Fix “Invalid URL” in Google Merchant Center
Typical Merchant Center message: Invalid URL
Reviewed October 14, 2026 against Google’s published rules.
Google reports an invalid URL when a URL in your data feed is not well formed or contains invalid characters.
The three causes Google names
- URLs contain spaces or certain symbols.
- URLs contain backslashes.
- The feed contains relative URLs. Google cannot process a feed with only relative URLs.
How to fix it
- Replace spaces and symbols with URL-encoded entities. A space becomes %20 and & becomes %26.
- Use forward slashes (/) in URLs, never backslashes.
- Start every URL with http:// or https:// and include the domain name. Google’s example of a correct form is http://www.example.com/main.html. Forms such as /main.html or www.example.com/main.html are not accepted.
- Re-upload the corrected file.
Check your own catalog for these issues
FeedGuard checks every product link and image link for valid syntax, embedded passwords and length, and shows the row of any URL that does not pass.
Google’s requirement: support.google.com/merchants/answer/15083707. 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.