Goal:
To verify your website on your Google Merchant Center.
Ideal Outcome:
You successfully claimed and verified your website on your Google Merchant Center.
Prerequisites or requirements:
You will need a Google Merchant Center account and a company website domain and hosting. Go to SOP 213 (web version): How to set up Google Merchant Center if you do not have the account.
Why this is important:
Verifying and claiming your website on Google Merchant Center ensures you have the authority to manage product data, prevents unauthorized access, and accurately represent your products. It also grants access to tools like product data feeds, automatic item updates, and promotional features. Improved visibility on Google search and other services can result in higher traffic, sales, and revenue.
Where this is done:
In Google Merchant Center and a website hosting platform.
When is this done:
Once only when setting up a Google Merchant Center account.
Who does this:
The business owner/manager or the local/agency digital marketer, with the assistance of IT personnel such as website developers in case of technical issues.
Verify your website on Google Merchant Center
- Sign in to your Google Merchant Center here. Choose the appropriate Gmail account and log in with your password. Click “Next”.
4. Copy and paste your website URL and hit “Continue”.
We recommend selecting “Add an HTML tag or upload an HTML file to your website”. This is the easiest way to verify your website.
5. Under the “Add an HTML tag” tab, copy the HTML tag generated for your website.
Log in to your website hosting platform. In this case, Shopify was used to illustrate the verification process of your website on your Google Merchant Center.
On the right, click “Actions” and “Edit code”.
6. Paste your generated HTML code from your Google Merchant Center into the <head> of your website hosting platform.
Press Ctrl + F and search for <head>.
Paste the generated HTML code directly below <head>.
Click “Save”.
7. Verify your website. It may take 2-5 minutes for Google to process this. You may refresh and click “verify website” after a few minutes if “The meta tag on your site is incorrect” pops up.
