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Google Merchant Center image requirements (and why your images get disapproved)

Image problems are one of the most common — and most fixable — reasons products get disapproved. They split into two groups: the link is broken, or the image itself breaks a rule.

The link problems (fix these first)

• Missing image_link. Every product needs one. No image, no listing.
• Not a valid URL. It must be a full, publicly reachable https:// link — not a relative path, not behind a login, not returning a 404.
• Blocked to Googlebot. If your CDN or robots rules block Google's crawler, the image can't be fetched and the item is disapproved.

The image-content rules

• No promotional overlays. Text, badges, or graphics on the image — "Sale", "Free shipping", price stickers, watermarks, logos over the product — are disapproved. The image must show the product, nothing else.
• Big enough. Google wants at least 100×100 px (250×250 for apparel), and rewards larger. Tiny thumbnails get flagged.
• Real product, not a placeholder. "No image available" graphics, single-colour blocks, or generic illustrations don't count.
• Right framing. The product should fill most of the frame on a plain, preferably white background, and not be crammed, rotated, or cropped oddly.

How to fix them

Link issues you can catch in your feed today (that's what Feed Doctor checks). Content issues (overlays, size, background) live in the image files themselves — you'll need to re-export clean product photos without any promo text or watermarks, then update image_link to the new URLs and re-fetch the feed.

Related: All disapproval reasons · Price mismatch · Invalid GTIN
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