The Free Way to See If Your Google Feed Is Leaking Money

You don't need to hire anyone to find out whether your Shopify feed is costing you money.

Everything you need is already in your own accounts, it's free, and it takes about 15 minutes.

Here are the three checks I run first on every store, including the one that trips up most people, because Google moved it and most guides online are still wrong.

Check 1: The page Google moved (and most guides still get wrong)

If you've searched this before, you were probably told to open Diagnostics in Merchant Center.

That page doesn't exist anymore. In the current Merchant Center, Diagnostics is gone. Google's own documentation now points you here instead:

1. Sign in to Google Merchant Center

2. In the left menu, click Products

3. Click the Needs attention tab

   
   

That's your leak report.

Every product with a problem is listed, with a "What needs attention" column telling you exactly what's wrong. You can filter by issue, status, or impact.

Now read it properly, because the three statuses do not mean the same thing:

• Disapproved. The product is not showing at all. Not in Shopping ads, not in free listings. If you're paying for ads, you're paying to promote a catalog with holes in it. Fix these first.

• Limited. The product shows, but far less than it should, usually because something's missing: identifiers, a category, an attribute. Quiet money loss.

• Under review. Not a problem. This is just Google's processing time and it clears on its own. Don't let it scare you, and don't let anyone bill you to "fix" it.

  
  

Sort by disapproved, count them, and write the number down.

Check 2: The ghost products

This is the one nobody looks at, and it's often the biggest leak.

Some products are approved and still earn nothing. No error, no warning, no disapproval.

They simply never surface, because Google can't match them to anything people actually type.

Check 3: The one you can do without a Google account at all

Open your own storefront and look at it like a stranger. Two tests.

The first-three-words test. Read the first three words of a few product titles. Would someone actually type those into Google? "The Riley" and "Style 4" match nothing. "Personalized Wood Name Sign" matches exactly the person looking for it.

Titles are the single biggest factor in which searches you show up for.

The filter test. Open a collection page. Can a shopper narrow by occasion, size, or material? If there's no filter option, your products aren't structured, and that same missing structure is usually what's breaking your Google feed too.

Shopify's Search & Discovery filters run on exactly the same product data your feed does. The two problems share one root cause.

What your number actually means

Add up what you found.

• 0 to 1 issues. You're in good shape. Tighten the edges.

• 2 to 3. You're leaking. It's quietly costing you sales every month.

• 4 to 5 or more. You're losing real money. The good news: this is exactly the kind of thing that's fixable, usually in a week or two.

The honest part

These three checks tell you that you're leaking. They don't always tell you why, and they definitely don't fix it, because nearly every one of these problems traces back to the same root cause: product data that isn't structured.

Google classes most of these as product data quality violations, which is a polite way of saying "your data, not our algorithm." Fix a product at a time and the gaps come right back the next time you add inventory.

But you should absolutely run them yourself first.

Never pay someone to tell you something you can find in fifteen minutes.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free way to check my Google Shopping feed?

Yes, and it's the one Google gives you. Merchant Center's own diagnostics show you every product it has a problem with, why, and how many items share the same problem. You don't need a paid tool to find the leak. You need about fifteen minutes and a willingness to read the list.

How often should I check my feed?

Once a month is enough for a stable catalog, plus any time you add products, change a theme, or edit product data in bulk. Those three events are what break feeds. If you'd rather not have to remember, put it on the calendar.

What's the difference between an error and a warning?

An error means the product is blocked and isn't showing at all. A warning means it's running, but with something missing that limits how and where Google will show it. Errors cost you traffic today. Warnings cost you traffic quietly, and they can escalate into errors later.

My Merchant Center says everything is approved. Am I fine?

Not necessarily. Approved means Google will show the product. It doesn't mean the product is described well enough to win the click. A thin title and a generic description will pass review and still lose to a competitor selling the same item with better data.

Do I need a third-party feed app?

Not to diagnose the problem. Feed apps are useful for automating fixes and for rules you'd otherwise apply by hand, but they can't invent product data you never entered. Find out what's actually missing first, then decide whether an app is worth paying for.

Want the whole list?

Download my free 5 Signs Your Shopify Feed Is Leaking Money checklist.

It walks you through every check above in about five minutes, and it's yours free.

If you'd rather see the full picture, every leak in your catalog, prioritized, with the disapproval-causing issues flagged first, that's what a Catalog Health Audit is.

But run the free checks first. Seriously.

I'm Crystal. I run my own Shopify store, collageandwood.com, where I took the catalog from 322 feed and taxonomy errors to zero and built the audit that tells me the moment it drifts. Now I do the same for other Shopify stores.