Resolving Google Merchant Center Misrepresentation After a Security Breach

Situation

An EU-based e-commerce store was on a steady growth trajectory in both traffic and revenue when a server migration unintentionally introduced security vulnerabilities. An outdated plugin was exploited, allowing unauthorized access that resulted in widespread on-site manipulation.

The breach caused:

• Tampering with Open Graph tags and Search Console branding
• Unauthorized modifications to robots.txt, leading to the indexation of dynamic and spam URLs
• Overwritten product descriptions, images, and metadata
• Injection of fake review snippets and altered product schema properties

Because Google Merchant Center was pulling data from a “found by Google” feed, these changes propagated into Shopping listings. Products began appearing with misleading reviews, incorrect descriptions, and mismatched images—triggering a Google Merchant Center misrepresentation violation.

The account was subsequently suspended, products were delisted from Shopping surfaces, and revenue dropped immediately.

Task

My objective was to:

• Eliminate the root cause of the misrepresentation
• Restore content, schema, and feed accuracy
• Remove all injected and spam content from Google’s index
• Regain Google Merchant Center eligibility through a successful policy appeal

Action

I implemented a remediation strategy focused on security hardening, index cleanup, and misrepresentation resolution:

1. Containment of Misrepresentation Sources
   • Disabled all Merchant Center feeds and data sources to prevent further dissemination of corrupted product data
   • Deployed MalCare to scan for malware, identify vulnerabilities, and remove infected files
2. Index & Crawl Remediation
   • Initiated bulk removal of spam URLs in Google Search Console
   • Enforced 410 status codes on all breach-generated URLs to permanently deindex them
   • Rebuilt the robots.txt file to restrict crawl access to invalid and spam URL patterns
   • Resubmitted a clean XML sitemap to re-establish canonical crawl paths
3. Accelerated Re-evaluation
   • Used the Google Indexing API to expedite recrawling of eligible pages
   • Purged cached spam content, fake SKUs, manipulated reviews, and corrupted schema
   • Monitored indexation until a sharp decline in invalid indexed pages confirmed misrepresentation cleanup
4. Merchant Center Reinstatement
   • Submitted a detailed appeal documenting the breach, corrective actions, and preventative safeguards implemented to avoid future misrepresentation issues

Result

Google approved the misrepresentation appeal, fully reinstating the Merchant Center account

• All affected products were relisted across Shopping surfaces
• Spammy reviews, injected schema, and misleading product data were fully removed
• Traffic and revenue rebounded, returning the store to a sustained growth path