Google Merchant Center: how to get your products into Google Shopping

Google Merchant Center is Google's tool where you upload information about the products in your online store. Google takes data from there to show the products in Google Shopping, in the free product listings and in paid Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. Without a Merchant Center account, your products cannot appear with an image and price in the search results.

This guide covers the whole setup, from account to working product feed, and how to fix the errors that most often stop products. Google's interface has changed names and layout several times, so we describe the features rather than exact menu items.

What Merchant Center does#

Merchant Center acts as a go-between for your store and Google's surfaces. You submit a list of your products, called a product feed, with the title, price, image, stock status and other details. Google checks each product against its requirements and policies. Approved products can then appear in several places:

• Free product listings in the Shopping tab and on other Google surfaces
• Shopping campaigns in Google Ads, where you pay per click
• Performance Max campaigns, which use the product feed for ads across several of Google's channels

If you do not have an online store yet, our guide to starting an online store is a better first step.

Create an account and verify the website#

You create the account with a Google account, ideally one that belongs to the business rather than an individual employee. Add more users with their own logins instead of sharing passwords.

Next you verify and claim the website. Verification shows that you have access to the domain. Claiming states that your account is the one allowed to submit products for that domain. Common ways to verify are:

• an HTML tag in the site's code
• an HTML file uploaded to the server
• an existing Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account on the same domain

If you run Shopify or WooCommerce, Google's own app or plugin can handle verification for you.

Business information, shipping and returns#

Fill in the business name, address and contact details so that they match what is on the site. Google compares the details, and discrepancies can lead to the account being reviewed more closely.

The shipping settings determine which shipping cost and delivery time are shown next to the products. You can set a flat rate, a rate per weight band or free shipping above a certain order value. The important thing is that what is shown on Google matches what the customer sees at checkout.

You set the return policy in the same way: how many days the customer has, whether returns cost anything and where the policy is on the site. Make sure the site actually has pages for terms of purchase, shipping and returns. Missing pages are a common reason for accounts being rejected.

The product feed#

The product feed is the core of Merchant Center. Each row is a product and each column an attribute. Google publishes a full specification, but these attributes are needed for practically every product:

• id. A unique ID per product that does not change over time, ideally the item number
• title. The product's name
• description. A description of the product
• link. The address of the product page
• image_link. The address of the main image
• price. The price with currency, for example 499 SEK
• availability. In stock, out of stock, preorder or backorder
• condition. New, used or refurbished, and mandatory for used and refurbished goods
• gtin. The barcode number (EAN in Sweden) for products that have one
• brand. The brand

If the product has a manufacturer GTIN, you should include it. If you sell your own products without a barcode, you can state that in the feed, and then the brand and the manufacturer part number (mpn) are enough.

If you sell clothing, there are additional attributes such as colour, size, gender and age group. Products in several variants are linked together with a shared group ID.

Formats and ways to upload

The feed can be submitted in several ways. Choose based on how often your range and prices change.

1. File. A text file with tab-separated columns or an XML file that you upload manually. Works for small ranges that rarely change.
2. Google Sheets. You fill in a spreadsheet that Merchant Center reads in on a schedule. Easy to get started with, but it means manual work every time a price changes.
3. Scheduled fetch. The store generates a feed file at a fixed address and Merchant Center fetches it automatically, for example every day.
4. API or plugin. The store sends changes directly to Google via the API, often through a ready-made app for Shopify or WooCommerce. A custom-built store connects to Google's API.

If you have your own store built in Next.js or similar, an automatically generated feed file or an API connection is usually the right route. It is part of what we set up in web development for e-commerce.

Want ads that bring in customers? Read about Google Ads →

Common disapprovals and warnings#

Once the feed has been read in, Merchant Center shows diagnostics per product. Errors stop the product entirely, warnings limit how it is shown. These are the most common problems.

Price mismatch between feed and site

Google visits the product pages and compares the price there with the price in the feed. If they differ, the product is disapproved. The cause is often that the feed is updated once a day while a sale on the site started in the middle of the day, or that the site shows prices excluding VAT. Fix it by updating the feed more often and showing the same VAT-inclusive price on the product page as in the feed. Structured data of the Product type with price and stock status on the product page helps Google read the right values.

Missing or invalid GTIN

If the product has a barcode from the manufacturer, Google expects it to be included. A GTIN that does not belong to the product, or that has been entered incorrectly, also causes errors. Get the number from the supplier or the packaging and check that it matches the right variant.

Images that are not approved

The image should show the product clearly. Watermarks, promotional text, borders and logos over the product lead to disapproval, as do placeholder images and images with too low a resolution. The main image should have a neutral background. Also check that the image address works and is not blocked by robots.txt.

Policy violations

Some products and claims are restricted or prohibited, for example certain medicines, weapons and misleading health claims. A policy violation can apply to a single product or to the whole account. Read the notice carefully, change or remove whatever breaks the rules and request a new review. Do not request a review before the problem is fixed.

Incorrect stock status

If a product is listed as in stock in the feed but sold out on the site, or the other way round, it is disapproved. Same solution as for price: more frequent updates and the same information in both places.

Free product listings and paid ads#

Once the products are approved, they can appear for free in the Shopping tab and on other Google surfaces. There is no cost per click, but you also do not control when or how often the products appear.

Paid ads require a Google Ads account linked to Merchant Center. There are two main types:

• Standard Shopping campaigns give you control over bids per product group and show which searches brought clicks.
• Performance Max uses the feed together with images and text and distributes the budget itself across Google's channels. You get less insight into the details.

How much you need to spend depends on your industry, margins and competition. We go through it in what Google Ads costs. Whatever the campaign type, you need accurate conversion tracking to know which products actually sell. Read more in our guide to Google Analytics 4.

Link Merchant Center to Google Ads#

The link is made in two steps. From Merchant Center you send a link request to the Google Ads account's customer ID. In Google Ads you then approve the request. After that you can choose the Merchant Center account as the product source when you create a Shopping or Performance Max campaign.

Use the same Google account with admin access in both tools and the link goes most smoothly. If an agency or a previous consultant created the accounts, check who owns them before you start.

Tips for better product titles#

The title is the attribute that has the biggest effect on which searches the product is matched with. Use the words your customers search for.

• Start with the most important part. Brand and product type first, followed by what sets the variants apart.
• Include details people search for. Colour, size, material, model number and quantity where relevant.
• Follow a fixed order per category. For clothing, for example, brand, product type, material, colour, size. For electronics, brand, model, specification.
• Avoid promotional words. Words like "sale", "best" or "free shipping" do not belong in the title and can trigger warnings.
• Use the characters well. Google allows up to 150 characters but often shows only the beginning, so the most important part should come first.

A title like "Dress blue" says little. "Brandname linen midi dress, navy, size 38" matches more specific searches.

If you have many products, you can improve the titles in the feed with rules in Merchant Center instead of rewriting every product page.

How Solva helps#

Solva sets up Merchant Center, product feeds and Shopping or Performance Max campaigns as part of our advertising work. That covers verification, connecting the feed from the store, fixing disapproved products and conversion tracking. Read more about how we work with advertising.