Short answer. Merchant Center disapproves a product with “Mismatched domains [link]” when the domain in the link attribute differs from the online store URL verified and claimed on the account. Either correct the links to the claimed domain, or verify and claim the domain the links use, then re-fetch the feed.
| Shown in Merchant Center as | Mismatched domains [link] |
|---|---|
| Attribute | link |
| Effect | Product disapproved |
| Where to find it | Products → Needs attention, then filter by this issue |
| Free check | Not something a feed file shows; see below for what the check can tell you instead |
What Merchant Center means by “Mismatched domains [link]”
A Merchant Center account has one online store URL, verified and claimed as Google’s URL verification page describes, and every product link must live on that domain. When a link points elsewhere, the Content API’s product issues list reports url_does_not_match_homepage, “Mismatched domains [link]”, with the fix “use the same domain for product landing page URLs as in your Merchant Center website setting”. The product is disapproved.
The rule exists so that an account can only advertise the store it has proven it owns. The verification page notes one consequence worth knowing: a feed created before the website was claimed has to be re-fetched after the claim.
Why it happens
- A domain move. The store now lives on a new domain and the account still claims the old one, or the reverse.
- Staging URLs in the feed:
staging.example.comor a hosting subdomain written by an export run on the test site. - A localised subdomain (
de.example.com) for a country feed, with only the main domain claimed. - Links to a marketplace or partner, which the policy does not allow at all.
- www versus non-www when the claimed form and the linked form differ.
How to fix it
In Shopify
Shopify’s Google & YouTube channel verifies and claims the store’s primary domain for you. If you changed the primary domain, reconnect the channel so the claim follows, and check that the feed’s links use the primary domain rather than the .myshopify.com address.
In WooCommerce
Make Settings → General → Site Address the domain you want to advertise, so permalinks, and therefore the feed our plugin writes, use it. Then in Merchant Center verify and claim that same domain, by the HTML tag, the file, Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics, and re-fetch the feed afterwards as Google’s page instructs.
In a CSV or XML feed
Decide which domain is the store, claim it in Merchant Center under your business information, and make every link in the file use it. Redirect the other forms of the domain to the claimed one on the server so shoppers and Google land in the same place. Country subdomains need either the parent domain claimed with the subdomain covered, or their own claim in a sub-account.
How long until Merchant Center clears it
After the claim and a feed re-fetch, products are re-processed within 24–72 hours. A claim by itself does not re-evaluate products; the fetch does.
What FeedRobin does about it
The free feed check does not know which domain your account has claimed, so it cannot flag this; it does show the product links it read, which is where a staging or marketplace domain becomes visible at a glance. For connected stores the links are the platform’s live product URLs on the store’s own domain.
Questions merchants ask
My store moved from shop.example.com to example.com. What do I claim?
The domain your product links actually use now. Verify and claim the new one on the account; Google’s verification page says a feed created before the claim has to be re-fetched afterwards.
Do www and non-www count as different domains?
Google treats the claimed URL as the reference. Claim the form your links use, and redirect the other to it on your server so shoppers land on the claimed one either way.
Can one Merchant Center account carry products from two domains?
One claimed website per account. Two stores on two domains need two accounts, or a multi-client account with a sub-account each. Links to a marketplace or a partner site are not allowed in your feed at all.
Sources
- About online store URL verification — Google Merchant Center Help
- Link [link] — Google Merchant Center Help
- Product issues (Content API for Shopping): the issue codes and the titles Merchant Center shows — Google Merchant Center Help