compares your site with thousands of others, and if it finds «templates» without real confirmation of the existence of the business, you will be blocked. To unblock, you need to prepare documents and evidence: registration certificate, invoices or contracts with suppliers, photos or videos of the warehouse or office, and clearly display contact information and sales policies on the site.

This reason for blocking means that the resource does not meet Google’s UX/UI and security standards. There are «junk» links, empty categories, no HTTPS protocol, or broken «Buy” buttons. Common technical gaps include incorrectly structured data (schema), 404 pages, and errors in the feed. The mandatory elements for unblocking an account are the price, name, description, availability, condition of the product, identifier, as well as the «Privacy Policy», «Return Policy», and «Shipping and Payment» pages. Ensure that contact details are visible, policies are loaded, users can complete their purchase without errors, and can easily find information about returning goods within 14 days. All of this will speed up the process of unblocking Google Merchant accounts after an appeal.

Blocking for selling prohibited or restricted Google goods: brand replicas (even if marked as copies), unlicensed medical products, weapons, hazardous chemicals, and other regulated categories. Aggressive marketing claims or promises of «instant results» that are not backed up by evidence also often lead to Merchant account suspension. It is important to understand that even one questionable product in a feed of 10,000 items can lead to the blocking of your entire Google Merchant account without the right to a quick appeal. Therefore, it is recommended to promptly delete suspicious items and verify claims about product properties.

Google strictly monitors that the user’s path from click to payment is secure and understandable. Account blocking occurs if the stated payment methods are missing or do not work, if the price in Merchant Center does not match the price in the cart after taxes and shipping, or if the site requires too much personal data before payment. It is also critical to have commonly accepted payment methods such as Visa/Mastercard, Apple Pay/Google Pay, and to ensure that they are correctly integrated (including 3-D Secure, if required). If the checkout process looks suspicious or complicated, the account will be blocked.