Feed rules let you transform your product data as it’s submitted to Merchant Center — reformatting a title, filling in a missing attribute from a pattern, excluding certain products — without editing the underlying data in your store itself, which is useful when your store’s native data doesn’t quite fit what Google expects.
When to fix the source data instead of using a feed rule
A feed rule is the right tool for cosmetic reformatting or filling genuinely missing attributes with a sensible default; if your actual product data is wrong at the source, fixing it there is usually the better long-term answer than papering over it in the feed, since the mismatch between your site and your feed can itself cause disapprovals.
Feed rules & supplemental feed setup
Feed rules configured to fix your data on the way out, without touching the source unless that's the better call.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
What we need from you
- Confirmation of the specific data issues you want the feed to address
- Whether you’d prefer fixing the underlying product data instead, where that’s the better option
- Any specific product categories or types needing different treatment
This or something else?
| You want to reformat or supplement your Merchant Center feed without changing your store data | This fix covers it |
| Your feed plugin itself needs configuring or mapping fixed | Feed plugin configuration & mapping, a related but different task |
| Specific products are disapproved for a data spec reason | Product data spec violation remediation, more targeted |
| You want multi-country feeds with different currencies | Multi-country feed & currency configuration, a related, larger setup |
What we do
- Review your current feed against Google’s requirements to identify gaps
- Determine whether a feed rule or a source-data fix is the more appropriate solution for each issue
- Configure feed rules for genuinely feed-level transformations
- Set up a supplemental feed if additional data needs merging from a separate source
- Test the resulting feed against Google’s requirements before submission
- Monitor for improved approval rates following the changes
What is included
- Feed rules configured for identified data gaps or formatting needs
- A supplemental feed set up, if that’s the appropriate solution
- Testing against Google’s requirements before submission
- A written note on what was configured and why, including where source-data fixes were recommended instead
Not included
- Fixing underlying product data in your store itself, where that’s the recommended approach instead
- Ongoing feed rule adjustments as your catalogue changes significantly
- Guaranteeing approval, which remains Google’s decision
- Building a fully custom feed generation system beyond feed rules and supplemental feeds
Questions about this fix
Should I fix my product data instead of using a feed rule?
Often yes, if it's a genuine, ongoing error — a feed rule is better suited to formatting differences or filling gaps with sensible defaults, and we'll recommend the source fix when that's genuinely the better option.
What's a supplemental feed actually for?
It merges in additional data your primary feed doesn't include — useful when information exists somewhere (a spreadsheet, a separate system) but not in your main product feed.
Will feed rules slow down how often my feed updates?
Not meaningfully — feed rules process as part of the normal feed submission, without adding significant delay to how often Google receives updated data.
Can feed rules exclude certain products from Merchant Center entirely?
Yes, that's a common use — excluding out-of-stock items, certain categories, or anything else you don't want listed, without needing to remove them from your actual store.
Do I need to maintain feed rules myself going forward?
For straightforward rules, generally not — they keep applying automatically to future feed submissions, though a significant catalogue change might warrant reviewing whether they still make sense.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.