What business name should you use in Merchant Center?
Merchant Center wants a short business name: the one shoppers know you by, up to 40 characters, with no “Ltd”, no all capitals and no slogans. Use the same name on your site, and tie it to your legal name where the two differ. Your logo can shout; the name field cannot.
Why this matters
Google's “About adding a business name” page sets the rules for the name field: “Use a short name for your business name (up to 40 characters).” Leave out suffixes such as Inc., Co. or GmbH, and “promotional text such as phone numbers, marketing messages, or sale announcements”. On capitals it is blunt: “Avoid using all capitalized letters in your business name as it won't be approved.” It is the name shoppers see in your ads and free product listings, and if it breaks the rules, Google says “we may show your online store URL instead.”
The short name is not the whole job. Google's fix page for missing contact information asks for your business name, address and phone number to be “identical in your website footer, contact page, and Merchant Center settings”. The “Building trust with your customers” page asks for “the official business name that you use across the web”. And if Google asks you to verify, the documents carry your legal name, which has to line up with your profile; document verification covers that part.
So the trading name, the site and the legal name have to connect, not collide. Use one trading name, written the same way everywhere a shopper or Google looks, in normal case in running text; keep the capitals for the logo. Where the company has a different legal name, say so in one line on the site. Product Experts on Google's Merchant Center Community put it plainly: “Your official business name should be consistent across all platforms and public records.”
The free scan flags a footer with too little to identify who runs the store, and business details in your structured data that disagree with the footer. It does not see your Merchant Center settings, so hold those side by side yourself, or follow the name-matching guide. Every identity check is on the misrepresentation checker.
Typical evidence
The same business, spelled three different ways
To a shopper, three names make it harder to tell who is selling. Compare the footer, Merchant Center and Business Profile, then use one legal name wherever it belongs.
The public signals this check looks for:
Merchant Center shows your name in capitals, “ACME HOME”, and the name was not approved or…
Merchant Center shows your name in capitals, “ACME HOME”, and the name was not approved or your URL shows instead.
The name field carries a suffix or a slogan…
The name field carries a suffix or a slogan: “Acme Home Ltd” or “Acme Home – Free UK Delivery”.
The footer says one name, the contact page another and Merchant Center a third
The footer says one name, the contact page another and Merchant Center a third.
You trade under a brand, and the company behind it appears nowhere on the site
You trade under a brand, and the company behind it appears nowhere on the site.
You rebranded the logo but not the footer, the policies or Business info
You rebranded the logo but not the footer, the policies or Business info.
The business name in your site's structured data is an old brand or the theme's demo name
The business name in your site's structured data is an old brand or the theme's demo name.
What it looks like once it is right
Merchant Center: “Acme Home”. Footer and contact page: “Acme Home is a trading name of Acme Retail Ltd, 4 Mill Lane, Leeds.” Structured data: “Acme Home”. One name shoppers know, tied to the company that sells.
Common mistakes
Common mistake
Fix checklist
One spelling, five surfaces
Audit every place the name appears against one canonical spelling. A stray “Co.” for “Ltd” is a public mismatch worth removing before it confuses a shopper.
Questions merchants ask
Can my Merchant Center business name include Ltd or Inc.?
Google's “About adding a business name” page says not to add suffixes such as Inc., Co. or GmbH to the name field. Use the short name shoppers know, and put the full legal name on your site next to it, so the two connect.
Why is Merchant Center showing my website URL instead of my business name?
Google's page says that if the business name contains errors or does not meet its editorial and professional requirements, “we may show your online store URL instead”, and Merchant Center shows a notification. All capitals, suffixes, promotional text and symbols are the usual culprits. Fix the name and submit your product data again.
Does the name on my website have to be the same as in Merchant Center?
Google's fix page for missing contact information asks for your business name, address and phone number to be identical in the website footer, on the contact page and in Merchant Center settings. If your legal name is different, show both on the site: the trading name, and the company that trades under it.
Remediation
Risk signal
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.
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.