Recommended Settings for Automations in Google Merchant Center
This page describes the recommended settings for Automations and Product Data Optimizations in Merchant Center when using our data feed service.
Product Data Optimization Recommended Settings
| Automation Type | Recommended Setting |
|---|---|
| Image improvements | ✅ Enabled* |
| Price updates | ⊘ Disabled |
| Availability updates | ⊘ Disabled |
| Condition updates | ⊘ Disabled |
| Shipping updates | ⊘ Disabled |
Image improvements
* We recommend to set Image improvements to enabled if and only if you have Promotional overlay on image [image link] errors in your Merchant Center Diagnostics. In all other cases, leave the setting turned off.
Google's specifications for image_link prohibit images with promotional overlays, such as calls to action, price/sale information, and any other text that covers the physical product image. Overlays can also be watermarks, brand names, and logos not part of the actual product.
By enabling "Image Improvements", Google will attempt to detect and remove the overlay using software. Because it could inaccurately remove legitimate parts of your product images, it is best to leave the setting off unless you have products that are disapproved for overlays. If you have products disapproved for overlays, then enabling this setting will fix that error.
Why Disable Price, Availability, and Condition Automations?
Because we submit a accurate and up-to-date feed with all your product data on a regular basis, there is no need for automatic updates for price, availability, and condition.
The way the automatic updates works is that Google's web crawler (Googlebot) scans your website periodically and guesses the values. Based on what we see on our clients merchant accounts, the guesses are often incorrect affecting about 1-5% of the product catalog. When the guess is incorrect, product listings will have warnings and errors, curtailing their visibility.
- Warning - Automatic item updates active [condition]
- Warning - Automatic item updates active [availability]
Disabling automatic updates will fix these errors and warnings.
Shipping updates
It is preferable for the merchant to set the shipping rates and policies manually in Shipping and returns rather than rely on Google to automatically determine this using their software bot. This is because Google's automated software can often be wrong.
How to Disable an Automation
- Go to the Products > Automations tab
- Click View details for the automation
- Click the toggle button to turn off the setting
- Click Save
- Click Turn off