GMCSuspension.com
GMCSuspension.com
Your checkout flow is one of the most closely checked areas of your store in Google Merchant Center. Google enforces strict policies on pricing accuracy, shipping cost disclosure, cart functionality, and page load speed. A poorly designed checkout does not just hurt conversions. It triggers a GMC suspension. This guide covers what Google actually checks, which checkout violations most commonly lead to suspensions, and the step-by-step fix for each one.
Google's automated compliance scanner and manual reviewers check five main areas:
Every price displayed in a Google Shopping ad must match the final price at checkout. If a product shows $29.99 in search results, shoppers should not discover unexpected fees that push the total to $39.99 at the cart. The price shown in your ad must be the price customers pay before entering payment details. For details on the most common price-related suspension cause, see the price mismatch fix guide.
Shipping costs must be disclosed before checkout completion. Customers should see shipping fees clearly in the cart, not as a surprise at the final step. If shipping is free, state it explicitly. If shipping varies by location, show the estimated cost based on the customer's location early in the flow.
Your add-to-cart button must function without errors. Your cart page must load without timeouts. If a customer adds an item, it must appear in the cart. These basic functions break more often than most store owners expect, especially after site migrations or plugin updates.
Google's compliance checker loads your product page and attempts to proceed to checkout. If the page redirects more than 2 to 3 times or takes longer than 5 to 10 seconds to load, the scan may fail. Pages over 15 seconds are treated as effectively non-functional.
Googlebot approaches your store as an unauthenticated visitor. If your checkout redirects unauthenticated users to a login page before they can complete a purchase, Google's scanner treats this as a broken checkout flow. Guest checkout must be available.
This is the most common checkout violation. A $15 item shows in Google Shopping. The customer adds it to cart and proceeds through checkout, and then a $5 processing fee plus $7.99 shipping appears. The $15 item becomes $27.99. Even if your terms of service disclose fees somewhere on your site, Google's policy requires all costs to be visible in the product listing or clearly on the cart page before final payment.
Sometimes a site update breaks cart functionality without the owner realizing it. The button loads but does not add items. The page throws a 500 error. JavaScript errors prevent the transaction. These technical failures cause automatic compliance violations. Test your cart and checkout after every platform update.
If you show free shipping but charge $8 at checkout, that is a violation. If you claim "Ships in 1 to 2 days" but your actual fulfillment takes 7 to 10 days, that is a violation. Shipping information must be accurate and consistent between your GMC shipping settings and what customers see during checkout.
Some stores redirect non-logged-in users to a login page, which then redirects to the homepage, which then redirects to a campaign page. These loops fail Google's checker. Any redirect that sends Googlebot away from the checkout path is a violation.
Open your store in an incognito browser window. Navigate to 3 to 5 products at random. Add them to cart. Proceed through the full checkout to the payment step. Document every fee that appears. Time how long each page takes to load. If anything seems unclear, incorrect, or slow, it is likely to fail Google's compliance scan too. For a complete list of what Google checks beyond just checkout, the GMC suspension checklist covers all 52 policy requirements.
The GMCSuspension audit checks all 52 policy requirements in 60 seconds, including pricing consistency, policy page accessibility, and checkout signals. Run it before you appeal.
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Google checks price accuracy (ad price matches checkout price), shipping cost visibility, cart and checkout button functionality, page load speed, and redirect behavior (no loops, no mandatory login before checkout).
Any fee added after the price shown in your Shopping ad that is not clearly disclosed before checkout is a violation. Processing fees, handling fees, and currency conversion fees that appear only at the final step all qualify. The final price must be predictable from what the customer sees in the ad.
Yes. Google's automated scanner times page loads. Pages consistently taking more than 5 to 10 seconds may trigger a checkout experience violation. Pages over 15 seconds are treated as non-functional. Keep checkout pages under 3 seconds on mobile by disabling unnecessary third-party scripts and optimizing images.
Map your checkout URL chain and identify any redirect sending unauthenticated users to a login page or another page outside the checkout flow. Remove all mandatory login redirects before cart or checkout. Enable guest checkout if your platform supports it. Googlebot is always unauthenticated.
Run the free audit at gmcsuspension.com to confirm all 52 policy requirements are met. Then submit a reinstatement request specifying exactly what you changed: the URL, the violation, and the specific fix. Include screenshots if possible. Generic appeals are rejected.