The following is a summary of my knowledge from many years as a volunteer at the Google Ads Community, answering hundreds of questions – and hearing the stories, examining the websites – regarding Misrepresentation suspension in the Merchant Centre.

This is my own opinion only, provided because Google Ads support staff will not help with this in any way, and the help files are woefully generic and lacking sufficient detail.

Contact Details

90% of cases I have seen are caused by business address issues. While the official policies only require a website to have a form of contact, the reality is that Google wants absolute trust for small or new businesses, as do shoppers.

The official policy is this (Dec 2023):

Customers need to be able to find out how to contact you on your website in at least one way. Examples include, but are not limited to, a contact us form, a link to your business profile on social media, an email address or phone number.

The reality is that you need the following on your Contact Us page, and preferably in the footer of the site as well. The Contact page must be easy to find in the top and bottom site menus.

• Phone number
• Email address (that uses the website domain)
• Physical business address

The details should be the same within the Merchant Centre.

Business Address

Google wants to see the physical address of the business. That is where you (the owner) operate the business from, for example where they answer business phone calls. If that is their home, then that address needs to be used.

Many owners are reluctant to post their home address online, although such modern fears have no basis in reality, and not long ago everyone was in the phone book. Google and shoppers want trust, and without a honest address of where you working from, you might as well be on Mars. If you want to compete with bricks and mortar businesses, which have inherent trust, you need to go beyond your comfort zone.

Do not use:

• Registered address
• PO Box
• Warehouse that is not your own
• Virtual Office

The address needs to be complete, not missing a street or suite number. It should resolve on Google Maps when searched for.

Many businesses in China and India get suspended, presumably due to Google’s inability to verify the address. I do not have a solution for that.

Ideally start advertising/shipping to your own country first. It looks odd to have a UK business that only ships to the US!

Don’t use a VPN – Google might see that as a way of tricking them. Do not sign up for Merchant Centre or Google Ads if you are not in your home country.

What Google Wants to Avoid

Google doesn’t want a website to pretend they are in one country – because shoppers prefer to buy from their own land – when they fundamentally are not.

Google wants to exclude anyone who sets up an LLC or registered business, and buys a “local” phone number and virtual address, to suggest they are actually in that country.

Google seems to be quite good at spotting if you just choose some random address, although that could be more that you have the IP address from another county.

Other Possible Causes

These are the most common:

• Copied content (aside from product details)
• Untrue stock numbers – make sure only what is in stock and ready to ship can be added to the cart
• Missing shipping and returns policies
• Selling custom products. Customisable products are okay if the base product can be purchased
• Automated currency conversion