Pre-Launch Website Audit for Google Shopping (8 Checks)

A pre-launch website audit for Google Shopping checks your ecommerce site against the Merchant Center policy and feed requirements before you ever submit a feed. The goal: catch and fix every issue Google would flag, so your first feed approval lands clean. Stores that audit first pass Google's initial review at roughly 85%; stores that connect and hope land closer to 50%. The 8 checks below cover the failure patterns we see most often across 87,976 audit checks in our dataset.

Why audit before connecting to GMC

Three reasons:

1. First impressions matter to Google. A new account that connects and immediately fires 50 disapprovals enters a 90-day probation period with tighter manual review. A clean first connection sails through.
2. Fixing in advance is faster. Issues caught pre-launch get fixed in 1-3 days each. The same issues post-launch require waiting for re-review cycles, often 7-14 days per round.
3. Compounding disapprovals trigger escalation. When the same SKU disapproves 3+ times in 30 days, Google's account-level review opens. Pre-launch fixes prevent the disapproval pattern from ever starting.

1. Domain and HTTPS

Confirm:

• Custom domain registered (not yourstore.myshopify.com or similar platform subdomain)
• HTTPS enabled across every page (no mixed-content warnings)
• WWW vs non-WWW canonical chosen and consistent
• SSL certificate valid (no expired or self-signed cert warnings)
• Domain ownership verifiable via WHOIS (at least registered agent visible)

2. Policy pages and contact info

Required pages (each must be unique and customized, not template-generated):

• Privacy policy (specific data-collection details, business name, dated)
• Terms of service (customized, dated)
• Returns/refund policy (window length, accepted reasons, who pays return shipping)
• Shipping policy (carriers, time estimates, costs)
• Contact page with email at domain, phone, and physical address
• About page with founder name(s), location, and history

3. Business name consistency

Check the business name on:

• Header logo
• Footer copyright line
• About page
• Contact page
• Privacy policy
• Terms of service
• Returns policy
• Shipping policy
• Merchant Center business info (set this to match)

All instances must be identical, including casing and legal entity (Ltd, LLC, Inc).

4. Product schema and JSON-LD

Pick 5 random products and run each through Google's Rich Results Test [3]. Each must include:

• name, image, brand, description
• offers.price, offers.priceCurrency, offers.availability
• gtin, mpn, or identifier_exists=false
• No duplicate Product schemas on the same page

5. Image quality and coverage

Per-product image checklist:

• Minimum 800x800 pixels (1200x1200 preferred)
• At least 3 distinct images per SKU
• Primary image on plain background for most categories
• No watermarks, promotional text overlays, or borders
• HTTPS URLs that return HTTP 200 without auth
• JPG, PNG, or WebP format

6. Pricing and currency rendering

Test pricing on a sample of 5 products:

• Use Search Console URL Inspection to fetch as Googlebot. Confirm the price is in the server-rendered HTML, not just client-side JavaScript.
• Confirm priceCurrency is populated in JSON-LD with a valid ISO 4217 code.
• Check multi-currency apps (if any) do not interfere with the canonical price.
• For sale prices, confirm sale_price and sale_price_effective_date are present.

7. Shipping and returns configuration

Reconcile between site and checkout:

• Shipping rates configured in Merchant Center match checkout exactly
• Free shipping threshold (if any) matches between site banner, policy page, and Merchant Center
• Return window length matches between site policy and order confirmation emails
• Returns policy declared on every product page (not just the policy page) for PMax eligibility

8. Mobile performance and LCP

Run a sample of 5 product pages through PageSpeed Insights [4]:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) under 2.5 seconds on mobile
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) under 0.1
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint) under 200ms
• No mixed-content warnings or render-blocking issues

After the audit

Once every check passes, you are ready to connect to Merchant Center. The first feed approval usually lands within 24-72 hours. From there, set up weekly monitoring so you catch new issues before they escalate.

Bottom line

Pre-launch audits convert from a "nice idea" to "the difference between approval and a 30-day disapproval spiral" once you measure the outcomes. Eight checkpoints, 2-4 hours of work, dramatically better odds of clearing Google's first review.