Unflagged

SAMPLE REPORT — FICTIONAL STORE. Harbor & Pine Home Goods, harborandpine.example, and every address, phone number, order, count and finding below are invented. They show what an Unflagged audit looks like. The Google rules cited are real and linked to Google's Merchant Center Help pages.

Unflagged — Merchant Center Suspension Audit
Store Harbor & Pine Home Goods: https://harborandpine.example
Platform Shopify with the Google & YouTube sales channel. US home decor. Part of the catalog is dropshipped from partner suppliers
Google programs Free listings and Shopping ads (United States)
Suspension Misrepresentation, issued 2026-10-18 (9 days before this audit). No review requested yet
Audit date 2026-10-27 · Ref. UNF-SAMPLE-001
Scope Public storefront on desktop and mobile, from US and Canadian IP addresses. Page source and structured data. Test checkout up to the payment step. Client-supplied screenshots of Merchant Center Business info and Shopify Markets. No login access to Merchant Center or Shopify
Method Automated crawl and AI-assisted checks. A human auditor reviewed and confirmed every finding. In a real audit, dated evidence screenshots come with the report

1. Verdict

  1. Most likely cause: Google can't confirm who runs the store, and the storefront makes promises its own policies contradict. We found two different business addresses, a contact page with only a form, "free fast shipping" against 10–20 business days, and a restocking fee mentioned only in the FAQ.
  2. Fixable: yes, based on what we could see. All 8 issues are site content or settings you control, and nothing pointed to counterfeits, phishing or another egregious violation.
  3. Next move: don't request a review yet. Fix the 3 critical and 2 high issues, then the 3 medium ones. Run the checklist in section 5, then send one documented review request (section 6).

2. Likely causes, ranked

Severity scale - Critical: directly matches a Misrepresentation example and could trigger the suspension by itself. - High: adds to the pattern Google evaluates. If left unfixed, it is likely to make a review fail. - Medium: a product-level or technical inconsistency. Fix it before the review so it doesn't undermine the request.

# Severity Issue What we saw Where (fictional store) Google rule concerned
1 Critical Two different business addresses The footer on every page reads "PO Box 4417, Portland, ME 04112". Merchant Center Business info (client screenshot) shows a street address in North Charleston, SC 29405. The refund policy sends returns to "our Charleston warehouse". No page explains how the two addresses relate. https://harborandpine.example/ (footer, all pages) · https://harborandpine.example/policies/refund-policy Misrepresentation: business identity, which covers hiding or misstating your business location
2 Critical Contact page is a form only /pages/contact has a form and nothing else: no email, phone or address. The Shopify Contact information policy page returns 404. The only email address on the site is in the privacy policy. https://harborandpine.example/pages/contact · https://harborandpine.example/policies/contact-information Merchant Center guidelines: "Make your contact information clearly available on your website."
3 Critical Shipping promise contradicts the shipping policy, and the ship-from location is hidden The announcement bar on every page says "Free fast shipping on every order", and product pages carry a "Fast US shipping" badge. The shipping policy says "Please allow 10–20 business days for delivery". The About page says "Every piece is packed by hand in our Maine studio". The client's order export shows supplier-shipped items with overseas tracking. https://harborandpine.example/ (announcement bar) · https://harborandpine.example/policies/shipping-policy · https://harborandpine.example/pages/about · https://harborandpine.example/products/washed-linen-throw Misrepresentation: offers that aren't available as promised, and hiding the fulfillment source · Shipping settings: handling and transit times set in Merchant Center
4 High Refund policy incomplete, and the restocking fee appears only in the FAQ The refund policy is 3 sentences long. It gives no return window, no item conditions and doesn't say who pays return shipping. The FAQ says "A 15% restocking fee applies to all returns", but the refund policy, product pages and checkout never mention that fee. https://harborandpine.example/policies/refund-policy · https://harborandpine.example/pages/faq Merchant Center guidelines: the return policy must explain the process, the conditions and the return window · Misrepresentation: concealing return or restocking fees before checkout
5 High Permanent "sale" pricing 52 of 64 products show a compare-at (strikethrough) price, and the values were identical on both crawl dates (2026-10-26 and 2026-10-27). The client confirmed these prices were never charged. Product pages show a "Sale ends in 02:14:37" countdown that restarts on every reload. https://harborandpine.example/collections/all · https://harborandpine.example/products/washed-linen-throw Misrepresentation: a false or misleading impression of the cost, and promotional offers that aren't actually available · for comparison, Google's own sale price annotations need the base price to have been charged on 5 days in the past 30 or 15 in the past 200
6 Medium Structured data says "InStock" for a sold-out variant On the page, the Sage / Oversized variant shows "Sold out" with the button disabled. The page source contains two Product JSON-LD blocks. The theme's block is correct (OutOfStock). The other comes from an SEO app and sets "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock" on every variant. https://harborandpine.example/products/washed-linen-throw?variant=44102938475610 Availability: availability on the landing page, at checkout and in product data "needs to match across all three". The same applies at variant level
7 Medium Currency changes with visitor location on the same URL From a Canadian IP, US product URLs switch to CAD without the URL changing. This also happened for a request sent with Google's crawler user agent. The Markets screenshot shows that the Canada market has no subfolder or domain of its own, and a third-party currency app has "auto-detect" turned on. https://harborandpine.example/products/washed-linen-throw (and every product URL) Price: show the price in the target country's currency, because "IP detection is against our guidelines"
8 Medium Placeholder text in the Terms of service The Terms of service contain "[store name]" six times and "[governing state]" once. The site never names the legal entity that operates the store. https://harborandpine.example/policies/terms-of-service Merchant Center guidelines: conditions must be disclosed clearly · Misrepresentation: business identity

Checked and fine: HTTPS, payment methods, the checkout flow, taxes shown before payment, product images, crawlability and footer links. See the appendix for all 49 checks.

About dropshipping: the Misrepresentation policy we checked doesn't prohibit dropshipping. It prohibits hiding or misstating where orders come from. Issue #3 is about the second point.

3. Step-by-step fixes

Shopify admin labels change between admin versions. The paths below were current at the time of writing. If a label differs, look for the closest equivalent.

Fix 1: one business identity everywhere (issue #1, Critical)

First, decide: use the address where the business actually operates and receives returns. In this sample, that's North Charleston, SC. Publish one address and the same string everywhere.

  1. Shopify: go to Settings → General. Under Business details, set the legal business name to Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC. Under Store contact details → Store address, set the address to 2150 Example Industrial Blvd, Unit 7, North Charleston, SC 29405.
  2. Footer: go to Online Store → Edit theme → Footer. Open the text block that contains the PO box and replace its text with the footer text below, then save. Check the footer on mobile too, because some themes use a separate mobile block.
  3. Remove the old address: search for "Portland" and "PO Box" in: - Online Store → Pages: About, FAQ, Contact - Settings → Policies: all policies - Settings → Notifications: any custom email templates
  4. Merchant Center: go to Settings → Business info. Make the address match the site exactly, including how "Unit 7" is written. Use the same phone number that you publish in Fix 2.

Footer text

Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC · 2150 Example Industrial Blvd, Unit 7, North Charleston, SC 29405 · hello@harborandpine.example · (843) 555-0142

Done when the same address string appears in Shopify store details, the footer, the contact page, the contact information policy, the refund policy's return address, the Terms of service and Merchant Center Business info.

Fix 2: a contact page with real contact details (issue #2, Critical)

  1. Go to Online Store → Pages → Contact. In the content editor above the form, paste the block below and keep the form.
  2. Go to Settings → Policies → Contact information and fill in the same details. Open the published page from the storefront footer to check it (on most stores it lives at /policies/contact-information).
  3. Go to Content → Menus → Footer menu (Online Store → Navigation in older admins). Add these links: Contact, Contact information, Refund policy, Shipping policy, Terms of service.

Replacement text for the contact page

Contact Harbor & Pine Email: hello@harborandpine.example (we reply within 24 hours on business days) Phone: (843) 555-0142, Monday–Friday, 9 am–5 pm ET Address: Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC, 2150 Example Industrial Blvd, Unit 7, North Charleston, SC 29405 Prefer to write? Use the form below.

Only publish a phone number that someone answers during the hours you list.

Done when email, phone and address are visible on desktop and mobile without submitting anything.

Fix 3: make shipping claims match reality (issue #3, Critical)

First, decide the real numbers. This sample uses 1–2 business days of processing. After that, warehouse items take 3–5 business days and supplier items take 10–20 business days. Use your own figures.

  1. Announcement bar: go to Online Store → Edit theme → Header → Announcement bar and replace the text. Remove the word "fast" unless every order arrives fast.

    Free US shipping on orders over $75 · Delivery estimate on every product page

(Use "on every order" only if shipping really is free on every order.) 2. Product page badge: go to Online Store → Edit theme → Products → Default product and remove the "Fast US shipping" badge block. 3. Ship-from on each product: go to Settings → Metafields and metaobjects → Products → Add definition and create a "Ships from" field (single-line text). Fill it on each product and display it with a text block on the product template, connected to that field.

Ships from our partner supplier · Delivery in 10–20 business days Ships from our South Carolina warehouse · Delivery in 3–5 business days 4. Shipping policy: go to Settings → Policies → Shipping policy and replace the text with the version below. 5. About page: go to Online Store → Pages → About and replace "Every piece is packed by hand in our Maine studio" with the sentence below. 6. Merchant Center: in the left menu, go to Products & store → Shipping and returns. Set the US shipping service so that handling plus transit time covers the slowest path (up to 20 business days). If you want faster estimates for warehouse items, give supplier-shipped products their own shipping service with a shipping label. Shipping costs must match the policy: free from $75, $6.95 below.

Replacement shipping policy

Shipping policy We ship to addresses in the United States. Orders are processed within 1–2 business days (Monday–Friday, excluding US holidays).

Where your order ships from. Each product page shows either "Ships from our South Carolina warehouse" or "Ships from our partner supplier". - Warehouse items arrive 3–5 business days after processing. - Partner-supplier items ship from overseas and arrive 10–20 business days after processing.

If your order has items from both locations, they ship separately and you'll receive one tracking number per shipment.

Cost. Shipping is free on orders of $75 or more. Below $75, we charge a flat $6.95. [If import duties or carrier fees could ever be collected at delivery, state it here and say who pays them.]

Tracking. We email a tracking number when each shipment leaves. Questions: hello@harborandpine.example.

Replacement About sentence

We select every piece in our collection. Our core range ships from our South Carolina warehouse, and some items ship directly from partner suppliers we've vetted. Each product page tells you which before you buy.

Done when the announcement bar, product pages, About page, shipping policy and Merchant Center shipping settings all give the same delivery times.

Fix 4: a complete refund policy (issue #4, High)

  1. Go to Settings → Policies → Refund policy and replace the text with the version below.
  2. Go to Online Store → Pages → FAQ and delete the restocking-fee line. We recommend dropping the fee. If you keep it, state it in the refund policy and show it before checkout.
  3. In Merchant Center, go to Products & store → Shipping and returns → Return policies. Set the US return policy to match: 30 days, customer pays return shipping unless the item is damaged or wrong, no restocking fee, and a link to the policy URL.

Replacement refund policy

Returns & refunds You can return most items within 30 days of delivery. Items must be unused, in their original packaging, with tags attached. To start a return, email hello@harborandpine.example with your order number. We'll reply within 24 hours on business days with instructions.

Return shipping. If an item arrives damaged or defective, or isn't what you ordered, we pay return shipping and email you a prepaid label. For all other returns, you pay return shipping. All returns go to our US address, including items shipped by our partner suppliers: Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC, 2150 Example Industrial Blvd, Unit 7, North Charleston, SC 29405.

Fees. We don't charge a restocking fee.

Not returnable. Gift cards, and items marked "Final sale" on the product page before purchase.

Refunds. After we receive and inspect your return, we refund the item price to your original payment method within 5 business days and email you a confirmation. Your bank may take a few extra days to post it. We refund original shipping charges only when the return is due to our error.

Damaged or wrong item. Email us within 7 days of delivery with a photo. We'll send a replacement or a full refund, including shipping.

Done when the policy states the window, conditions, how to start a return, who pays return shipping, any fees, and the refund method and timing. The FAQ and Merchant Center must say the same thing.

Fix 5: remove permanent sale pricing (issue #5, High)

  1. Go to Products → All products, select the products, choose Bulk edit and add the Compare-at price column. Clear the value on every product that was never actually sold at that price, then save.
  2. Go to Online Store → Edit theme → App embeds and turn off the countdown timer embed. Remove its block from the product template too, and uninstall the app if nothing else uses it.
  3. Rules for future sales: - Only use a compare-at price you actually charged. - A strikethrough price that was never charged gives a misleading impression of the cost, which the Misrepresentation policy covers. - Separately, Google shows its own sale-price annotation in US Shopping ads only when the base price was charged on 5 days in the past 30 or 15 days in the past 200, and the discount is more than 5% and less than 90% (sale price annotations). - Google says both prices should appear on the landing page. - Give every sale an end date and clear the compare-at price when it ends.
  4. Go to Sales channels → Google & YouTube and check that the sync status shows no errors after the bulk edit.

Done when no product shows a strikethrough price it wasn't recently sold at, and no timer appears anywhere.

Fix 6: correct variant availability in structured data (issue #6, Medium)

  1. Confirm the duplicate. Open the product page source and search for application/ld+json. There are two "@type": "Product" blocks, and the second comes from the SEO app's embed.
  2. Turn it off. Go to Online Store → Edit theme → App embeds and turn off the SEO app's structured data embed (or disable product schema in the app's own settings). Keep the theme's block, which already reports availability per variant. If a duplicate is hard-coded, go to Online Store → Themes → … → Edit code and search the snippets for ld+json.
  3. Check stock settings. Go to Products → Washed Linen Throw → Variants → Sage / Oversized. Under Inventory, turn on Track quantity and turn off Continue selling when out of stock. Leave that option on only if you truly accept backorders, and then the page and product data must say "backorder" with a date. Repeat for the other out-of-stock variants: Products → Inventory, filtered to Available ≤ 0.
  4. Test. Run Google's Rich Results Test on the variant URL. Under Product → offers, a sold-out variant should show OutOfStock and an available one InStock.

Done when each product page has one Product structured data block and every offer's availability matches its variant's button state.

Fix 7: one currency per URL (issue #7, Medium)

  1. Go to Settings → General → Store defaults and confirm the store currency is USD.
  2. Go to Markets (in the main admin menu) and confirm that the United States is the primary market.
  3. Decide whether you really sell to Canada. Your new shipping policy (Fix 3) covers the United States only. If you don't ship to Canada, deactivate the Canada market. If you do, go to Markets → Canada → Domain / language, choose Subfolder and assign /en-ca/, so Canadian prices live on their own URLs, and add Canadian rates and delivery times to the shipping policy.
  4. Go to Apps → [currency converter app] and turn off automatic currency detection, or uninstall the app, since Markets handles Canadian pricing. Also turn off its embed under Online Store → Edit theme → App embeds.
  5. If you use a geolocation app, set it to show a suggestion banner. It shouldn't switch currency or redirect automatically.

Done when both of these hold from a Canadian IP: - harborandpine.example/products/… shows USD, optionally with a banner suggesting /en-ca/. - harborandpine.example/en-ca/products/… shows CAD.

The JSON-LD priceCurrency must be USD on US URLs.

Fix 8: remove the Terms of service placeholders (issue #8, Medium)

  1. Go to Settings → Policies → Terms of service and search for [. Replace [store name] with Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC and [governing state] with the state where the LLC is registered.
  2. Run the same search in every other policy and in Online Store → Pages.
  3. If the terms came from a template generator, read them in full and delete clauses that don't apply, such as subscriptions you don't sell.

Done when no page contains [-style placeholders, "lorem ipsum", "your store" or "example.com" text.

4. Fix order

The order follows dependencies, not only severity: the policies are the source of truth, and everything else has to match them.

Step What Why at this point
1 Decide the facts: legal name, one address, real delivery times, return terms Every later fix copies these. Changing them midway creates new mismatches
2 Identity: Fix 1, Fix 2, Fix 8 These are the critical issues, and the policies reference the name and address
3 Policies: Fix 4, then the shipping policy text from Fix 3 Claims and Merchant Center settings must match the policies, so the policies come first
4 Claims: the rest of Fix 3 (announcement bar, badges, About page, ship-from), then Fix 5 These are rewritten to match the new policies
5 Technical: Fix 6 and Fix 7 These are independent of the content, but must be done before verification
6 Merchant Center settings: Business info, shipping service, return policy Done last so they mirror the final site
7 Verify: run every item in section 5 Proof on the live site, not just in the admin
8 Request review: once, with the draft in section 6 Google's Misrepresentation page says account reviews typically take about 7 business days

Avoid while you fix and while the review is pending: - Requesting a review early. - Deleting and re-creating products. - Opening a second Merchant Center account for the same store. - Switching themes, domains or apps.

5. Pre-submission checklist

Check each item logged out, in a private window, on desktop and mobile.

Identity - [ ] The same address string appears in Shopify store details, the footer, the contact page, the contact information policy, the refund policy, the Terms of service and Merchant Center Business info - [ ] The contact page shows email, phone and address without using the form - [ ] No "Portland" or "PO Box" text remains (site search and page source) - [ ] The Terms of service name Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC, with no [ placeholders anywhere on the site

Policies - [ ] The refund policy states the window, conditions, how to start, who pays return shipping, fees, and the refund method and timing - [ ] The FAQ no longer contradicts the refund policy - [ ] The shipping policy states processing time, delivery range per ship-from location, cost and the free-shipping threshold - [ ] Merchant Center shipping and return settings match the site's policies

Claims and pricing - [ ] The announcement bar, badges and About page make no claim the policies don't back up - [ ] Every product page shows its ship-from location and delivery range - [ ] No compare-at price without real price history, and the countdown timer is removed

Technical - [ ] Each product page has one Product JSON-LD block. The Rich Results Test shows OutOfStock for sold-out variants (test at least 3) - [ ] From a Canadian IP, US URLs show USD and /en-ca/ URLs show CAD - [ ] A test checkout reaches the payment step on desktop and mobile - [ ] Sales channels → Google & YouTube shows sync complete with no errors, and Merchant Center shows no new item-level issues

Submission - [ ] Every change is live and you've saved dated before/after screenshots for your records - [ ] The review request in section 6 has your real dates and Merchant Center ID - [ ] No theme, domain or app changes are planned in the coming days

6. Review request draft

Replace the bracketed items and example dates with your own. If the review form has a free-text field, paste this and keep a copy.

Subject: Review request — Misrepresentation — Harbor & Pine Home Goods (harborandpine.example), Merchant Center ID [ID]

Our Merchant Center account was suspended for Misrepresentation on October 18, 2026. We audited our store against Google's Merchant Center policies and made the following changes between October 28 and October 30, 2026.

  1. Business identity (Oct 28). We now use one business address everywhere: Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC, 2150 Example Industrial Blvd, Unit 7, North Charleston, SC 29405. We removed a former PO box address from the site footer. The address now matches our Merchant Center Business info. Updated pages: https://harborandpine.example/ (footer), https://harborandpine.example/pages/contact and https://harborandpine.example/policies/contact-information.
  2. Contact information (Oct 28). Our contact page now lists email, phone, address and support hours in addition to the form: https://harborandpine.example/pages/contact.
  3. Terms of service (Oct 28). We replaced placeholder text with our legal entity name and governing state: https://harborandpine.example/policies/terms-of-service.
  4. Returns (Oct 28). Our refund policy now states a 30-day return window, item conditions, who pays return shipping and refund timing. It also states that we charge no restocking fee. We removed the conflicting fee from our FAQ and updated our Merchant Center return policy to match. Updated pages: https://harborandpine.example/policies/refund-policy and https://harborandpine.example/pages/faq.
  5. Shipping (Oct 29). We removed the "Free fast shipping" banner and "Fast US shipping" badges. Our shipping policy now gives delivery times by ship-from location. Each product page states where it ships from, our About page discloses that some items ship from partner suppliers, and our Merchant Center shipping settings match. Updated pages: https://harborandpine.example/policies/shipping-policy and https://harborandpine.example/pages/about.
  6. Pricing (Oct 29). We removed compare-at prices from 52 products that had not been sold at those prices, and removed a countdown timer. We will only show sale prices for real, dated promotions.
  7. Availability (Oct 30). We removed a duplicate structured data block added by an app. Sold-out variants now report OutOfStock on the page and in structured data. Example: https://harborandpine.example/products/washed-linen-throw?variant=44102938475610.
  8. Currency (Oct 30). US product URLs now always show USD. Canadian prices are on separate /en-ca/ URLs, and automatic currency switching by visitor location is disabled.

How we verified: - We checked each URL above logged out, on desktop and mobile. - We tested product pages, including sold-out variants, with Google's Rich Results Test. - We loaded product pages from US and Canadian IP addresses. - We placed a test order up to the payment step. - We confirmed our Shopify product sync shows no errors.

Prevention: - One person now owns all policy, pricing and app changes. - We check new apps for structured data and currency behavior before installing them. - Promotions require a start date, an end date and a price we actually charged. - We will run this checklist monthly.

Thank you for reviewing our account. [Name], [Role], Harbor & Pine Home Goods LLC

7. Appendix: the 49-point check

Result: 27 Pass · 14 Fail · 2 N/A · 6 Not verifiable

Severity is each check's default weight (C critical, H high, M medium). Section 2 ranks the issues found on this store, so an issue can rank differently from the checks it fails. N/A means the check doesn't apply to this store. Not verifiable means it needs account access or sources outside this audit's scope.

# Area Check Severity Result Note
1 Business identity and contact Legal or business name visible (footer, About, contact) H Pass "Harbor & Pine Home Goods" on every page. The legal entity isn't named (#18, Issue #8)
2 Business identity and contact Physical address shown, not a PO box or virtual office alone H Fail Issue #1: the only address published is "PO Box 4417, Portland, ME 04112" (footer)
3 Business identity and contact Phone and/or email shown, in a working format H Fail Issue #2: no phone on the site, and the only email is in the privacy policy
4 Business identity and contact Contact page reachable from the menu or footer H Pass /pages/contact is linked in the footer (form only, see #3)
5 Business identity and contact Name, address and phone identical across pages and policies C Fail Issue #1: Portland PO box in the footer, "our Charleston warehouse" in the refund policy
6 Business identity and contact Site contact details match Merchant Center Business info and the payments profile C Fail Issue #1: Business info shows North Charleston, SC 29405. No payments profile screenshot
7 Business identity and contact About page specific to this business; logo, name and domain coherent M Pass Specific to the store; logo, name and domain match. Its origin claim fails #35
8 Business identity and contact Identity verification completed in Merchant Center, documents match C Not verifiable Not shown in the client screenshots; client to confirm
9 Policies Refund policy exists and is linked in the footer C Pass Linked in the footer; content fails #10
10 Policies Refund policy states window, conditions, method, who pays return shipping, fees, refund timing C Fail Issue #4: 3 sentences, with no window, item conditions or return-shipping payer; the fee isn't mentioned
11 Policies If returns are not accepted, it says so explicitly H N/A Returns are accepted
12 Policies Return window counted from delivery for international orders M Fail Issue #4: no window stated at all. Fix 4 counts 30 days from delivery
13 Policies Shipping policy states costs, regions, processing and transit times; country selector matches countries shipped to H Fail Issue #3: a single "10–20 business days" figure, with no processing time or range per ship-from location
14 Policies Privacy policy present H Pass Linked in the footer
15 Policies Terms of service present M Pass Placeholders fail #18
16 Policies Policies consistent with each other, the FAQ and every page that mentions a fee C Fail Issue #4: the FAQ's 15% restocking fee isn't in the refund policy, product pages or checkout
17 Policies Policies consistent with Merchant Center shipping and return settings C Not verifiable No screenshot of these settings; check in Fix 3 step 6 and Fix 4 step 3
18 Policies No template leftovers ("[store name]", lorem ipsum) in pages and every Shopify policy H Fail Issue #8: "[store name]" 6 times and "[governing state]" once in the Terms of service
19 Checkout and payment Add to cart works; checkout reachable without login C Pass Test checkout reached the payment step on desktop and mobile
20 Checkout and payment HTTPS everywhere, including checkout C Pass Storefront and checkout
21 Checkout and payment No unusual required fields for consumers H Pass Standard Shopify checkout fields
22 Checkout and payment Taxes, fees and shipping shown before payment; no surprise fees C Pass No fee added at checkout. The restocking fee is a returns issue (#16)
23 Checkout and payment Recurring or subscription terms disclosed H N/A No subscription products
24 Prices, currency and availability Visible price equals JSON-LD Offer price C Pass Matches on the US product pages checked
25 Prices, currency and availability JSON-LD priceCurrency matches the displayed currency C Pass USD on the page and in JSON-LD from a US IP. Canadian-IP switching fails #30
26 Prices, currency and availability JSON-LD availability matches the variant state and the add-to-cart button C Fail Issue #6: the SEO app's block says InStock for the sold-out Sage / Oversized variant
27 Prices, currency and availability ?variant= URLs show that variant's price H Pass Checked on the Washed Linen Throw variant URLs
28 Prices, currency and availability Price rendered in the HTML, not only by JavaScript H Pass Price present in the page source
29 Prices, currency and availability Compare-at prices and countdown timers honest; no permanent sale, no compare-at at or below the price, no "sale" page without discounts H Fail Issue #5: compare-at on 52 of 64 products, never charged; countdown restarts on reload
30 Prices, currency and availability Currency or Markets switching doesn't change what Google's crawler sees on the same URL H Fail Issue #7: US URLs switch to CAD from a Canadian IP, including with Google's crawler user agent
31 Prices, currency and availability Feed price and availability match the landing page C Not verifiable No feed or Needs attention screenshot. #26 and #30 can cause mismatches
32 Product data Titles and descriptions not copied verbatim from suppliers or marketplaces M Pass No verbatim supplier text on the products sampled
33 Product data Real product images, no watermarks or placeholders M Pass No watermarks or placeholders found
34 Product data GTIN, brand and MPN genuine H Not verifiable Needs feed access
35 Product data No unsupported claims (health, guaranteed results, origin claims that product-level origin contradicts) H Fail Issue #3: the About page says "packed by hand in our Maine studio", but supplier items ship from overseas
36 Product data No test products, $0 products or "Default Title" shown as an option name M Pass None among the 64 products
37 Product data Ship-from country stated; no "our warehouse" wording unless the business runs it; product-page delivery estimates within the shipping-policy range C Fail Issue #3: no ship-from on product pages; "Free fast shipping" and "Fast US shipping" vs "10–20 business days"
38 Trust signals No demo or lorem ipsum content H Pass None found; the Terms placeholders are counted under #18
39 Trust signals No broken internal links or empty stub pages in the menu or footer; social links point to real accounts H Pass Header and footer links resolve; the site links to no social accounts
40 Trust signals Badges, awards and reviews genuine; payment logos match the methods offered at checkout M Pass No misleading third-party badges; logos match checkout (cards, PayPal, Shop Pay). Shipping badge: #37
41 Trust signals Off-site footprint consistent (third-party reviews, complaints) M Not verifiable Off-site sources are outside this audit's scope; client to confirm
42 Restricted content No counterfeit signals ("replica", "inspired by", "1:1", prices far below market) C Pass None seen in the 64 products
43 Restricted content No restricted items without the required certification C Pass Home decor only; no restricted products
44 Restricted content No unsupported items listed as products (services, digital goods, gift cards) H Pass The catalog is 64 physical products
45 Technical Password page off C Pass Store open; /password redirects to the homepage
46 Technical robots.txt and apps don't block Google's crawlers C Pass Standard Shopify robots.txt; no bot-blocking app found
47 Technical Product URLs return 200; no redirects to the homepage H Pass 64 of 64
48 Technical Valid SSL; one canonical domain C Pass Valid certificate; harborandpine.example is the only canonical domain
49 Technical Canonical domain is the one verified and claimed in Merchant Center H Not verifiable Not shown in the client screenshots; client to confirm

Identity across surfaces

Surface What we saw
Storefront footer and contact page Footer on every page: "PO Box 4417, Portland, ME 04112". Contact page: form only, with no email, phone or address. About page: "our Maine studio" (Issues #1, #2, #3)
Shopify policies Refund policy: returns go to "our Charleston warehouse", with no street address. Contact information policy: 404. Terms of service: placeholders and no legal entity (Issue #8). The privacy policy holds the site's only email address
Merchant Center Business info A street address in North Charleston, SC 29405 (client screenshot). It doesn't match the footer (Issue #1)
Google Business Profile Not checked: client to confirm whether one exists and which address it shows
Social pages None linked from the site
Payments profile Not checked: no screenshot. Client to confirm it matches the address chosen in Fix 1
Public company register Not checked: client to confirm the LLC's registered name, state and address (needed for Fix 1 and Fix 8)

Pages that state policy numbers

These pages state return terms, fees or delivery times, and must agree after Fixes 3 and 4:

8. Notes