CatCode Merchant Image Audit for WooCommerce

Description

Google Merchant Center is raising the minimum size of product images — image_link and additional_image_link — to 500×500 pixels for all product categories. Merchant Center has shown the warning “Image too small for upcoming enforcement” since 14 April 2026, and enforcement starts on 31 January 2027. Google says it will optimize some smaller images itself, but it does not say which ones.

A shop that has been importing products for years can have thousands of such images and no way to see them: WordPress shows every picture as a neat thumbnail. Merchant Image Audit checks every product image against the minimum and tells you exactly which products need attention.

The audit

• Checks the main image, the gallery and the variation images of every product — the same images Google for WooCommerce sends: the main image (or the first gallery image when there is none) as image_link, the gallery as additional_image_link; a variation without its own image uses the parent’s.
• Measures the full-size image WordPress serves, from the size WordPress stored on upload; the file itself is read only when that size is missing. Nothing in the shop is changed.
• Works in small steps, so a catalogue of tens of thousands of products does not run into server time limits.
• Also reports files that are gone from the server, formats Google does not accept (Google accepts JPEG, WebP, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF) and images over Google’s limits of 64 megapixels or 16 MB.
• Counts the images that pass the minimum but stay under the 1500×1500 px Google recommends.

A verdict for every offer

• OK — the main image is large enough.
• Large image in the gallery — the main image is too small, but the product has a large gallery image that could take its place.
• No image large enough — this offer needs a new photo or a larger original.
• Unusable — the main image file is missing, in a format Google does not accept, or over the limits.
• No image.

Plus a separate list of products whose main image is fine but whose gallery has small images.

Larger originals that are already on the site

Very often a small product image is a thumbnail — a file whose name ends in -300×300 — that was uploaded or imported as an image of its own, while the full picture is still there. The audit finds:

• the full image with the same name in the media library;
• the full image as a file in the same folder that is not in the media library;
• an image that was cropped in the WordPress image editor, whose untouched original WordPress keeps (“Restore original image”).

Where you see the result

• An overview with the counters.
• A list of products with thumbnails, sizes and the reason, filtered by verdict, with links to edit each product.
• A “Google image” column in Products and a box on the product edit screen.
• CSV export — one line per image, with SKU, URL, size and where the larger original is; comma or semicolon separated, opens in Excel and Google Sheets.
• WP-CLI: wp catcode-mia scan, wp catcode-mia summary, wp catcode-mia export file.csv.

Products are re-checked when they are saved or when one of their images is edited, so the list stays current while you fix it.

The plugin never enlarges an image and never adds a frame around it: Google’s image requirements say not to use an image with a border, and an enlarged small picture is still a small picture.