How to Fix Google Merchant Center Misrepresentation
Misrepresentation is one of the broadest policies in Merchant Center, and the notice names the policy, not the page. So there is no single fix. The work is an audit: find every place your store tells a shopper one thing and says something else elsewhere, correct it at the source, keep a record, and only then ask for another review.
Each step below takes one fact, such as your business name, return window or price, and checks it everywhere it appears. A contradiction is something you can see, screenshot and fix. New to the policy? Read what Google means by misrepresentation first.
Google’s own review page says the same: perform a comprehensive audit before requesting a review
. Read Google’s page
Step 1 — Verify business identity
Start with who you are; every other check leans on it. Google’s fix page for this notice lists inconsistent business details first among the usual reasons.
What to compare
- Business name
- One trading name in the logo, footer, About page, checkout and Merchant Center Business info.
- Contact details
- Footer address and phone match the contact page and the account, character for character.
- Domain
- The site claimed in Merchant Center is the one shoppers land on. A second domain in the redirects reads as a second business.
- Address and transparency
- Plain text saying who runs the store, what it sells and where from. A slogan is not an About page.
“Ensure your business name, address, and phone number are identical in your website footer, contact page, and Merchant Center settings.”
Google, How to fix: Missing contact information on your online store Step 2 — Review contact information
Contact details fail in two ways: missing, or useless. Check both.
What to compare
- An address on your own domain that someone reads.
- Phone
- A number in the format your shoppers dial, that rings.
- Contact page visibility
- Linked from every footer, open without an account, not hidden by a popup.
- Consistency across the site
- The same details in the footer, contact page, policies and checkout, as text, not an image.
“Ensure at least one form of reachable contact (For example, email, phone, or contact form) is easily visible prior to checkout.”
Google, How to fix: Missing contact information on your online store Step 3 — Check shipping and returns
Stores contradict themselves most here, because the same promise gets written in four places at different times.
What to compare
- Shipping times
- Handling and transit days, the same on the product page, the policy and your Merchant Center shipping settings.
- Regions
- The countries the policy names are the ones you target and checkout accepts.
- Costs
- The rate the policy states is the rate checkout charges.
- Refund and return wording
- A window in days, item condition, who pays return postage, and when refunds arrive. No returns? Say so.
- Contradictions
- “Free returns” in a product banner and “buyer pays return postage” in the policy is the classic.
“Return and refund policy that is unclear, missing, or not easily discoverable.”
Google, Misrepresentation policy Step 4 — Review pricing, discounts, urgency and promotions
The policy rules out offers that are not accurate, realistic and truthful. Pricing theatre is the quickest way there.
What to compare
- Fake countdowns
- A timer that restarts on reload or outlives its sale is a false statement. Tie it to a real end date or remove it.
- Invented “was” prices
- A struck-through price you never charged. Keep one only if the product really sold at it.
- Inconsistent sale claims
- Banner, product page, cart and product data agree on whether a sale is on, and how much.
- Misleading scarcity
- “Only 3 left” and “12 people viewing” come from real stock and real visitors, or go.
“promoting a deal that’s no longer active”
Google, Misrepresentation policy Step 5 — Review product claims and catalogue consistency
Your product page and your product data make the same claims. Both have to be true, and agree.
What to compare
- Unsupported claims
- Cures, guaranteed results, “official” status, “best in the world”, badges you have no right to. Prove each or cut it.
- Product page and feed
- Price, availability, title, brand and condition match, variant by variant.
- Stock and availability
- Page, structured data, checkout and feed agree on whether the item can be bought.
“Show a consistent availability across the landing page, structured data (if available), checkout page, and your data source”
Google, Availability [availability] Step 6 — Check checkout consistency
Checkout is where a shopper learns whether everything before it was true. Take a test order to the payment step on a phone and a computer, and write down every number.
What to compare
- Final price
- Holds from product page to cart to payment.
- Shipping
- Matches your policy and your Merchant Center settings.
- Taxes
- Shown before payment: included in the price in VAT countries, left out for the US and Canada, as Google’s rules ask.
- Payment information
- The logos you show match the methods offered, over HTTPS throughout.
- Unexpected changes
- No fee, add-on or pre-ticked box that first appears at checkout.
“The price must not increase at checkout, but it can be reduced after the product is added to the cart if a promotion is applied.”
Google, Checkout requirements and best practices
Three worked examples: what changed and what the re-check showed
These controlled examples show a problem, a specific change and the result when we ran the relevant StoreVerifier check again with the changed facts. They use fictional store details, not customer case studies. No live store or Google review was involved.
Make the return window agree
- Before
- The returns policy allows 14 days. The product’s structured data tells search engines 60 days.
- What to change
- If 14 days is the policy you actually offer, change merchantReturnDays from 60 to 14 in the product data generated by your theme or SEO app. Keep the visible policy and Merchant Center return settings consistent.
- Observed re-check
- The return-window mismatch warning disappeared when both supplied values were 14 days.
- Verify it on your store
- Open the published policy and inspect the product’s structured data after saving. Check the same products, countries and return conditions; a special holiday window may have a different scope.
Give shoppers a way to contact you
- Before
- The supplied observations contain no visible email, phone, address, social profile or contact page.
- What to change
- Add your real support email where shoppers can see it before checkout. In this fictional example, the homepage now shows help@shop.example. Use your own monitored address.
- Observed re-check
- The contact-method check changed from fail to pass after the visible email was added to the observations.
- Verify it on your store
- Open the page while signed out. Test the link, send a message and confirm that your team receives it. Check your business details separately in Merchant Center.
Keep the product price consistent in the basket
- Before
- One product is £47.00 on its page and in its structured data, but the same item is £49.00 in the basket. All three amounts use GBP.
- What to change
- Correct the stale basket price to £47.00 for the same product and variant. Check the pricing setting or app that caused the difference, then update your product feed if needed.
- Observed re-check
- The cart-price check changed from fail to pass when all three supplied product prices were £47.00.
- Verify it on your store
- Start a fresh basket with quantity one and the same variant, currency and destination. Compare the item price separately from delivery and tax.
What StoreVerifier can check automatically
The free check looks for problems on your public store, including pages and checkout steps it can reach. It shows the issues found. The full report adds the evidence and steps to fix them.
- Public storefront evidence
- The name, address, phone and email your pages publish, and whether About and contact pages exist.
- Inconsistencies
- A basket price that differs from the product page, markup that disagrees with the price or stock shown, clashing delivery claims.
- Observable claims
- Countdown timers, viewer and stock counters, “was” prices, activity pop-ups, unsupported claims, repeated reviews.
- Policy visibility
- Whether returns, shipping, privacy and terms pages exist, open, and state a return window and shipping cost.
- Checkout and technical checks
- Whether checkout opens, runs over HTTPS, shows tax and policy links before payment, and pre-ticks nothing.
What still requires manual or Merchant Center account review
The scan does not see Merchant Center or your feed. This half is yours.
- Account settings
- Business info, shipping, returns, tax and target countries. Compare each with the live store. Business records to check
- Feed and account-only data
- Identifiers, brand, condition, sale dates. How to audit your product feed
- Business records
- Identity verification, registration documents, payments profile. How identity verification works
- Google’s internal decision
- Why the account was suspended, and what a review decides. Only Google knows. A clean scan is evidence about your public store, not a verdict on your account.
“Standardize your business name, address, and contact details across your website, Merchant Center settings, and payment profiles.”
Before requesting another review
A review request with half the store still wrong is a request spent. Google rations them.
“If your issues aren’t resolved by the second review attempt, a one-week cool down period may begin.”
The same page adds: The cool down period may increase with each unsuccessful review afterwards.
Keep a record of every fix
Use the free worksheet to record each page, the problem, your change and the re-check result. It includes an account and review checklist. Print the HTML version or use the CSV in a spreadsheet.
- Finish the full audit. All six steps, every page type, not just the one you suspect.
- Document your changes. A dated list: the page, what it said, what it says now.
- Keep before-and-after evidence. Dated screenshots of each page before and after. Scan again and keep that report.
- Complete identity verification if asked. Check the Needs attention tab. Google says it must be done before a review.
- Don’t appeal after one superficial fix. Removing one timer and asking the same afternoon spends a review on a store that still shows the rest.
Check the public half before you ask again
Start with a free check to find potential misrepresentation problems on your public store. No account needed. The full report adds the affected pages, evidence and steps to fix each issue.
Want Google’s requirements quoted area by area? See the Merchant Center suspension checklist.