34 defined terms covering Google Merchant Center compliance, disapprovals, feed specifications, Google Shopping, and AI visibility. Every entry cites Google's own policy docs where applicable.
Google's product data platform where merchants submit structured feeds of their products so Google can display them across Shopping ads, free listings, and other Google surfaces. Every Google Shopping advertiser needs a GMC account.
A numeric rating (0-100) summarizing how well a merchant's feed and landing pages meet Google's policies. Calculated by rolling together check results across 27 categories including feed attributes, structured data, pricing consistency, and account-level signals.
An automated compliance scan that checks a store URL or GMC feed against Google's policy and data quality rules. FeedShield runs 250+ individual checks in under two minutes per audit.
One of 27 logical groupings FeedShield uses to organize compliance checks — feed integrity, structured data, image quality, landing page health, restricted products, etc. Each category can be passed or failed independently.
Google's designation that a specific product or entire account has been rejected from Shopping surfaces because of a policy violation or data quality issue. Disapproved products stop serving ads and lose free-listing visibility until the issue is fixed and the product re-approved.
See also: Account suspension, Warning
The most severe enforcement action — Google removes the entire GMC account from Shopping surfaces, not just individual products. Common triggers: misrepresentation, circumvention of systems, repeated policy violations. Recovery requires a formal appeal with evidence of remediation.
See also: Disapproval, Misrepresentation, Reappeal
Google's pre-disapproval signal that a product or account has a detectable issue which will lead to disapproval if not corrected. Warnings are the best time to fix — a fix at warning stage prevents traffic loss, a fix after disapproval has a lag.
See also: Disapproval
A policy category covering deceptive or misleading practices — fake reviews, hidden fees, bait-and-switch pricing, undisclosed business details, or concealed product attributes. One of the top three reasons for account-level suspensions and the hardest category to appeal successfully.
See also: Account suspension, Reappeal
A follow-up appeal submitted after an initial appeal is denied. Reappeals are generally granted only when the merchant provides genuinely new evidence — restated appeals without new information are routinely rejected.
See also: Account suspension
A structured file (XML, TSV, or Google Sheet) that describes every product a merchant wants to list on Google Shopping. Each row is one product; each column is an attribute like title, description, price, availability, or GTIN. Fed to Google via direct upload, scheduled fetch, or Content/Merchant API.
See also: Content API, Merchant API
A unique 8, 12, 13, or 14-digit identifier assigned to a product by GS1 and its affiliates. Includes UPC (North America), EAN (Europe), and JAN (Japan). Required for most branded products on Google Shopping — missing or incorrect GTIN is a frequent disapproval reason.
The unique code a manufacturer assigns to a specific product model. Used alongside brand to identify products that don't have GTINs (custom or older items). Less authoritative than GTIN but accepted when GTIN is genuinely unavailable.
The main identifier shown in Shopping results. Google recommends brand, product name, and distinguishing attributes in that order, under 150 characters. Promotional text ("Sale!", "Free shipping") is disallowed and triggers disapprovals.
A 500-5000 character narrative describing the product's features and use cases. Google ranks Shopping results partly on description relevance, so keyword-rich, accurate descriptions outrank thin or duplicated ones.
One of four values — in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder, or backorder — declared per product in the feed. Must match the landing page at all times; mismatched availability (in_stock in feed but out of stock on page) is one of the fastest-detected disapproval reasons.
When the price in the product feed differs from the price shown on the landing page at crawl time. Even small mismatches (currency rounding, tax display) can disapprove products. Google crawls prices independently of feed updates, so out-of-sync prices are common.
See also: Availability attribute
Paid product listings in Google Search results and on the Shopping tab. Driven by the merchant's GMC feed plus bidding in Google Ads. Distinct from free listings which appear without bidding.
Organic, unpaid product results in the Google Shopping tab and other surfaces. Requires a verified GMC account and compliant feed. Scale is smaller than Shopping ads but carries zero marginal cost per click.
Google's automated campaign type that serves across Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail based on a single set of goals and asset groups. Most Shopping advertisers now run Performance Max. Feed quality directly drives campaign ROAS.
In the EU, a third-party partner that submits product feeds on behalf of merchants to Google Shopping. EU antitrust ruling (2017) requires Google to treat CSS partners equally to Google's own Shopping service. Many EU merchants save 20%+ on CPCs by using a CSS partner.
The unique numeric identifier Google assigns to a GMC account. Required to link GMC to Google Ads, and referenced in every API call and policy communication.
The process of proving domain ownership to Google (via Search Console, Google Analytics tag, HTML file upload, or DNS TXT record). Required to link a store domain to a GMC account. Verification must be maintained continuously — removing the verification method breaks the link.
See also: Website claim
The act of assigning a verified website to a specific GMC account. Verification proves ownership; claiming assigns that ownership to one GMC account at a time. Two GMC accounts cannot claim the same URL.
See also: Website verification
Google's 2026 identity-verification flow requiring the merchant to submit a live video of themselves reading a verification code. Introduced to combat misrepresentation and shell-company fraud. Increasingly mandatory for accounts with disapproval history.
See also: Misrepresentation
A multi-client GMC account that manages feeds for multiple merchant sub-accounts under one umbrella. Used by agencies and platforms (e.g., Shopify Shopping integration) to avoid the overhead of separate accounts per client.
Google's governing rules for what may be advertised via Shopping. Covers prohibited products (weapons, adult content, counterfeit), restricted products (alcohol, prescription drugs), and editorial standards. Updated multiple times per year.
Content Google will not allow on Shopping under any circumstance — hate speech, dangerous products, counterfeit goods, child safety violations. Listing prohibited content leads to immediate account suspension.
Product categories that are allowed on Shopping only in specific regions and under specific conditions (alcohol, pharmacy, gambling, financial services). Each category has its own eligibility requirements, disclaimers, and certifications.
Google's rules on how product listings should be written — no promotional text in titles, no gimmicky capitalization or punctuation, accurate attribute use. Violations don't disapprove the product directly but hurt performance and quality score.
Machine-readable metadata embedded in a web page describing its content using a controlled vocabulary (usually Schema.org). On Shopping, Product schema with price, availability, GTIN, and aggregateRating is required for most rich results and frequently causes disapprovals when missing or mismatched.
A specific Schema.org type describing a purchasable product. Required properties include name, image, description, offers (with price, priceCurrency, availability), brand, and either GTIN or MPN. Feeds Google's crawl data and directly affects Shopping feed health.
See also: Structured data
Google's legacy API (v2.1) for programmatic feed management and account control. Deprecated in favor of Merchant API and reaching end-of-service on 2026-08-18. Any merchant integration still calling Content API must migrate before that date to keep functioning.
See also: Merchant API
Google's current (v1) API for Merchant Center, replacing Content API. Offers similar feed, account, inventory, and reporting endpoints with cleaner structure and support for modern features like Merchant Reviews and Checkout on Google.
See also: Content API
A protocol supported by Bing, Yandex, and several other engines that lets site owners ping search engines with URLs they want crawled, rather than waiting for the next scheduled crawl. Faster indexation for time-sensitive content like new products or blog posts.
The glossary grows as Google updates its policies. If there's a term that should be defined here, tell us at hello@feedshield.ai.
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