Status of your reviews
Once you’ve uploaded your reviews feed, it’s important to check the status of your reviews to ensure they’ve been processed correctly by Google.
To see the status of your reviews:
From your Google Merchant Center Next admin, on the left menu, scroll down to Reviews.
There, you’ll see a list of reviews and their processing statuses:
Status | What it means |
Ready to serve | Reviews are processed successfully and include all recommended identifiers |
Needs review | Reviews are processed but may be missing values or suggested unique identifiers |
Disapproved items | Reviews have been rejected and require correction or removal |
Errors, warnings and notifications
Fixing the errors and warnings for a review can change its status from Needs review to Ready to serve, making it eligible to appear on Google Shopping.
To see what issues you need to fix:
From your Google Merchant Center Next admin, on the left menu, scroll down to Reviews.
Click View what needs attention.
There, you’ll see a summary of errors and warnings, along with the number of affected reviews.
Errors
Warnings
Missing or invalid product_id
Missing or invalid product_id
Google matches reviews to products based on globally unique product identifiers (GTIN, Brand + MPN). A review is marked as "Missing or invalid product_id" in Google Merchant Center if the required identifiers for that product are missing in the reviews feed.
To fix the "Missing or invalid product_id" warning:
Find the affected product: In your Google Merchant Center, open any affected review and identify which product it belongs to.
Check if the product has GTIN:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Product review groups.
Find the product you identifier earlier.
Scroll to the right and click the 3-dot icon (...).
Select View details.
Check if the Barcodes field has any values or is empty (shows as None).
If the Barcodes field has any values: check if it's included in the reviews feed:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO.
Find Google Shopping and click Manage.
Scroll down to the Advanced settings section.
Enable "Add GTIN in the feed (Default)" (it should be enabled by default).
Click Save.
If the Barcodes field is empty but your product has an assigned GTIN: consider adding GTIN to Shopify as it's the most recommended product identifier by Google.
From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Find and open the affected product.
Scroll down to the Inventory section.
In the Barcode (ISBN, UPC, GTIN, etc.) field, enter the assigned GTIN.
Click Save.
If the Barcodes field is empty and your product doesn't have an assigned GTIN: provide its Brand and MPN instead.
To add Brand and MPN in Shopify:
From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Find and open the affected product.
Scroll down to the Inventory section and enter the MPN value in the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) field.
On the right menu, scroll down to the Product organization section and enter the Brand name in the Vendor field.
Click Save.
We automatically include the Brand names in the product review feed if they are available.
To include MPN in the reviews feed:
From your Judge.me admin, go to Settings > Google and SEO.
Find Google Shopping and click Manage.
Scroll down to the Advanced settings section.
Enable "Add MPN in the feed".
Click Save.
Notifications
Spam (marked by the publisher)
Spam (marked by the publisher)
If you're using the old Judge.me reviews feed, hidden reviews are included with the attribute <is_spam>true</is_spam>. These reviews are marked as "Spam (marked by the publisher)" in Google Merchant Center won’t be displayed in Google Shopping.
If this is intended, you don't need to take any actions. Hidden reviews will remain excluded from Google Shopping.
If you want these reviews to appear in Google Shopping, you have 2 options:
Upgrade to the new reviews feed where all reviews are included regardless of their status.
Continue using the old feed, but publish the hidden reviews in your Judge.me admin so they are no longer flagged as spam in Google Merchant Center. After publishing the reviews, the feed may take up to 24 hours to update.