Google Merchant Center Setup Guide for Indian Online Stores

Google Merchant Center is where your product catalogue lives so it can appear in Shopping ads, free product listings and Performance Max campaigns. A clean Google Merchant Center setup is the foundation of every successful ecommerce ad account — most Shopping problems trace back to feed or website issues here.

Create and Verify Your Account

Sign up at the Merchant Center with the same Google account you use for Google Ads. Enter your business name, country and time zone carefully — country cannot be changed later. Then claim and verify your website URL, usually by adding a meta tag or through your existing Google Analytics or Tag Manager setup. The URL you claim must match the domain in your product links exactly, including www or non-www.

Get Your Business Information Right

Before any feed goes live, complete the business information sections: a real customer service email and phone number, your business address, and accurate shipping and return policies. Google checks these against your website. Missing or mismatched policies are one of the most common reasons accounts get suspended for "misrepresentation" — so make sure your website footer and policy pages say the same thing as Merchant Center.

Build Your Product Feed

The feed is a list of your products with attributes: id, title, description, link, image link, price, availability, condition and identifiers like GTIN or brand plus MPN. You can create it automatically from Shopify, WooCommerce or another platform, upload a file, or use the Content API. Prices and availability in the feed must match your product pages — Google crawls your site and disapproves mismatches.

Fix Disapprovals and Warnings

The Diagnostics tab lists every issue. Common ones: price or availability mismatch (usually caused by sale prices or currency formatting), missing GTINs (add brand and MPN if you genuinely have no GTIN), image issues (text overlays or watermarks on images are not allowed), and landing page errors. Fix the source — your website or feed — not just the symptom, or the disapprovals return.

Link Google Ads and Start Selling

Link Merchant Center to your Google Ads account from the Linked Accounts section, then build a Shopping or Performance Max campaign using the feed. From there, feed quality becomes your main lever — better titles and images mean better visibility. Read our feed optimisation guide next, or let our Google Partner team set it up for you. Questions about cost and scope are covered in our FAQ.

FAQs: Google merchant center setup

Is Google Merchant Center free?

Yes, the account itself is free and even includes free product listings on the Shopping tab. You only pay when you run Shopping or Performance Max ads through Google Ads.

Why did Google suspend my Merchant Center account?

The most common reason is misrepresentation: missing contact details, policies that do not match your website, or a site that looks untrustworthy. Fix the website issues first, then request a review.

Do I need a GTIN for every product?

Not always. If your products genuinely have no GTIN (handmade or unbranded goods, for example), provide brand and MPN where possible and set the identifier exists attribute correctly.