#gmctips

Because I keep seeing the same thing happen to people and it's genuinely frustrating to watch.

Someone spends days — sometimes weeks — getting their store ready. They upload their products, fill out all the details, feel good about it, and hit submit. Then they get suspended or rejected and have no idea why. The error message is vague. Google's help pages don't really explain it. And now they're stuck.

I've been through this. I've helped other people through this. And the thing is, most of the time the issue was something small and fixable that nobody flagged before they submitted.

We actually put together a full breakdown of this at gmcapproval.com"

Your website has to look like a real business, not a work in progress. That means no placeholder pages, no broken sections, no "coming soon" sitting around. Your site should be on HTTPS — if it's still on HTTP that's your first problem. And honestly, spend five minutes looking at your site on your phone. If it looks bad on mobile, Google will notice.

Also — does your site actually show who you are? Business name, a contact page with real info, a footer that looks complete. These things matter more than people think.

The policy pages thing is huge and I cannot stress this enough.

You need a Privacy Policy. A Return and Refund Policy. A Shipping Policy. All three. Linked in your footer where people can actually find them.

Google scans for these automatically. If they're missing, it doesn't matter how good your products are — your application is going to have a problem. You can check exactly what Google expects right here → Google Shopping Policies

Your product feed has to match your actual website. Same prices. Same stock availability. If your feed says something is in stock and your product page says sold out, that's a violation. If the price is different by even a little, that's a problem too.

And product photos — keep them clean. No watermarks, no text on top of the image. Just clear photos of the actual product.

One thing that catches people off guard — the language in your product descriptions. Phrases like "guaranteed results" or anything that sounds like an exaggerated claim can get your products flagged. Before-and-after images too. Go back through your descriptions and make sure everything is accurate and straightforward. If it sounds too good to be true, rewrite it.

And if you're already suspended — please don't just change one random thing and resubmit. Figure out what actually caused it first. Is it a policy violation? Something on your website? A misrepresentation issue? Fix the real problem, then write your appeal explaining what changed.

Guessing and resubmitting without a real fix rarely works.