Did you know that Google Merchant Center will automatically crop your product images in Google Shopping if it thinks it will look better in Google Search? Did you know that you can also opt out of what they call "Smart Cropping"?
This was spotted by Kirk Williams who posted on LinkedIn that he dug into this for a client and Google told him it is called "Smart Cropping" and you can opt out of it.
The email from Google said:
This is a follow up email to our chat conversation regarding images showing incorrectly on Google Shopping. As discussed over the chat,Here's what we can do: Opt-Out of Smart Cropping.
Please confirm stating that you would like to opt out as the image crop is not as desired. Please keep in mind that opting out will apply at the account level, not the item level, to help optimize the overall experience. To give us one-time approval to make the changes you want, please use the approval template below.
Additionally, this authorization should be coming from the admin of the MC account.
One-time Approval Template
Here is a screenshot of this email from Kirk:
I had no idea about this, and I am sure some of you did not as well.
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
