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 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 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 fixed your issue, the products will be reapproved once they are 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 timezone 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 (see 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.
- If you've enabled automatic item updates, Google will also be able to crawl and showcase your member pricing data, if applicable. Some common reasons you may see an error regarding your crawled member pricing data include:
- The member price value showcased on their website doesn’t match what is provided in the Merchant Center.
- Member prices are only available to those who login.
- There’s no member price on the product detail page. For example, if the member promotion or sale has ended, the member prices are still submitted through feeds or API.
- You're only offering one-time discounts, such as 10% off on your first purchase, and these can be set up as promotions, not loyalty member prices.
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 1: Find the affected products
- Sign in to your Merchant Center account.
- Select Products on the navigation menu, then click Diagnostics.
- Click the Item issues tab to view current issues affecting your products.
To download a list (.csv) of all affected products for all issues:
- Click the download button
next to the filter button
, beneath the graph and above the list of issues.
To download a list (.csv) of all affected products for a particular issue:
- Find the issue under the “Issue” column, then click the download button
To view a list of up to 50 products with this particular issue:
- Find the issue under the “Issue” column, then click View examples in the “Affected items” column.
Step 2: Submit the same values from your landing page for the price, sale price and sale price effective date attributes
- Filter the downloaded report so that you only find products with:
“Issue title” = Mismatched (page crawl): (price[price]) - Search your product data for those products (using the ID), and make sure that each item has the same values for price
[price](or sale price[sale_price]and sale price effective date[sale_price_effective_date]) as those listed on your site and in its structured data.
Step 3: Resubmit your product data
- After you’ve updated your product data, resubmit it using one of these methods:
- Next, check that you’ve fixed the issue by making sure it’s no longer listed on the Diagnostics page.
Keep in mind: It may take some time for your change to be reflected on the Diagnostics page.
Step 4 (Optional): Request a review
In some instances, if your account or one of your product offers is disapproved and you’ve either fixed the issue or you disagree with the issue, you can request a review. If the review is successful, your issue will disappear. If the disapproval remains and you’re uncertain with how to proceed, contact us for support.