Every product in Google Merchant Center carries a status, and the label tells you whether to wait, fix something or do nothing. Google's help page defines five of them. This guide explains each one, how long it lasts and what to do next.
The five statuses
The Products table has a Status column, which Google controls. Its help page lists five values.
| Status | Google's definition |
|---|---|
| Under review | Google is checking the product for issues |
| Processing | Google is applying an update you made |
| Approved | The review is complete and the product is showing on Google |
| Limited | The product shows only in some cases, or some of its data may not appear |
| Not approved | The product cannot be shown because of one or more errors |
There is no status called Pending on that page. The word appears only in "Pending image crawl", which Google gives as one reason a product is under review.
Under review and Processing
These two mean Google is working and you are waiting. They run on very different clocks.
- Under review: Google says a review usually takes 3 to 5 business days for Shopping ads and a few weeks for other features, such as free listings
- Common reasons for review: A new account, a first upload, or an image Google has not fetched yet
- Processing: Usually follows an edit to product information. Google says it can take up to 15 minutes
If a review runs long, Google's advice is to make sure your website content, contact information and product data follow its policies, then submit a review request in Merchant Center.
Limited
Limited is a partial result. Google gives two examples: a product eligible in some countries but not others, or eligible for some marketing methods and not others. The product is live somewhere, so it is easy to overlook.
Open the Needs attention tab to see which issues are behind it. Many are missing or weak attributes. See the GTIN warning guide for one common example.
Not approved
Not approved means the product is not showing at all. Google names two common causes: policy disapprovals, and data quality disapprovals against its product data specification.
- Where to start: Select Fix errors, or open the Needs attention tab
- Then: Read the issue named on the product and correct it at the source
The usual causes are covered in how to fix disapproved products.
Status is not the same as visibility
The same table has a Visibility column, which you control. A product can pass review and still be switched off.
| Visibility | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Showing | The product is showing on Google |
| Hidden | The product is not showing on Google |
| Error | The product cannot be shown because of one or more errors |
Google says hidden products are archived automatically after 14 days. There is also a Needs Update indicator, which is not a status. It appears 30 days after a product's last update and means the data should be refreshed.
Doing this at scale
FeedFix checks every product against Google Merchant Center and Meta Catalog rules and scores each one from 0 to 100 per channel, so you can find weak product data without opening products one at a time. It drafts compliant title and description rewrites you review as before/after diffs and apply in bulk, with every change audit-logged. See FeedFix.