On this page
- How do I know which method is right for me?
- About automatic online store verification
- Frequently asked questions
Verifying and claiming your online store is an important step when you set up your Merchant Center account. You can verify your online store by using your e-commerce platform, through email verification, by adding an HTML tag or file to your online store, or through Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics. In most cases, you only need to verify your online store once.
Troubleshoot your website verification
How do I know which method is right for me?
- Use email verification if: You can receive a code to an email address that's associated with your online store.
- Use your e-commerce platform if: Your online store is hosted by a third-party e-commerce platform. There may be suggested options to verify your online store provided by the platform. Check with your platform for more information.
- Add an HTML tag or file if: You can add HTML code to the index page of the online store you want to verify, or you can add new files to the server behind the online store you want to verify.
- Use Google Tag Manager if: You’re an account-level administrator for Google Tag Manager.
- Use Google Analytics if: You have administrator access to a Google Analytics account that's already linked to the online store you want to verify. This method might not work if you use a third-party platform (such as Shopify). For those accounts, it is recommended to use an HTML tag to verify your online store. You may also need to remove any "www" from the address if verification is failing.
About automatic online store verification
When Google already has the information that it needs to verify your online store (for example, if you use other Google products such as Google Analytics on your online store), the verification is done automatically. If this happens, you’ll get a notification in your Merchant Center that your online store was automatically verified during the account setup process after you enter your online store address.
You may also receive an email from Search Console, a Google tool, to let you know that Merchant Center has created an account for you. Merchant Center verifies your online store through Search Console. If you have trouble with automatic verification, ensure the correct online store is linked to your other Google products like Google Analytics.
Frequently asked questions
What do “verify” and “claim” mean?Verify: When you verify your online store, you let Google know that you're the owner. You're the owner if you can make edits to your online store content. If you're not the owner, you'll need to work together with your owner or administrator to verify the online store.
Claim: When you claim your online store address, you create a link between your online store address and Merchant Center account. Linking your online store address and your Merchant Center account reserves the address for use with your account exclusively.
During the verification process, you can invite someone to help out with this step. You can add them as a user in the Merchant Center, or send them the instructions for online store verification.
No, you only need to complete this process one time. Your online store will be recognized as verified if any of your users are a verified owner of the online store in the Search Console. In this case, you can skip to the claiming step.
Sometimes, Google already has the information that it needs to verify your online store (for example, if you use Google Analytics on your online store). In this case, the process happens automatically after you enter your online store’s address.
Steps to verify a URL
-
In your Merchant Center account, select Settings
in the left navigation menu.
- Select Business info.
- Select Edit online store.
- Enter the URL, starting with http:// or https://. Use a domain that you own and maintain.
- Select Continue.
If you’re still experiencing issues, try to remove the "s" from the "https" in your online store address, if applicable.
