Which address goes in Merchant Center and on your website?

The address in Merchant Center should be where your business is registered, and the same address belongs in your website’s footer and on its contact page. Other addresses are fine, labelled for what they are. The trouble starts when a shopper finds two and nothing says why.

Critical5 min read

By Edvinas Ivanauskas How the guides are reviewed

You run this check yourself

Our scanner can’t see inside your Google accounts, so this one’s on you. Work through the checklist below without running a scan.

Why this matters

Google's Business information page, the one behind Settings and Business info in Merchant Center, asks you to add “where your business is registered”. The fix page for missing contact information then asks for that address to show up on the site: “Ensure your business name, address, and phone number are identical in your website footer, contact page, and Merchant Center settings.” It lists a store whose details in Merchant Center disagree with the footer or contact page among the usual reasons for a Misrepresentation or Website needs improvement notice.

Google's onboarding checklist, “Prepare your business and website for Merchant Center onboarding and reviews”, is more specific still: “Provide a verifiable street address that perfectly aligns with your formal business registration, ensuring uniformity across your Homepage and Contact pages.” It also asks you to “Clearly state your main operational hub (City, State/Country).” And if you are asked for business verification, Google's document guidelines require the legal name and address on your documents to be the same as your Merchant Center profile. So the registered address is the anchor: your paperwork, Business info and your footer all have to agree on it.

More than one address is normal for a real business. A registered office at the accountant's, a warehouse, a separate returns unit: all fine, provided each is labelled. The same checklist asks you to “Clearly state where products ship from and identify fulfillment partners.” Product Experts on Google's Merchant Center Community add a small rule that saves a lot of confusion: “Wherever you show your address or contact details, add your business name.” If your registered address is a mailbox or a service address you don't work from, read P.O. boxes and virtual office addresses before you publish it.

StoreVerifier doesn't open your Merchant Center account, so putting Business info next to the site is a manual check. The free scan handles the store side: it flags a footer with no physical address, a returns policy with no return address, and structured data in your theme that declares a different address from the one in your footer. The full list of identity checks is on the misrepresentation checker.

Typical evidence

Compare the business details by meaning

Review the address in Merchant Center and on the public store after a move or rebrand. Abbreviations and formatting can differ without describing different businesses; investigate any real inconsistency manually.

fieldGMCwebsite

street14 King St14 King Street

cityBristolBristol

postcodeBS1 4EFBS1 4EF

countryUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom

Use a clear format for customers and investigate changes of address, rather than treating punctuation or abbreviations as proof of a mismatch.

The public signals this check looks for:

You moved and updated the footer, but Business info still has the old address, or the othe…
You moved and updated the footer, but Business info still has the old address, or the other way round.
Business info has the registered office from your company papers; the site shows only the …
Business info has the registered office from your company papers; the site shows only the warehouse, and nothing links the two.
The contact page gives one address, the returns policy another, and neither says what it i…
The contact page gives one address, the returns policy another, and neither says what it is for.
The site shows only a town or a country, while Business info holds a full street address
The site shows only a town or a country, while Business info holds a full street address.
The Organization or LocalBusiness structured data in your theme still declares a previous …
The Organization or LocalBusiness structured data in your theme still declares a previous office, or the theme demo's address.
Your registered office is your accountant's or formation agent's address, and the site pre…
Your registered office is your accountant's or formation agent's address, and the site presents it as your shop.

What it looks like once it is right

Business info and the footer both show Acme Outdoor Ltd, 12 High Street, Leeds LS1 4AB. The contact page adds “Returns and dispatch (no collections): Acme Outdoor Ltd, Unit 7, Riverside Park, Wakefield WF1 2AB”, and the returns policy repeats it word for word.

Common mistakes

Common mistake

Business info: 12 High Street, Leeds LS1 4AB. Footer: “Unit 7, Riverside Park, Wakefield.” Returns page: “Send returns to our warehouse,” with no address. Nothing on the site explains why there are two towns.

Self-check steps

Take the address from your business registration or tax document, the one you would submit for business verification. That is the address Merchant Center should hold.
In Merchant Center, open Settings, then Business info, and check the Business address fields line by line against that document: street, town, postcode and country.
Show the same address in the footer and on the contact page as selectable text, not an image, with the business name directly above it.
List any other address under its own label, such as “Returns (post only): Unit 7, Riverside Park, Wakefield WF1 2AB” or “Warehouse, no collections”. A shopper should never have to guess which one to use.
Write the full return address into the returns policy, and make it the one you actually want parcels sent to.
Search the theme for old addresses: footer settings, the Organization or LocalBusiness structured data, invoice and packing-slip templates, and order emails.
If you have a Google Business Profile, give it the same address as the site, so a shopper who looks you up finds one business in one place.
After a move, change Business info, the site, the structured data and the profile in the same sitting, and keep a dated screenshot of each.

The canonical format rules

Decide on one set of rules and apply them to every address field everywhere. These are the four most common formatting differences that cause mismatches.

street suffix

King St, Market Rd, Park Ave

King Street, Market Road, Park Avenue

postcode spacing

BS14EF, EC1A1BB, W1A0AX

BS1 4EF, EC1A 1BB, W1A 0AX

county / region

sometimes included, sometimes not

omit consistently (GMC does not require it)

country suffix

UK, England, Britain

United Kingdom (the full name, consistently)

Once you have a canonical format, document it. Future team members who update the website address need to know the exact format to match GMC.

Questions merchants ask

Which address should I put in Merchant Center Business info?

Google's Business information page asks for the address where your business is registered. Use the one on your registration or tax documents: if you are asked for business verification, Google requires the legal name and address on those documents to be the same as your Merchant Center profile.

Can my website show a different address from Merchant Center?

It can show more than one, but the registered address in Merchant Center should be on the site too. Google's contact-information fix page asks for the business address to be identical in the footer, the contact page and Merchant Center. Label any warehouse or returns address separately so the difference explains itself.

Can I use my warehouse or fulfilment centre address?

Use it for what it is: a dispatch or returns address, labelled that way. Google's onboarding checklist asks you to state where products ship from and to identify fulfilment partners, and separately to give a street address that aligns with your business registration. A fulfilment partner's address presented as your head office is the version that causes the confusion. See public business address.

Remediation

Risk signal

Two addresses aren't the problem. Two addresses with no labels are, because a shopper has to guess which one is real, and so does anyone else trying to work out who you are. Anchor everything to the registered address, label the rest, then run the free scan to catch the footer and returns-page gaps.

PriorityTreat this and any other highest-severity findings as first-priority work, then document each fix.

EvidenceRecord the current state before each change, apply the fix, then capture the corrected state so every change is evidenced.

Similar cases

Sources

Community guidance

Written by Product Experts, the users Google recognises for their answers on its Merchant Center Community forum. Often stricter than Google’s help pages, and not Google policy.

How to fix Google Merchant Center suspensions (plain-language walkthrough)Merchant Center Community · Product Expert guide — support.google.com

Last reviewed 23 Sep 2026.

That is one issue. The library documents 134.

The free scan lists what it finds on your store. The paid report adds the affected pages, captured evidence and step-by-step fixes. Start free, with no account needed.