---
url: 'https://docs.smoxy.eu/zones/google-merchant-crawler.md'
---
# Google Merchant Crawler

Since Google's recent updates, issues may occur in the **Merchant Center** when processing product images.

Merchants may receive error messages stating that images cannot be processed, even though the image URLs are valid.

The reason: Google now requires that the **file extension of an image URL** (e.g., .jpg) must match the actual **Content-Type** returned by the server.

In smoxy, the URL path remains unchanged during **WebP/AVIF conversion**, but the actual image format is switched.

Additionally, Google has announced that the **AVIF format is no longer supported**.

As a result, Merchant Center may reject images if the file extension and Content-Type do not match.

## Solution in smoxy

To ensure that Google crawlers always receive the correct format, you need to create a **Conditional Rule** in smoxy that disables image conversion for the affected Google crawlers.

### Create a new rule

1. Log in to smoxy hub and go to the desired Zone
2. Navigate to Conditional Rules and click **Create Conditional Rule**
3. Use a clear name, for example:

   Disable AVIF/WebP for Google Crawler
4. Add conditions (OR logic):

   * User-Agent contains Storebot-Google
   * User-Agent contains GoogleOther
   * User-Agent contains Googlebot-Image

5) Add settings

   Next, add overrides for the two settings `AVIF conversion` and `WebP conversion` and make sure both toggles are disabled. This overrides the conversion rules in smoxy for these two User-Agents only.

6. Create and activate the rule

## Background: What did Google change?

* **AVIF support removed:** Images in the AVIF format are no longer accepted by Google Merchant Center.
* **Stricter validation of file extension and Content-Type:** If a URL ends with .jpg, it must return Content-Type: image/jpeg.

  Any mismatch (e.g., .jpg URL -> image/webp) will result in image processing errors.

### Sources

* Google crawler documentation (including GoogleOther & Storebot-Google):

  [developers.google.com -- Common Crawlers](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/google-common-crawlers?hl=en#user_agent_version)
* Merchant Center image specification:

  [support.google.com -- Product data requirements](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350#Format)

## Note on other CDNs

This is **not a smoxy-specific issue**, but a general change in Google's Merchant Center behavior.

If you are using **additional CDNs or image optimization services** (e.g., **Cloudflare**, **BunnyCDN**, **Cloudinary**, **Akamai**), you must also disable conversion to **WebP** or **AVIF** there.

Otherwise, Google may still receive the wrong format and reject images -- even if the correct rule is already configured in smoxy.