sventhomisson
Newbie
- Oct 19, 2026
- 30
- 5
Do you struggle with misrepresentation in your GMC? Here are some basic tips:
1. Hibernation. Google flags both new and inactive accounts with something called "hibernation" - this is a full on stopper, if this is in the account, it will never get approved.
Counter: before you make the GMC, make sure you are actively using the Gmail several times a week, activities include:
- send emails (can be totally random)
- subscribe to newsletters, and open them
- watch Youtube
- chat with Gemini
- browse websites, approve cookies
Once you do this for a week or so, you're set and can make the GMC. It's important to keep doing this throughout the entire GMC usage.
2. Search console. When you change things on your website, you need to make sure that the changes also get reflected in the search console. It's quite common that the console shows something like a different address, phone number etc., and this is enough for the misrep review to fail.
3. Use AI images. As part of the automated review, Google checks your images via Google Lens, and if they find the exact same ones on thousands of other sites (hello dropshippers), you're screwed.
4. Mandatory pages: About us, contact, shipping, refunds, FAQ, payment policy, privacy policy, terms of use (+ some local requirements, like Impressum in Germany or conditions générales de vente (CGV) in France). All these need to be standalone pages.
5. Domain requirements:
- score on scamadviser.com - this varies depending on how do you want the site approved, but at the very least 60+, 75+ is much better. Newly registered domains automatically have bad scam adviser score, so use domain auctions to acquire what you need.
- Trustpilot - for general compliance purposes, you should always maintain at least 17 reviews and score over 3.3. When you are self approving at the beginning however, it's acceptable. to just have TP empty / profile not created.
I know most of what there is to know about GMC approval, been doing it for several years (it is impossible to know everything due to the black box that Google built around it). Feel free to ask questions if you struggle with this.
1. Hibernation. Google flags both new and inactive accounts with something called "hibernation" - this is a full on stopper, if this is in the account, it will never get approved.
Counter: before you make the GMC, make sure you are actively using the Gmail several times a week, activities include:
- send emails (can be totally random)
- subscribe to newsletters, and open them
- watch Youtube
- chat with Gemini
- browse websites, approve cookies
Once you do this for a week or so, you're set and can make the GMC. It's important to keep doing this throughout the entire GMC usage.
2. Search console. When you change things on your website, you need to make sure that the changes also get reflected in the search console. It's quite common that the console shows something like a different address, phone number etc., and this is enough for the misrep review to fail.
3. Use AI images. As part of the automated review, Google checks your images via Google Lens, and if they find the exact same ones on thousands of other sites (hello dropshippers), you're screwed.
4. Mandatory pages: About us, contact, shipping, refunds, FAQ, payment policy, privacy policy, terms of use (+ some local requirements, like Impressum in Germany or conditions générales de vente (CGV) in France). All these need to be standalone pages.
5. Domain requirements:
- score on scamadviser.com - this varies depending on how do you want the site approved, but at the very least 60+, 75+ is much better. Newly registered domains automatically have bad scam adviser score, so use domain auctions to acquire what you need.
- Trustpilot - for general compliance purposes, you should always maintain at least 17 reviews and score over 3.3. When you are self approving at the beginning however, it's acceptable. to just have TP empty / profile not created.
I know most of what there is to know about GMC approval, been doing it for several years (it is impossible to know everything due to the black box that Google built around it). Feel free to ask questions if you struggle with this.