Disclaimer: The information in this post is based on my personal experience. How I fix Google Merchant Center website or online store needs improvement may not apply to everyone’s situation.
The problem
After I fixed the Misrepresentation in Google Merchant Center, I received another warning as “Website or online store needs improvement”. At this moment, all my products were limited and cannot run ads. So once again, I searched online and tried to figure it out.
Changes I made
- First of all, my domain matches in GMC.
- Broken links. This one took me a while. In the beginning I used a plugin to check for broken links and there was none. Then I used an online tool to check and it said zero. After the second review request the GMC support team said they found several broken links on my website. I was confused and tried another online broken link checker and wow, I got over a hundred broken links! Most of them were in older posts and images. I ended up fix them one by one manually. This online broken link checker works really well. It tells you the page and text related to the link. I highly recommend this one. And it is free.
- Placeholder image/text. The placeholder text I had was in the review form and some other forms. I changed them into another style or disable them.
- Product categories. It turns out that once I installed the plugin Google for Woocommerce, there is a new option in the product categories page. To match your store product type to google product category.
And the paintings or artwork is not in “Art and Entertainment”. It is in “Home and Garden”.
- Generic information. I added more product images, more specific details in description.
Other improvements
- Verified phone number and put in footer.
- Make sure the product is sold individually so that no more than stock can be added into cart.
- No text over images. I move the badge out of product image.
- Set the homepage to shop. The first time I contact GMC support they said they cannot see any product on my website. I don’t know if they actually clicked the shop button but decided to set the homepage as shop page to eliminate the confusion.
- Improve page loading speed. I added plugins to reduce the image size, convert to WebP, preload the pages and etc in order to boost my site speed.
Some other tips
- When I want to adjust the sell to countries in GMC I found it was impossible to detele the countries that were already there. But accidentally, I found out that all you need to do is to disconnect all from the Google for Woocommerce end and reset the connection.
- Filter. I finally found out a product filter that has a easy and workable free version for Woocommerce. Pofily.
The result
So, after all these back and forth and cooling down period (I had two reviews already), I request review for the third time. This time it goes through. No more warnings. All products are green and I can start a campaign.
Though this is a long and puzzling process, it helps me made my website much better. I am glad that the issue is solved but I am also hesitate to make any chances right now. I don’t want to disturb the balance. 😂