- Hey guys, Sam here from KeyCommerce.com.
In this video,
I'm going to go through three stores
that were suspended in Google Merchant Center
and show you the reasons why they were suspended.
My team and I were working
with suspended stores all the time
and we've created this guide that shows you
how to find the suspension issue
with your store
and how to fix it.
I'll leave a link in the description below
but you're gonna see some examples in this video
as I go through the stores
and show you what likely caused the suspension
and there are a lot of patterns
across these stores
but in our guide,
we have an 87 point checklist.
It's probably even bigger by now
'Cause we're constantly adding to it
of these errors that people make
on their stores that cause the suspension
things like copying product images,
the shipping page
making sure their shipping and returns page
are all clearly outlined
with the right information,
fixing all the errors
in the Google Merchant Center account.
There are all these things you need to do
and we're seeing all these stores get suspended
and we're helping them fix it
and this is our way
of helping you guys with a comprehensive guide.
Like I said, link in the description
let's go through some stores right now.
Okay guys, let's look at this first site here
and they're selling these essential oil diffusers
these sort of products here.
It does look pretty professional
but there are a few things on this website.
The first thing is
when I go to a product page here
they have made this pretty nice.
It's not too bad but all I need to do
and this is what Google does,
just reverse image, search the product photo
and it's gonna show me all the other stores
that have the exact same image
of the exact same product
and these are all AliExpress
but if I go to the next page.
It's likely urban diffusers,
this website here essential.
See this Russian side,
they're all copying the same.
Even Amazon,
they're all copying the same product photo
and that is a red flag for Google.
Google is gonna reverse image
search all the images on your website.
If you have a lot of stock photos,
if you don't have any custom imagery,
Google is gonna use that
when they ban your, like suspend
your store mergers
and it may not be the only thing necessarily
but these things all add up
and Google is looking for patterns
and they can see this is on AliExpress,
so obviously it's drop shipping,
that's pretty clear
unless you're actually imported it,
even then if you're just copying
the product photos it's probably
on the stereotypes right there.
So yeah,
that's a big thing you guys have
to watch out for.
The next thing
for this store was I took a look
at every fund policy on their page
and they've got this returns policy
within 30 days of delivery
if you wanna return it
but down here in the exchange
and this is a huge red flag.
"If you have received the wrong products
or any product is damaged,
please contact us immediately."
Fair enough "but we only replace items
if they're defective
or damaged within seven days."
Okay, that's just thinking
about this from a customer perspective.
If you buy a product
and say it breaks in two weeks
because it's a terrible product,
they say that there's no way to get a refund.
There's no exchange,
there's no nothing.
So the warrant is seven days, that's crazy.
Like that's illegal in my country in Australia,
I think the minimum is one year
or two years but Google is gonna call this
and that's a big reason,
the refunds or returns page.
They're so sensitive to this page,
you need to make it there's a whole template
that you need to follow
for this page
but that's clearly I look at that
and I go, yeah, Google's definitely,
that's likely one
of the biggest factors
that's caused the suspension
of this site here.
Not just because it's like Google
isn't a big fan of drop shippers
and they're only gonna tell you a drop shipping
if they can reverse image,
search and find that all the shipping page,
if you have long shipping times
but this one here,
that's a huge red flag.
Even as a customer,
I'm gonna look at that and go, wow.
If you sell me a terrible product
and it doesn't work, it breaks.
Yeah, does that mean actually receiving the products?
Yeah, I can understand.
They're trying to protect themselves here
but if you're a store owner guys
which all of you are,
I know that you want to protect yourselves
and you don't wanna get all these returns
and stuff at six months
or one year down the track
but honestly, you're selling like,
it's your responsibility.
Even if you're,
drop-shipping selling a supplies products
as a retailer,
it's your responsibility
to really double check your products
make sure they're high quality
and if you do have a problem,
you need to refund them
and then you sought out the refund
with your supplier.
If your supplier is only giving you
the exact same policy I would run for the hills.
That's just man,
that's scary stuff.
So you wanna find good suppliers,
good products and pass it on to the customers
'Cause that's what matters
'Cause really what's gonna happen here.
Google's going to see this
and just go, okay.
If someone buys a product here
and they have a bad experience
and the product breaks in two weeks
and this store doesn't claim
like have any responsibility for that,
then that person is gonna go,
"oh, I'm not gonna go to Google next time,
I'm going to go to Amazon,
if I wanna buy an oil diffuser" and so Google
suddenly lost one user
and over time,
if a lot of people have like a lot
of stores are creating this terrible experience
then people are just not gonna trust Google
for the e-commerce anymore.
Everyone's just going to go to eBay
or Amazon or what have you.
So that's really important.
Okay guys, this next store here
they've actually changed this store.
Since I scripted this video
and planned out all the stores,
I'm going to audit
and they've updated this image.
A big part of this store
is that the design is clunky,
it's not super professional,
the image is super blurry
and there are a bunch of other things
I'm gonna show you
but on the homepage
this isn't necessarily gonna cause a suspension
but it definitely is one
of the common things
that we see across suspended stores.
It's just like a really unprofessional
clunky design that could really be improved.
So with this one here,
I just wouldn't have this huge image
that takes like three seconds to scroll down.
That's not a great thing
and guys, similar to the other store
that I just audited,
these guys here don't have a great refunds
and returns policy,
so they've got this policy here.
It's fair enough
but going down to the exchanges
we only replace autopsy data defective
or damaged if you need to exchange it,
blah, blah
but you will be responsible for paying
for your own shipping costs
for returning your item.
Shipping cost a nonrefundable.
If you receive a refund,
the cost of return shipping will be deducted
from your refund,
I'm gonna explain this in other words,
basically what's happening here is
that if someone receives the wrong products,
a product that's broken,
maybe that these guys are selling clothes,
maybe they get a product
and it's got a big rip on it.
Well, they've just paid for this product
and they have to pay again
to ship the product back
to this e-commerce store
to get the new product again
like really think about that.
That's really bad experience,
like if someone has to pay for shipping
even though the e-commerce store screwed up.
Yeah, that's a huge red flag.
Likelier contributed to the suspension
for this store, really bad
because the store messed up,
why should the customer have to pay
for that and pay for the shipping?
That just, yeah, that just makes no sense.
The next thing for this store is that it looks
like they're drop shipping with this store here.
Like I just looked at one of the products images,
like look at these jackets here
or what have you
if I just reverse image search
just like I did before with that other store.
Let's see what comes up.
Okay, yep.
See it,
so they actual store.
Yep, that's different.
So let's have a look.
It looks like no, that's a different one
'Cause it's probably showing
on the related items, but yeah.
So it's showing on a different,
maybe this is it.
It's on Amazon as well,
I've seen an image as well,
let me find it guys.
There it is.
Okay, cool.
So the Sydney 10 Gillette's yeah,
it's the same product.
Let me pull them up next to each other,
there we go.
Yeah.
So you see this exact same product image.
That is a red flag,
it's not like there are hundreds
of stores selling the same product
which is a good thing
but still that can be a huge contributor
because Google is gonna go,
okay, same product image.
Someone copied someone.
Of course,
maybe this store could be a drop shipper.
So that could contribute
to the actual suspension.
Okay, this is the next store I'm going to audit.
So this looks
like a drop shipping general store,
quite common
and the last couple of years
a lot of people are running these stores
and there's a lot of mistakes on this store
but I'm gonna go through the big ones.
See the first one you can tell us
a drop shipping store.
Firstly, just like the look of it,
the product pages
that follows this sort of template,
this is a little bit more professional store
than a lot of drop shipping stores.
They've clearly spent some time
on the design here
but see, I go to the shipping page here
which everyone needs a shipping page.
So important,
Google definitely checks this page.
It needs to match what's
in your Google Merchant Center account.
That's really important,
it needs to matter what actually happens,
so if someone actually purchased the product
and it takes months to arrive
you need to say like it takes months to arrive.
This one here says,
how long does the delivery take?
Usually two to five weeks
but due to high demand
into some of our smaller products
please allow four to seven weeks,
six to nine weeks
sometimes during because of this year,
that's insane.
Something is really wrong there
and combined with the fact that it tells
that it's a drop shipping store
then they're using the images
from the supplier.
Yeah, that's a huge red flag
to Google because people don't wanna wait two,
three months to receive their product.
Now with Amazon, with same day
like all these stores
that are offering
really fast shipping
people expect the product yesterday
but this is also a red flag for this store.
Something else is the product pages,
so I checked out the product page is a big cause
for suspensions for stores,
especially for a misrepresentation of self
and product is cleaning things
and just totally hyping out your product.
This isn't the only reason for the suspension
but hyping up your product to no end and lying.
If you had fake reviews,
if you're misleading customers,
if you're obviously lying on your store.
I couldn't believe I saw this.
Really,
it looks like they've got a plugin
that you can't highlight
to stop people stealing their products
but yeah, so you kind of highlight
but if I could I'd highlight this bit here,
QURLX since the name is QURLX
fan favorite item
over three million units sold
and supplies are limited, three million units.
Okay, think about that,
three million,
oh they've changed the price, it used to be $50,
they've lowered the price,
three million means they've made $150 million
in revenue.
Now it's $40.
So a hundred and yeah,
I can do some $120 million of revenue,
that's an insane amount of revenue
for one product for a store like this.
Do they have any reviews?
So I didn't see any reviews,
three million units sold, no reviews.
Yeah, that's just crazy,
hopefully you can see the craziness here as well
but yeah that's just bogus, three million,
that means so many people have this product,
I honestly can't believe that maybe it's true
but to me
that looks like a crazy misleading claim.
That's just trying to build insane social proof,
that's like having a thousand fake reviews
on your site.
So yeah, this side here
they've really tried to make it
as professional as possible
but yet there are a few things here
that could cause a suspension
that shipping policy is a big one,
that's only one page I've viewed
but they're making these claims
across the whole site.
That's a big red flag guys,
I really hope these guys do get unsuspended,
they definitely can.
They just need to fix it
and remove these sort of things here,
they're overselling, misleading customers
having really long shipping times.
If you can find suppliers locally
or find suppliers that can drop ship
these products, drop shipping,
you can make it work.
I've made a video on this
that you can make it work
but you need to make it,
so that Google can't see
that you're drop shipping.
That's basically the long
and short of it, in my guide
I go through that sort of stuff
but yeah you need to make sure Google can tell.
So not having copied product images,
not having copied to product pages,
so potentially these ones here,
if I highlighted these
in reverse searched the text here
I might find all their competitors
with their product pages
as well as the supplier.
That's a big red flag,
long shipping times,
yeah, that's another thing.
So Google,
can't tell that they're drop shipping
and 'Cause Google's not gonna say to you,
"hey can I come and visit your warehouse
and see that you're not drop shipping?"
They're not gonna do that,
they're gonna use their pattern recognition
and their AI to look at all these stores
and go, okay.
Yeah, this one is clearly drop shipping
because it matches the pattern
of all these other stores
that we know are drop shipping.
So yeah, that's it for this one guys,
what I wanna do now is show you a store
that's never been suspended
that I've worked with
and that are doing very well
and I'll show you the big difference
between these stores
that you're seeing here and this actual store.
So just remember what these stores look like,
they don't have the custom image.
They don't have a lot of branding here,
there isn't a really clear brand,
quality being begins at QURLX.
Like who's buying from this,
this is a general store
so they're trying to make it
as general as possible,
luckily because they're testing these products
and maybe they're going to create
a national brand store
around these products,
Google still doesn't like
the general sort of approach.
They like stores like this one here,
this is a old client of mine,
also great friends of mine.
They've created a really strong brand,
these guys here,
they're selling Keto cereal.
If you don't know what Keto is
it's like a low carb diet
that is very popular,
the last couple of years
that you have a lot of fat and protein and very low carbs.
So these guys here they've actually
created this cereal that has this.
A lot of people, they crave cereal,
they love cereal
and when they go on this diet,
they miss their cereal.
So that really understood this need,
this desire.
These people that want this product
they've now got product created
or made, you see here like the difference
between this site
and these other sites
that are reviewed as well as these guys,
they've got all these benefits.
Sugar-free high protein,
one gram of net carbs, net one gram carbs,
gluten grain-free.
They really know what these people want,
they've got the nutritional information
and this is what people really want.
They really care
about the nutritional information
when they're on this diet
because you're always looking
at how many carbs
there are got the different versions here
but a lot of social proof,
a lot of brands, it's all custom.
Even though this is UGC, User Generated Content
they've got there,
it's like in their own branding slide
it looks really good.
It's huge, more reviews, 5,000 reviews.
These are the greatest that fan, like great guys.
Awesome but their whole thing is just
like all custom imagery.
I know that takes a lot of work
but honestly guys
I've worked a lot of drop shippers
that have done their custom imagery, all they did
they just got the product shipped to their home
and then just with their iPhone camera,
just easy peasy with the camera
and make little videos,
gifts got that done
and that was fully customed
then they get that on their site
and no one else is doing that.
Maybe someone could steal their images
but Google crawls this sort of stuff,
they have dates,
they're gonna see that you were there first,
that's it guys,
that's a really beautiful store.
Let's check out a product page here,
let's go to the collections page for cereal.
Okay.
So that's pulling up their product page,
so they've really figured out
who they're selling
to the huge social proof here,
all the benefits here.
Well, I know these guys really well
because we worked with them.
We scaled this store up
and they were obsessed
with understanding their customers.
This is the thing that I talk
about in a lot of my videos
on my channel is just this huge diamond
that it's not a formula
but when people do this guys,
they dominate,
they dominate e-commerce when they start listening
to their customers and finding out
what their niche
what their customers want
in a product on website
and you see here,
these guys have done that.
They've got pages and pages
of buyer personas and they're doing great.
They're doing well
but it took a lot of work
but that work is done in the beginning,
understanding the customers as an ongoing process
but you can see like a drop shipping store,
a drop shipping store came
in against these guys
and just had the product
and that's it
and just copied like the supply product page
without understating the customers.
You can see that it's not gonna be nearly successful
'Cause think about this two guys
the customer is going on Google ads.
For example, I talk about Google ads,
a lot Google ads,
they're gonna open up all these tabs
and look at all the competitors.
They're gonna see this store
and then they're gonna see a store
that looks like this
that just has the product,
who are they're gonna buy from?
They're gonna buy
from these guys that understand
that I've got all this proof
from all these reviews,
it's huge guys.
It's huge.
Anyway, I use these guys in an example
when I'm talking a lot
about great brands
and I've worked with a lot of great brands,
these guys are killing it.
Their portal, it's taken years of hard work
but they're doing well.
So guys, that's it for this video,
I hope that was useful
for showing you some causes
of Google Merchant Center suspensions
and how you can fix them.
You can see, there are a lot
of patterns across these suspended stores.
Google's catching these with their algorithms
when they crawl the store and check,
especially in that initial review,
if you don't know,
when you create a Google Merchant Center account,
Google does what's called an initial review
where they do a big crawl
of your product,
of your Merchant Center account.
Looking at business information settings,
taxing stripping settings,
checking your whole website,
crawling every page
and seeing if it matches what they want
in a good store on Google Shopping
and the last couple of months
they've become much more strict with this.
Especially since July
we're getting five to 10 people per day,
emailing us asking us to check their store
and help them with this
and that's why I've created this guide
that takes you through everything,
I'll leave a link down below for my side.
I wanted to create a way
that I can help as many people
as possible with this
and that's my way of doing it
because honestly, you guys
so many people are struggling with this
I wanna help you guys get your stores
on Google Shopping
because that's where the money is.
That's where the magic is
and honestly,
with all these stores getting suspended
it actually means
that there's less competition
on shopping right now.
There's less people on there,
even leading up to Christmas,
as it's gonna be more people on there
but it means that there's no longer
all these drop shipping stores
that haven't put that time
into fixing their sites.
So actually for the people
that do get on it's awesome,
it's fantastic guys.
Anyway, this video was helpful, guys,
I tried to show you all these stores here.
Give it a like tell Youtube
that I'm making good content for you guys.
Let me know in the comments section below too,
I know this is,
I'm kind of peeling back the curtain here
to show you a lot
of these issues that caused suspensions
because this topic is very confusing
for so many people.
I'm trying to help you guys here
and if you're not subscribed, subscribe.
Anyway, thanks for watching guys,
I'll see you in the next one.
Bye for now.
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