Google Merchant Center has more than just feeds. There are various settings that can affect your product listing. If you have connected a Google account (or multiple Google accounts) to the app, you will then be able to control the most important settings from inside the app, saving time and effort.
Connect multiple accounts to the app to manage multiple listings across multiple Google Merchant Centers.
Manage your product listings and accounts for Google Shopping. This is required so the app can manage the feeds, including adding, updating, etc.
Manage the list of sites and domains you control. This is recommended. If granted, the app will be able to get your store domains verified with Google. Domain verification is mandatory for product listing to be approved for Google Shopping.
Although the more preferable way to configure shipping is at item level, this option will let the app attempt to synchronize your Shopify shipping settings to Google Merchant's Shipping and Returns settings.
Synchronize from store shipping settings to GMC
Generated shipping services in GMC
Do note that this option has some limitation:
It can only handle price based and weight based shipping rates. Carrier rates settings are not supported.
Google Shopping has a limit of 20 services per country, so if your shipping settings is too complicated to be presented in 20 services, they will not be synchronized.
Shipping settings at the feed item level is preferred over GMC shipping synchronization
With this option you can either set Google Merchant's Tax settings to Google-determined rates, or specify that your store does not charge tax. These options only apply to US market, as it is the only supported market in GMC at the time of this article is written.
Google Shopping requires that the website domain (on which product pages are hosted) must be configured, verified and claimed in the Business information settings of Merchant Center before any listing can be approved.
Domain verification can be a daunting process to handle manually, especially when you have to verify your store with multiple Merchant Centers to sell to multiple markets. For each of connected GMC, it includes the following step:
Configure the website address in GMC
Add verification code (or file) to your theme file so Google can find it on the store's home page
Click the "Verify" in GMC
Click the "Claim" button in GMC
If your store is using multiple top level domains (e.g. myshop.us, myshop.uk for US and UK), you will need to use multiple GMC, each for a top level domain.
The domains need to be verified in all GMCs.
If the Manage the list of sites and domains you control access scope is granted, the app can automate all the steps above after some one-time basic configuration. The key step here is #2, is implemented by an app embed.
The app embed can be access directly from the Google Accounts section in Settings page
or, from the shortcut next to "Verify website" checkbox for individual connected Google Merchant Center.
or, from Customize theme function in your Online Store, with some browsing.
Customize theme
Make sure that the Google site verifications is enabled, and click Save if required.
Enable Google site verification code
After the app embed has been enabled, each time a connected GMC is enabled for verification, the app will generate the verification code, add it to your online store and keep it there for your domain to stay verified with Google.
The modification to your theme is made using theme app extension, the latest technology recommended by Shopify. It works with all the theme, and allows the modification to be removed automatically when the app is uninstalled.
