Images

What Google requires

A reachable image, large enough, in the format it claims

The image_link has to point at an image Google can actually fetch, over a valid URL, in a supported format that matches its file extension. There is a minimum size in force today, 100 by 100 for most categories and 250 by 250 for apparel, and a larger minimum of 500 by 500 becomes mandatory across all categories on 2027-01-31, with warnings already being issued. There are ceilings too: an image over 64 megapixels or 16 MB is rejected. 1500 by 1500 is the recommended size.

What happens if you do not

The product simply is not shown

An image URL that does not respond, or answers with a 404, disapproves the product: Google will not advertise something it cannot show a picture of. An image below the current minimum is refused; one below the 2027 minimum earns a warning now and a refusal later. A file whose real format does not match its extension, a PNG saved as photo.jpg, is rejected as an unsupported image type. The quiet danger here is that all of this is invisible from the feed. A merchant can be certain their images are fine because the URLs are all filled in, while a share of them return nothing at all.

How to fix it by hand

You have to actually fetch each one

• Open a sample of image URLs and confirm they load, then look for the pattern behind any that do not: a stale CDN path, a folder that moved, an http link that no longer redirects.
• Check pixel dimensions against the minimum for your category, and plan for the 500 by 500 floor arriving on 2027-01-31 rather than being caught by it.
• Confirm the true file type matches the extension, and re-export anything that does not, so a PNG is not served as a .jpg.
• Keep each URL absolute, correctly percent-encoded if it contains non-ASCII characters, and pointing at a single image rather than several crammed into one field.

Doing this properly means requesting every URL, which is why it is rarely done by hand across a full catalogue.

Which of our checks apply

The image checks FeedMender runs

The main image of every product is actually fetched, sixteen at a time, so these are answered against the real response rather than the text of the URL. Lifestyle and video links are checked for shape.

• image_unreachableimage_link, blocks
• image_missingimage_link, blocks
• image_invalidimage_link, blocks
• image_too_smallimage_link, blocks
• image_below_future_minimage_link, at risk
• image_below_recommendedimage_link, underperforming
• image_too_largeimage_link, blocks
• image_too_many_pixelsimage_link, blocks
• image_format_mismatchimage_link, blocks
• image_formatimage_link, blocks
• image_schemeimage_link, blocks
• image_non_asciiimage_link, blocks
• image_multipleimage_link, at risk
• image_placeholderimage_link, at risk
• additional_image_countadditional_image_link, at risk
• video_link_not_a_filevideo_link, at risk

Twenty-five image, lifestyle-image and video checks in total; the full set is on the checks list under Images.

The quicker way

Let the scan fetch them

The finding merchants react to most is the one they cannot see any other way: how many of their images return a 404. The free scan requests every main image and reports the ones that fail, along with the sizes and formats that will not pass.