Everything UK merchants need to set up Google Merchant Center correctly — website requirements, step-by-step configuration, common disapproval causes, and connecting your product feed for automatic daily updates.
Google checks your website before approving your Merchant Center account. Skipping any of these triggers the most common UK merchant approval problems. Get them in place before you touch the Merchant Center dashboard.
✖ Missing any of these = disapproval
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Privacy Policy
Must be easily findable — footer link at minimum. Must explain what data you collect and how you use it.
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Shipping Policy
Specific shipping methods and costs. "We ship UK" is not enough — Google needs to see actual rates or a rate table.
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Return and Refund Policy
How long customers have to return, what condition, and the refund process. Must match what you configure in Merchant Center returns settings.
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Contact page
At minimum one contact method — email, phone, or contact form. Physical address is recommended.
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HTTPS on your domain
SSL certificate active. Shopify enables this by default. Custom domains: check there's no SSL warning in the browser before proceeding.
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UK-specific note
All prices on your website must be VAT-inclusive for consumer-facing products. Your feed must match — submit VAT-included prices. Submitting ex-VAT prices in your feed when your website shows VAT-inclusive prices is one of the most common UK price mismatch disapproval causes.
Step-by-step: setting up Google Merchant Center
1
Create your account
Go to merchants.google.com and sign in with a Google account you'll use for your business (not a personal Gmail). You'll be automatically set up in Merchant Center Next — Google's current version. Enter your business name exactly as it appears on your website and Companies House registration.
2
Add business information
Enter your business address, UK phone number, and business website URL. The website URL must exactly match your domain — "https://example.com" not "https://www.example.com" if your site doesn't use www. This mismatch is a surprisingly common setup error.
3
Verify and claim your website
Choose a verification method: HTML meta tag (easiest for Shopify/WooCommerce — add to your theme head), HTML file upload (place in your website root), Google Tag Manager (if already set up), or Google Analytics. After verification, you must also claim the URL — this is a separate step in the same interface.
4
Configure shipping settings
In Merchant Center Next: Shipping and returns > Shipping services. Set up at minimum one shipping service for Great Britain (GB). Include your handling time (how long before dispatch), your shipping carrier, and your transit time. These must match the shipping information on your website.
5
Add your returns policy
In Merchant Center Next: Shipping and returns > Returns policies. Create a return policy with your return window (days), how the customer initiates the return, and who pays for return shipping. The parameters must match your website's written returns policy.
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Connect your product feed
In Merchant Center Next: Products > Data sources > Add data source. Choose "Your own website" and select "Scheduled fetch" — enter the URL of your Trajekt feed endpoint. Set the fetch frequency (daily or twice daily). Merchant Center will fetch your feed on that schedule automatically.
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Trajekt tip
Trajekt generates a stable feed URL specifically for Merchant Center. Copy this URL from your Trajekt dashboard and paste it into the Merchant Center scheduled fetch setup. Your feed will update automatically on your chosen schedule — daily by default.
Most common UK Merchant Center disapprovals
After your feed is live, check the Diagnostics tab in Merchant Center. The most common UK disapproval causes:
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Price mismatch — Feed price doesn't match website price. Usually caused by sale prices changing between feed refreshes, or VAT-inclusive vs ex-VAT inconsistency. Fix guide →
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Missing GTIN — Branded products without EAN barcodes. Map your barcode field to the gtin attribute. For own-brand products: set identifier_exists: no.
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Image too small — Minimum 100×100px non-apparel, 250×250px apparel. Recommended 800×800px+. Many Shopify thumbnail images are too small.
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Landing page not accessible — Product URL returns 404 or 301 redirect. Products that have moved URL or been deleted since the last feed run. Daily feed updates prevent this.
Free product listings in Google Shopping
Once your Merchant Center account is verified and your feed is live, your products are eligible for free listings in the Google Shopping tab — organic placement at no cost. Free listings require the same feed quality standards as paid Shopping Ads:
No policy violations (prohibited products, deceptive pricing)
Enable free listings in Merchant Center Next: Growth > Manage programs > Free listings. Turn on the toggle for the Shopping tab and Google Search. This is separate from paying for Shopping Ads and is available at no cost.
Automate your Merchant Center feed with Trajekt
Connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store to Trajekt and generate a daily-updated Google Shopping feed formatted to Merchant Center's exact specification — with optimised titles, complete GTINs, and custom labels for bid management.
Google Merchant Center (now called Merchant Center Next) is Google's platform for uploading and managing your product catalogue for Google Shopping, Performance Max campaigns, free product listings, and other Google commerce surfaces. Your product feed lives in Merchant Center, and Google pulls from it to show your products to shoppers.
Yes, the Merchant Center account itself is completely free. You pay only for Shopping Ads clicks (cost-per-click advertising). Free product listings in the Google Shopping tab are also available at no cost to merchants with a verified Merchant Center account.
Your website must have: a functioning HTTPS-secured domain, a Privacy Policy page, a Shipping Policy page (with actual shipping methods and costs), a Return and Refund Policy page, and a working Contact page. These must all be easily findable — ideally in your footer. Google will check for all of these during the verification process.
Google offers four verification methods: (1) Add an HTML meta tag to your website homepage, (2) Upload an HTML file to your website root, (3) Use Google Tag Manager (add a snippet to all pages), or (4) Link your existing Google Analytics account. For Shopify stores, the HTML tag method is typically the most straightforward without developer access.
The account creation and website verification steps take 30–60 minutes. After connecting your product feed, initial processing takes 24–72 hours for catalogues under 5,000 products, and up to 7 days for very large catalogues. You can monitor progress in the Diagnostics tab.
Merchant Center is where your product data lives — your catalogue, feed, and product information. Google Ads is where your campaigns live — budgets, bids, targeting, and ad scheduling. For Shopping campaigns, you link both accounts: Merchant Center provides the products, Google Ads controls the advertising.
The most common causes of Merchant Center disapprovals are: price mismatches between your feed and website, missing GTINs on branded products, images not meeting minimum size requirements (250×250px), URLs returning errors, and availability mismatches. Trajekt validates feeds against the most common disapproval causes before submission.
No. One Merchant Center account can serve multiple countries. You set the feed_label (target country) at the feed level, and you can serve your products to GB, IE, and other markets from the same account. You do need separate product feeds per currency if you're selling in both GBP and EUR.
Merchant Center Next is Google's updated version of Google Merchant Center, rolled out globally in 2024. It has a simplified interface, easier product submission through website crawling, and a unified view of your Shopping presence. New accounts are automatically created in Merchant Center Next. Existing accounts were migrated.
Yes. Trajekt generates Google Shopping XML feeds formatted to Merchant Center's specification — with correct field names, price format (GBP numeric), required attributes, and optional optimisation fields like custom labels and product_type. You set up a scheduled fetch URL in Merchant Center pointing to your Trajekt feed endpoint, and Merchant Center automatically pulls updated data on your schedule.
A CSS (Comparison Shopping Service) partner is an approved Google partner that can submit products to Google Shopping on your behalf. Shopping Ads submitted through a CSS partner rather than directly through Google receive a CPC reduction that passes approximately 20% savings to the advertiser. Several UK CSS partners exist. It's worth comparing the fee structure — some CSS partners charge a management fee that offsets some or all of the CPC saving.