What makes a healthier
Merchant Center feed?
A feed tells Google what you sell. A missing title can be a straightforward error; a missing barcode can depend on whether the manufacturer assigned one. FeedDoctor keeps those distinctions visible.
Start with the essentials
The baseline checks product IDs, titles or structured titles, descriptions or structured descriptions, landing-page links, image links, price and availability. IDs should be unique. Structured text is flagged for manual subattribute review in this release.
Keep prices and stock unambiguous
A price combines an amount and an ISO currency code, such as 19.95 USD. FeedDoctor can normalize an explicit 19,95 usd, but will leave an ambiguous 1,234 USD for you to review. It never adds a missing currency or rounds your money.
General product availability uses in_stock, out_of_stock, preorder or backorder. Preorder and backorder also need an availability date. Stock reality must match your website; the file alone cannot establish that.
Use identifiers that actually belong to your products
GTIN checks cover numeric format, supported lengths and the check digit. A valid check digit does not prove manufacturer assignment. Missing GTIN and brand findings are review warnings because exceptions exist. FeedDoctor never invents these values or assumes identifier_exists is false.
Preview the repairs
Leading and trailing whitespace, recognized header names, clear price formats and unambiguous stock spellings can be standardized. Each proposal shows the original value, suggested value and reason. You choose changes before applying them; the original upload stays intact.
Know what the report cannot tell you
A clean baseline report does not guarantee listing approval. Country and category rules, MPN requirements, shipping, taxes, variant attributes, account policies, image quality, GS1 assignment and website consistency need additional review. URLs are checked for syntax and are not visited.
Temporary, private file handling
The default limit is 10 MB and 5,000 products per upload. Files expire after 60 minutes, with a background cleanup interval of 30 seconds. You can also delete a completed analysis immediately. XLSX formulas are rejected; formula-like CSV values are flagged and product CSV export is blocked. XLSX exports store cells as text.
A small before-and-after example
For a product with ID 00011, the value 19,95 usd can be proposed as 19.95 USD. The ID stays unchanged. A blank title remains an error until you provide the real title.
Use the built-in sample to run these checks yourself. The report separates current findings from resolved issues after selected changes are applied.
Official Google references
- Product data specification
- Price and Availability
- Availability date
- GTIN context and GTIN format
- Brand and Identifier exists
Rules can change. These baseline rules were reviewed on 2 November 2026.