If you use Google Merchant Center, there is one simple rule: don’t try to make Google believe your business is something it isn’t.
A common mistake is filling the account with information that looks legitimate but isn’t:
- Fake or borrowed business addresses
- Incorrect company details
- Made-up contact information
- Missing company identifiers
- No GTIN/EAN where they are required
- Product data designed to hide the real business model
Some merchants think: “If I give Google enough information, it will pass the verification.”
Usually, it doesn’t work that way.
Google already knows a lot about you
Google can connect many signals around your business:
- Your domain and website history
- DNS and hosting information
- SSL certificates
- Company information available online
- Payment and billing signals
- Account history
- Merchant Center activity
- Google Ads accounts
- Product feeds
- Technical information about how your website operates
- Connections between different accounts and properties
So changing the address in Merchant Center or removing a GTIN from your feed doesn’t make the underlying business disappear.
GTIN/EAN is not something to “hide”
If a product has a valid GTIN or EAN, omitting it simply to avoid matching or verification is a bad strategy.
Google uses product identifiers to understand what you are selling and whether your product data matches the information available elsewhere.
Incorrect or intentionally incomplete product data can create more problems, not fewer.
What should you do instead?
Give Google information that matches reality:
Real company → real address → real website → real contact details → accurate product data → correct identifiers.
If something is missing, fix it.
If something is wrong, correct it.
If your Merchant Center account is suspended, investigate the actual reason instead of trying to build a new identity for the same business.
Google is very good at finding inconsistencies. Your goal shouldn’t be to fool Google. Your goal should be to make sure there is nothing to fool it about.
That approach takes longer than a quick workaround — but it is much more likely to give you a stable Merchant Center account.
