How to fix vehicle listings issues

For one or more of your vehicles, no value was submitted for one of the required or recommended attributes, such as price. To resolve this issue, you must submit a valid value for the affected attributes. Learn more about required and recommended attributes for vehicle listings.

How to fix: Invalid attribute

For one or more of your vehicles, an invalid value was submitted for one of the attributes, such as price. To resolve this issue, you must submit a valid value for the affected attribute. Learn more about how to format attributes for vehicle listings.

VIN is malformed

The VIN is not formatted according to the standard. Use the https://vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/decoder/ web tool to check for issues with the VIN.

Year does not match the VIN

Either the VIN is malformed, or the year is not accurate for the vehicle.

Year is too old for a new vehicle

Either the condition or the year is not accurate for the vehicle.

Mileage is outside of the valid range for the vehicle's model year

Google checks that the mileage is within the expected range of values, based on similar vehicles that are available for sale. Verify that the mileage is accurate for the vehicle.

Sale price is outside of the valid range for the vehicle's model year

Google checks that the price is within the expected range of values, based on similar vehicles that are available for sale. Verify that the price is accurate for the vehicle.

Sale price provided in the feed differs from the VDP

Google checks that the price provided in the feed matches the price shown on the VDP. Verify that the price matches the advertised price on the dealer's website. See our price policies on which price we expect.

How to fix: Invalid VDP

Googlebot crawls the VDP to verify it works, as well as to perform various quality checks. A valid VDP shows the details of the vehicle that's for sale. Google uses several indicators to detect this. The following are the most common reasons why we might consider a VDP invalid:

  • Googlebot was unable to crawl the page. This usually happens when the page returns an error response:
    • Ensure the URL is correct and that the page works.
  • The page shows a list of vehicles, like a search results page. This usually happens when the vehicle is no longer available for sale:
    • Submit vehicles that are available for sale on the dealer's website.

  • Googlebot was disallowed from crawling the page:

    • Update the robots.txt file to allow Googlebot to crawl the VDPs.

  • The URL is from a website that is not verified on the Business Profile:

    • Submit VDPs that point to the Business Profile's verified website. URLs that have set up HTTP forwarding to the verified website are also accepted.

  • The page shows that the vehicle isn't found or is no longer available, like with a 404 page:

    • Submit vehicles that are available for sale on the dealer's website.

  • The page is missing vehicle identifiers and Google is unable to verify it:

    • Ensure the VIN is shown on the VDP.

  • URL is shared by many offers within your feed.

    • Ensure the linked URL points to the VDP for the specific vehicle in each offer.
    • A commonly seen issue is using a template URL without including a unique identifier per vehicle.

  • (Rare) The page shows an unrelated vehicle:

    • Ensure the URL points to the correct vehicle.

Google excludes the vehicle if its VDP makes it seem that the vehicle is no longer available for sale at that dealer.

Can this issue be resolved by not sending VDPs in the feed?

If VDPs are missing entirely, Google has lower confidence that the vehicle is still available at that dealer, as compared to the inclusion of an active VDP. In this case, the vehicle might still be displayed, but its rank is lower in the results.

How to fix: Invalid image

Googlebot periodically crawls all image URLs (usually every three days). The images are cached and served from Google servers. A valid image shows the vehicle that's for sale and follows the vehicle listings image policies. Google uses several indicators to detect this. The following are the most common reasons why we might consider an image invalid:

  • Googlebot was disallowed from crawling the image:
  • Google was unable to process the image. This usually happens when the image host returns an error response, or points to an image in an unsupported format:
    • Ensure the URL is correct and that the page returns a valid PNG or JPEG image.
    • Ensure the URLs are correctly separated in the feed. For example, if images are separated by commas, commas shouldn't appear in the URL.
  • The image URL isn't stable:
    • Ensure the URLs in the feed don't change unless the image moves or is replaced. For example, don't use URLs with timestamps or parameters that change each time a feed is submitted. Whenever the URL changes, the image needs to be recrawled and reevaluated. This process could cause an unnecessary load on your image servers.
  • The image is replaced, but the URL isn't updated:
    • If an image needs to change for an existing vehicle, submit a new URL for the new image. Keep in mind that if the image changes, but the URL remains the same, it may take up to a week to detect the change and recrawl the new image.
  • The image violates our policies:
    • Ensure the image is of high quality and accurately shows the vehicle that's for sale. For example, don't use images with placeholder text like “Coming soon”, and remove promotional text and obstructing elements such as watermarks.
  • Googlebot was throttled:
    • This issue usually resolves itself. Google modulates the number of requests sent to websites so that they are not overloaded, and this can sometimes delay image crawling. Open a support case if you continue to see this issue for a particular image for more than a week.

How to fix: Dealer was not linked to a Business Profile on Google

Google attempts to match your dealer information from the feed with Business Profiles on Google. If this process is not successful, the inventory won't show in results.

See How to fix matching problems.

How to fix: Dealer disabled their vehicle inventory on Google

Vehicle listings are by default enabled for all eligible dealers. Dealers are then given the option to disable their vehicle inventory from showing on Google. See Dealership provider choice on how to enable vehicle listings for a dealer.

How to fix: The vehicle listings program is not available in the dealer's country

The vehicle listings program is available for US-based dealers. Currently, there is no plan to expand this program to other countries.

How to fix: Dealer has requested another provider to be their primary provider

Google works with a number of partners to get the vehicle inventory. Only one provider is selected for a dealer at any given time.

See Dealership provider choice on how to change the primary provider.

How to fix: Another provider's data has been automatically selected for this dealer

Google works with a number of partners to get the vehicle inventory. Only one provider is selected for a dealer at any given time. By default, Google tries to select the best provider based on the number of vehicles in the feed, data quality, and other factors. The detailed status reason contains more information on your top issues affecting the automated selection process.

Resolve the data quality issues so your inventory has the most high-quality vehicles that are eligible to show in results. Alternatively, follow the steps in Dealership provider choice to manually specify the primary provider.

How to fix: The percentage of vehicles with errors at this dealer was X%

Google evaluates each vehicle to check for data quality issues and policy violations. Additionally, Google may exclude the entire inventory when we cannot provide a good user experience for a dealer.

Resolve the data quality issues so your inventory has more high-quality vehicles that are eligible to show in results.

How to fix: The dealer is currently in review by Google

Google performs a few automated steps before vehicle inventory shows for a new dealer, such as matching the inventory to a Business Profile on Google. See Maintain your feed on how long that process usually takes.

There is no action needed – wait for Google to complete the review.

How to fix: Automatic attribute improvements

Google uses the structured data markup on the website and advanced data extractors to update certain attributes of your vehicles when they are missing or incomplete in the feed. Automatic improvements are turned on by default. If you decide to turn them off, vehicles with missing attributes might be excluded from results rather than updated.

Automatic attribute improvements isn’t a replacement for your feeds or for regular updates of your vehicle inventory. It is designed to fix temporary problems with your data accuracy for a small percentage of your vehicles. You should continue to provide accurate data frequently as we will not be able to cover all of your vehicles with automatic improvements.

How to fix: Vehicle wasn't updated for more than X days

Your feed should be uploaded as frequently as possible to ensure your information is fresh and accurate. We recommend that you upload the latest version of the feed every four hours. After 3 days the data expires and the inventory will no longer show in results.

See Review feed processing results on how to check the status of your feed. If there are no recent feed uploads, make sure your SFTP upload is working. If the feed is being uploaded, but the processing is not successful, see the status reason for details.