Claim your website, set countries and local inventory
Prove to Google that the online store is yours, choose where products may show, and send per-store availability.
Where to find itSales channelsGoogle Merchant Center
Before you start
Google must be connected and a Merchant Center account chosen. Your online store must be live. Turn on Sales channels in Shop › Features. If you do not see it there, ask support.
Plan
Growth
Needs
Turn it on in Shop › Features (ask support if you do not see it)
Who can use this
Shop owner
Google shows products only from a website you have verified and claimed in Merchant Center. It must be the address your products link to: your online store.
Claim your website
The Website card compares Your online store with the Website in Merchant Center, and shows Claimed, Not claimed or Another website.
Make the store live
While the store is not live, the card says "Make your online store live first; Google has to be able to open it."
Get the verification code from Google
In Merchant Center, open Business info, then Website, and choose "Add an HTML tag". Copy the code: the content value, or the whole tag.
Save the code in the panel
Open Shop › Online Store › Preferences and paste it into the Google site verification field. Save. See Search engines.
Claim
Back on the Google page, select Claim website. If Merchant Center has a different website, or none, the button reads Use my online store and claim it, and a line tells you which address will be replaced.
When it works, the card says "Your website is verified and claimed."
If the card says
Do this
"Google could not verify that the website is yours. To verify it:"
Follow the three steps listed. The chip tells you whether a verification code is saved. Check it is the one Merchant Center shows for this account
"Only an admin of this Merchant Center account can claim the website…"
Ask for admin access, or reconnect with an admin's Google account
"Another Merchant Center account has already claimed this website…"
Claim anyway takes the website over. The other account loses it. Use it only when that account is not yours to keep
"Google did not confirm the claim yet. Wait a few minutes, then click Claim again."
Wait, then claim again
Set the countries
The Countries card lists where your products may be shown on Google, as two-letter country codes. It starts with your shop's country and the countries your shipping zones cover, and these are saved when the product source is set up.
To change the list, type the codes separated by commas, for example "AE, SA", and select Save countries. A saved change answers "Countries saved."
The checklist row Choose the product language and the countries to show in is done once a language and at least one country are saved.
Test the connection
Test connection checks the access, the Merchant Center account and the product source with Google. The answer also tells you if the website is not claimed yet. It changes nothing.
The card Local inventory (in-store availability) appears only for shops with more than one active location. It tells Google which of your stores have each product.
On Google's side, turn on local inventory ads or free local listings in Merchant Center and link your Business Profile.
Give each store its Google store code
Open the location and fill in Google store code with the store code from your Google Business Profile, exactly as it is there. See Locations. The card lists the locations that have a code.
Switch it on
Tick Send each store's availability to Google. Optionally tick Also send how many units each store has (otherwise in stock / out of stock only). Select Save.
