Landing Page Not Working: 404s, Redirects and Blocked Crawlers

Google must be able to open every product’s landing page. If it gets an error, a redirect to the home page, or is blocked by robots.txt, the product can be disapproved.

Common landing page problems

404 or 410 errors for deleted products that are still in the feed.
Redirects to the home page or a category instead of the product.
robots.txt rules that block Googlebot or Storebot-Google from product pages or the cart.
Login walls, age gates or country pop-ups that hide the product from crawlers.
Very slow or timing-out pages.

How to check and fix

Open a few disapproved product URLs in a private window: do you land on the right product with the right price?
Read your robots.txt (yourstore.com/robots.txt). Product and checkout pages should not be disallowed for Google’s crawlers.
Remove deleted products from the feed, or redirect them to the correct replacement.
Make sure pop-ups don’t block content for visitors who haven’t interacted yet.

Frequently asked questions

What is Storebot-Google?

It is one of Google’s crawlers used for shopping features. If your robots.txt blocks it from product or checkout pages, Google may not be able to verify them.

Official sources

MerchantLion is independent and not affiliated with Google. Google’s documentation is the authoritative source; policies change, so check it before making decisions.

Related guides

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