Set up Google and connect Merchant Center

This page covers connecting your store to Google so your products can appear in free Google Shopping results. It is the first thing to do before Run Google Ads campaigns, local inventory or Google cart transfer. For the unpaid side of ranking in general, see Get found on Google.

Where to start

1. Install the Google app from the marketplace if you have not (see Install an app). There is no separate app called "Google Merchant Center": it is one part of the Google app.
2. Open Apps → Google. Find the Connected sales channels panel, add your storefront with Connect channel if it is not listed, and click Set up Google on that channel. Once the channel is set up the same button reads Manage and reopens the wizard.

Each sales channel has its own Google connection and its own Merchant Center account. A store with two storefronts runs the wizard twice.

The five steps

The progress bar at the top shows Connect, Requirements, Detect, Verify and Confirm. Back and Continue move between them, and Finish saves your settings.

1. Connect your Google account

Click Connect Google. A Google pop-up asks for access, scoped to Merchant Center only. If nothing opens, your browser blocked the pop-up ("Popup blocked. Allow popups for this site to connect"): allow pop-ups for the dashboard and try again.

Google Ads and Google Analytics are not part of this sign-in. They ask for their own, smaller permission the first time you open their tabs, and only if you use them. You can disconnect at any time.

2. Requirements: what Google checks before it shows products

Google reviews every store before products go live. This step lists four things:

• Storefront is live. The sales channel has to be in Live mode. In Test mode you can continue, but Google will not show your products until the channel is Live, and the product sync below refuses to run.
• Refund & terms policies are published. A box you tick to say your storefront shows a clear refund policy and terms of service.
• Customers can reach you. A box you tick to say a contact method (email, phone or form) is visible on your storefront.
• Return policy page URL. The public page on your storefront where customers read your return policy. Brainerce checks that the page is reachable. That is not a legal review and not Google's own approval of your policy.

The two tick boxes are your own confirmation, and Continue stays off until both are ticked. The return policy page URL is optional here. Brainerce does not look at your storefront to prove the boxes. They reappear on the Readiness tab, where you can change them later.

3. Detect: pick the Merchant Center account

Brainerce looks at the Google login you just connected and shows what it found.

• If your login already has a Merchant Center account, pick it under Link an existing account.
• If you know the number, type it under Or enter your Merchant Center ID (find it in Merchant Center under Settings → Account info). Brainerce verifies your access and links it.
• If there is no account yet, the wizard offers Open a Merchant Center account, which takes you to Google to open one that is yours, on your own Google account, after which you link it here. In some setups it also offers Create account, which creates one managed by Brainerce. If you see neither, open Merchant Center yourself first.

Google Ads, Google Analytics and YouTube also appear on this step, each with a status badge: Found or Detected when Brainerce sees an account, Not found when there is none you can create from here, Needs reconnect when Google refused the sign-in, Not eligible yet, or Coming soon when that service cannot be set up from here yet. Google Ads shows a Customer ID and Create Google Ads account when you have none. Google Analytics offers Create GA4 property when you have none, and may ask you to accept the Google Analytics terms to finish. You can ignore them here and set them up later from their own tabs. See Run Google Ads campaigns.

4. Verify and claim your storefront

Merchant Center has to confirm you own your storefront before it shows your products. Click Verify & claim. When Google confirms it, the wizard moves on by itself. You cannot continue past this step until the claim succeeds; until then the button reads Verify & claim, or Try again after a failed attempt.

• If it says "Not verified yet", add the Google Search Console verification tag to your storefront and try again. It can take a few minutes to appear. The same Google site verification box that lives on the Merchant Center tab is shown right there in the step (see Get found on Google), and Open Google Search Console takes you to where you get the tag.
• The channel needs a domain. With none, the step reads "No domain set for this channel". Set it in the sales channel's settings first.
• If you ever change the channel's domain, claim it again.

5. Confirm feed settings

• Target country is the primary country where these products are sold and shipped. Finish stays off until you choose one.
• Content language is the language of your product data in Google.

You can change both later. Shipping and tax rates are not set here. Google gets them from rules you configure inside Merchant Center for your country. Open Merchant Center takes you there. Click Finish and you see "Google setup complete".

After the wizard: sync your products

Finishing the wizard connects the account. It does not by itself push your catalog. On the Merchant Center tab, Product sync has a Sync now button that pushes every product published to this sales channel to Merchant Center in the background, and shows when it last ran.

• The channel must be Live. On a Test channel the button explains "Set this channel to LIVE before syncing. Merchant Center rejects test domains." and nothing is sent.
• Only products published to this channel are sent, and only active ones. A draft, an archived product or one hidden from Google is not pushed. Hiding a product from Google is also how you take a single product off Google.
• Sync now sends products only. It does not send coupons, and it does not make products appear on its own: Google reviews each one, and approval can take days.
• Products are also kept up to date on their own after the first push. Sync now is for the first push and for forcing a refresh.

For the list of what Google says about your products after that (approval status, issues, duplicate listings, whether free listings are switched on), see Why my products are not showing on Google.

Prefer a file Google fetches by itself?

Merchant Center can also read a product feed address on a schedule, with no sign-in. Brainerce publishes one per sales channel. See Your store in ChatGPT and AI search for where to find it and what it contains. Merchant Center treats a fetched feed address as a separate data source from the connected sync. If both feed the same account, check the Why my products are not showing on Google result for a second primary feed or duplicate copies.

What this wizard does not do

• It does not guarantee your products appear. Google decides, and it can take days. Brainerce cannot speed it up or see inside Google's review.
• It does not create your website's legal pages. It only asks you to confirm they exist.
• It does not set shipping or tax in Google. That is done in Merchant Center.
• It does not connect Shopify, WooCommerce or any other platform. It is only about Google.

What's next?

• The Google Readiness tab: one list of everything that could stop Google working.
• Run Google Ads campaigns: the paid side.
• Local inventory on Google: show your physical stores' stock.