Setting up Google Merchant Center for Everspring products

Set up Google Merchant Center for your Everspring products — domain verification, required fields, and feed configuration.

Written By Bas den Hoed

Google Merchant Center (GMC) is the feed Google uses to surface your products in Google Shopping, Search, and Performance Max ads. It is not a marketplace — buyers don't transact through Google. They click your listing and land on your webshop. But the rules for getting accepted, ranked, and not flagged are stricter than most resellers expect.

💡 GMC is unforgiving. A wrongly configured feed doesn't just hurt one listing — it can suppress your entire account in a country, or get your domain flagged as untrustworthy. The fundamentals matter more than the optimisation. Get them right first.

What GMC is, and what it isn't

  • What it is: a product feed manager. You submit your catalog (titles, prices, images, EANs, availability) to Google, and Google uses that data to show your products in Shopping ads, free Shopping listings, and Search.

  • What it isn't: a marketplace. There's no buy box, no shared product page, no Google-managed checkout. The customer always lands on your own webshop.

This means GMC's value depends entirely on your webshop being healthy: a verified domain, accurate pricing, working checkout, and a real fulfilment story behind each listing.

Prerequisites

  1. A working webshop on your own domain — Shopify, WooCommerce, or custom. Everspring products synced and listable.

  2. Your own EANs registered to your brand (see brand registration and EANs). GMC explicitly requires GTINs that match the brand for branded products.

  3. A Google account linked to a Google Ads account (free, but recommended even if you don't run paid ads — many GMC features assume it).

Step 1 — Verify and claim your domain

This is non-negotiable. Google will not show any of your products in any country until your domain is both verified (you proved you own it) and claimed (linked to your GMC account).

Verification methods:

  • HTML file upload to your domain root.

  • HTML meta tag in your homepage's <head>.

  • Google Tag Manager.

  • Google Analytics (if already installed).

After verification, click Claim in your GMC account. Without this, products are silently suppressed in countries where the verification check fails.

Step 2 — Set up the product feed

Most resellers use one of three approaches:

  • Shopify Google & YouTube channel — installs in Shopify, pushes the feed automatically. Easiest if you're on Shopify.

  • WooCommerce Google Listings & Ads plugin — equivalent for WooCommerce.

  • An integrator (Channable, DataFeedWatch) — gives you more control over attribute mapping, custom labels, and per-channel feed variations.

The integrator route is recommended once your assortment passes a few hundred SKUs or you sell in multiple countries.

Step 3 — Required and recommended fields

Get these right or your products will be rejected:

  • id — unique product identifier in your feed (use SKU).

  • title — product title. Brand + product type + key attribute is the standard pattern.

  • description — your own copy, not duplicated from other sellers.

  • link — direct URL to the product on your webshop.

  • image_link — a real product photo, white background preferred. No watermarks, no placeholder images.

  • availability — in stock / out of stock / preorder. Must match what your webshop shows.

  • price — must match the price on the landing page exactly. Mismatches trigger immediate suspension.

  • brand — your registered brand name. Not "Everspring". Everspring is your supplier platform, not the brand on the product.

  • gtin — your own EAN, registered to your brand.

  • condition — usually new.

  • google_product_category — Google's taxonomy. Pick the deepest match.

  • product_type — your own category path (e.g. Plants > Indoor > Tropical). Helps Google contextualise.

  • shipping — shipping cost per country. Must reflect what the customer actually pays.

⚠️ The brand field is the single most-misconfigured field in GMC for Everspring resellers. The brand is the manufacturer/maker (Elho, your own private label, etc.) — never "Everspring". Wrong brand = listing rejection or fraud flag.

Step 4 — Configure shipping and tax

In GMC settings, set up shipping rates for each country you sell to. These can be set globally (one rate per country) or per product (via the shipping attribute in the feed). Tax (for the US specifically) needs separate configuration; for EU sales, prices in the feed must be VAT-inclusive.

Step 5 — Test, then submit

Before pushing your full catalog, run the feed through GMC's Diagnostics view. It flags errors per product. Fix the errors, re-submit, and only then expand to your full assortment.