Previously when you were missing fundamental requirements, your products would get disapproved, or free listings become not eligible. As of July 2022, this is going to change.
Websites that are missing basic requirements will now have a limited visibility warning instead of disapproval.
That is excellent news as it means Google will not be so harsh to merchants just starting.
The most common issues I see relating to website needs improvements are:
- Missing policy pages (returns and refund, privacy, terms and condition, shipping/delivery, and contact links in the footer)
- Missing availability status on the product landing page (in or out of stock)
- Non-original content (just a copy-paste from other sites)
- No navigational menus
- Broken links
- Using placeholder images or text
I have an excellent article for beginners and a list of the most common website issues that need improvement.