Blocking Affects: availability availability

Fix “Mismatched value [availability]” on Google Merchant Center

The availability in the feed doesn't match what Google sees on the landing page. Feed says 'in stock', the landing page shows 'sold out' (or vice versa). Affected items stop serving until both align.

What you see in Google Merchant Center:

Mismatched value [availability]

API identifier: mismatched_value_availability

Mismatched availability happens when the feed says one thing and the landing page says another. Daily-refresh-on-hourly-inventory is the most common cause: the feed has yesterday's availability state, the landing page has today's. The window between is when impressions get wasted on items users can't actually buy.

The schema.org markup check matters because Google reads schema-declared availability when validating against the feed. If schema says "out of stock" while visible page content says "in stock", schema wins for Google's classifier. Audit schema markup alongside feed and visible page state.

The variant-handling discipline matters here too. When one size of a product sells out, only that variant's availability flips. Pipelines that flag the whole item_group as out of stock when one variant sold out pull real available inventory out of serving.

The durable fix is real-time availability updates via Catalog Batch API rather than scheduled fetches. Daily refresh on inventory-sensitive categories always has drift; real-time updates close the window.

Top causes

  • 1

    Feed updates daily but inventory changes hourly — the feed lags reality

  • 2

    Schema.org Product markup on the landing page shows a different availability than the feed

  • 3

    Out-of-stock page redirect that takes Googlebot to a 404 (interpreted as 'unavailable')

  • 4

    Variant-level stockouts where the parent shows 'in stock' but the actual variant is sold out

How to fix it

  1. 1

    Identify the mismatch direction

    Sometimes the feed says in stock and the page says sold out — fix the feed. Sometimes the feed says out of stock and the page still shows available — fix the page.

  2. 2

    Verify schema markup

    View source on a flagged landing page. Look for schema.org/Product → availability. If it conflicts with the feed, fix the markup first.

  3. 3

    Tighten refresh cadence

    For active assortments, hourly fetch or Catalog Batch API for real-time updates. Daily is too slow.

  4. 4

    Handle variant-level stockouts correctly

    When a specific variant sells out, only that variant flips. The parent item_group stays in stock. Verify the feed handles this — don't flip the parent.

Related fields

FAQ

How does Google check availability against the landing page?

On crawl. Googlebot visits the landing page periodically and compares its availability signals (schema markup, page content) against the feed value at fetch time. Discrepancies caught at crawl get flagged.

Last reviewed: 26 May 2026

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