Troubleshooting Enlarged or Zoomed-In Product Images on Google Shopping Mobile Listings

If you’re managing an online store and leveraging Google Shopping to showcase your products, you might occasionally encounter issues that impact the user experience and your click-through rate (CTR). One such concern is the unexpected display of enlarged or zoomed-in product images on mobile devices.

Understanding the Issue

Recently, some merchants have reported that clicking on product images in mobile views results in a significantly enlarged or zoomed-in version of the image. Notably, this problem appears to be isolated to specific stores and does not impact all products equally. Interestingly, other stores’ images viewed on mobile devices show no such issues, indicating a potential configuration or display anomaly specific to certain listings.

Scope of the Problem

• The issue manifests exclusively on mobile devices.
• Not all products are affected; it appears to be limited to a majority of listings.
• The problem seems to be store-specific rather than platform-wide.
• Concerns about the reduced CTR highlight how such display issues can directly impact sales performance.

Possible Causes

While diagnosing the root cause requires a detailed review of your product feed and listing setup, some common reasons for such behavior include:

• Variations in image aspect ratios or sizes that trigger zoom-in behaviors.
• Misconfigured image URLs or incorrect markup in your product feed.
• Differences in how Google Shopping interprets images based on their resolution or format.
• Mobile-specific CSS or JavaScript issues in the landing pages linked from Shopping ads.

Recommended Troubleshooting Steps

1. Review Your Product Images:
2. Ensure images meet Google’s recommended specifications (e.g., 800×800 pixels minimum).

3. Check for inconsistent aspect ratios or image formats.

4. Inspect Your Product Feed:

5. Verify that image URLs are correct and accessible.

6. Ensure that image fields are properly populated and not pointing to low-resolution images.

7. Test on Multiple Devices and Accounts:

8. Confirm if the issue persists across different mobile devices or user accounts.

9. Compare with other stores’ Shopping listings to identify potential discrepancies.

10. Monitor Google Merchant Center Notifications:

11. Look for any alerts or warnings related to your images.

12. Consult Google’s Merchant Help Resources:

13. Review guidelines for product images.
14. Seek guidance from Google support if the issue persists.

Impact on Your Business

Visual presentation plays a crucial role in online shopping; enlarged or zoomed-in