Fix product image disapprovals in Google Merchant Center
Typical Merchant Center message: Image too small · Promotional overlay on image · Generic image · Image unavailable
Reviewed October 14, 2026 against Google’s published rules.
The main image is the first thing shoppers see, and Google disapproves products whose image cannot be fetched, is too small, or does not clearly show the product.
What Google requires
- At least 100 × 100 pixels, or 250 × 250 for apparel. Larger images (800 pixels or more) usually look and perform better.
- Google’s help also says all product images will need to be at least 500 × 500 pixels. It reports warnings since July 2026 for images between the old minimum and 500 × 500, and enforcement from January 31, 2027.
- No more than 64 megapixels and 16 MB; JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, TIFF or a still GIF.
- The image shows the product itself — no placeholder, logo or “image coming soon” picture.
- No promotional text, watermarks, borders or calls to action on the main image.
- The image URL opens for Google’s crawler, without login or blocking.
How to fix it
- Replace placeholder and tiny images with real product photos on a clean background.
- Remove text overlays and watermarks from the main image; keep lifestyle or text images as additional images.
- Check that the image address opens in a private browser window and is not blocked by bot protection.
- After replacing images, refresh the feed so Google fetches the new image.
Check your own catalog for these issues
FeedGuard opens every main image in your catalog, reads its real format and dimensions, and flags unreachable, unsupported, too-small and placeholder images. Overlays and watermarks still need a visual check.
Google’s requirement: support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350. FeedGuard checks your data against published rules; Google makes the final approval decision.
Independent guidance. Google’s current documentation and decisions control. FeedGuard is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google or Shopify, and this guide is not an official Google Help Center page.