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Know why your issue is happening
You may be having trouble with claiming your online shop URL for several reasons.
You haven't verified your online shop URL
You can only claim an online shop URL for your Merchant Center account after you've verified the URL. Verification happens through onboarding as part of the online shop confirmation step.
Your URL has been claimed at a higher level in the domain path
If you see an error saying that your URL has been claimed at a higher level, another Merchant Center account has a claim that is taking precedence over yours. For example, you won't be able to claim the URL http://shop.example.com if another Merchant Center account has already claimed the URL http://example.com, because the latter is at a higher level in the domain path. To do this:
- Sign in to your Merchant Center account.
- In the left navigation menu, select Business info.
- Under 'Your online shop', click Edit online shop.
- Remove 'www' from the URL.
- Click Save.
Website tags have been incorrectly placed or modified
If you've made modifications to the tag or if you've incorrectly placed it in your HTML code, you won't be able to complete website verification. For example, if you're using an HTML tag, make sure that the meta tag is inserted into the <head> section of your site's homepage, before the <body> section. For specific tag implementation instructions on each of the four verification methods, read about verifying and claiming your shop's website.
There isn't an owner set in the Search Console
If you already have a Search Console account, the verification will be set if the Search Console owner matches a user in the Merchant Center. If the users are different, you'll need to make sure that the user who'll be verifying the website is added to both.
The person trying to verify doesn't have edit permissions
The Google Analytics user is required to have edit rights for the Google Analytics account used by that page, and they must also be a user or admin in Merchant Center. If the users are different, you'll need to make sure that the user who will be verifying the website is added to both.
Your e-commerce platform requires you to use a different verification method
E-commerce platforms may have preferred options to help you verify your website with Google Merchant Center or Google Search Console. Check with your platform for more information.
The person trying to verify doesn't have access to an email address that's associated with the website
Google requires that you can prove access to an email address that's associated with the website. The email address can be verified if the email is on the website domain, or if it's listed on the website.
Your confirmation email went to your Spam folder
Check all your email folders, including Spam, Social, Marketing and Promotions. If the confirmation email doesn't arrive after three minutes, resend the confirmation code in Merchant Center.
The verification code isn't entered correctly
You must copy and paste the verification code into the code field in Merchant Center. The code field isn't autofilled by clicking the link in the verification email.
How to fix your issue
Make sure that you verified your website using one of the five methods listed here.
If you aren't the person who set up the account or verified your online shop URL, get in touch with the person who did, either to complete the process or to add you as someone who can complete the process.