Fix “Missing product description” in Google Merchant Center
Typical Merchant Center message: Missing product description
Reviewed October 14, 2026 against Google’s published rules.
Google reports a missing product description when the description attribute was left out for some products. Shopping ads and listings need a description so shoppers understand what is shown.
What to write
- Include relevant information only, such as size, material, intended age range, special features and technical specifications.
- Describe how it looks: shape, pattern, texture and design.
- Use normal grammar and end with a punctuation mark.
- Google recommends around 500–1,000 characters and allows up to 5,000.
How to fix it
- Open Products, then Needs attention, and filter for this issue.
- Add a description to each affected product, with Edit product or in your own product data.
- To fix many products at once, download the .csv list of affected products from the Needs attention tab, correct your product data and re-upload it.
- Google says it can take 24–72 hours for a fix to leave the Needs attention list.
Check your own catalog for these issues
FeedGuard flags empty and very short descriptions in your file. It does not write descriptions for you, because it never invents product facts.
Google’s requirement: support.google.com/merchants/answer/12468180. 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.