Fix “Text on image” (promotional overlay) in Google Merchant Center
Typical Merchant Center message: Text on image
Reviewed October 14, 2026 against Google’s published rules.
Google disapproves products whose image carries promotional text or watermarks that get in the way of the product. Google’s guidance: keep the main image focused only on the product itself.
Overlays Google lists
- Calls to action, such as “Buy”, “Shop now” or “Order today”.
- Price and shipping details, such as discounts or “Free shipping”.
- Service information, such as warranty claims.
- Promotional adjectives, such as “Best”, “Cheap” or “Top quality”.
- Condition or compatibility text, such as “New” or “2-piece set”.
- Barcodes and tracking codes, such as UPC barcodes, QR codes or serial tags.
- Overlays and watermarks, such as stock-photo watermarks, copyright symbols and graphic stamps.
- Added brand, manufacturer or retailer names and logos. These are allowed only if they are a physical part of the product.
How to fix it
- Open Products, then Needs attention, and filter for this issue.
- Change the image link [image_link] to point to a clean image of the product without overlays, using Edit product or your product data.
- In Shopify, set a clean photo as the first image of the product. Keep banners and lifestyle graphics with text as additional images.
- Google notes that automatic image improvements can be turned on so Merchant Center applies changes to product images automatically.
- To fix many products at once, download the .csv list of affected products from the Needs attention tab, correct the image links in 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 cannot see text inside a picture, so overlays and watermarks still need a visual check. It does flag images that cannot be opened, are too small or look like placeholders.
Google’s requirement: support.google.com/merchants/answer/12158684. 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.