How Merchant Center identity verification works

It is a check inside your Merchant Center account that proves who you are and, for a business, that the business legally exists. Admin, not a test of your store. Google’s “Verify your business details to restore full visibility” page lists the routes you may get: selfie verification, a liveness check with your camera, and document verification, an upload of a valid, unexpired government-issued document such as a passport, driving licence or organisational tax document. You may also be asked to connect a Google payments profile. Three rules trip people up. Whoever starts the verification has to finish it; another admin can’t take over. Documents must be current originals with all four corners visible, and Google says images of photocopies or screenshots aren’t accepted. And hitting the maximum number of failed attempts can put the account at risk of full suspension. So pick business or individual correctly, make the legal name and address match your business info, payments profile and store footer, gather everything first, then submit once.

Google's “Verify your business documents in Merchant Center” page says the process “confirms the legal existence of your business and ensures that the individuals managing the account have the authorization to do so”. The “Verify your business details to restore full visibility” page lists the checks you may be routed to: “Selfie verification”, a liveness check with your camera, and “Document verification”, an upload of a valid, unexpired government-issued document such as a passport, driving licence or organisational tax document. You may also be asked to connect a Google payments profile, which Google describes as “a secure registry that stores the official legal identity details of an individual or an organization such as a registered name, physical address, and tax information.”

The rules that catch people out are procedural. Google says “the person that starts a verification process must be the one to finish it”, and other admins “can’t take over or complete the verification flow that you initiated”. Documents must be current originals with all four corners visible, and “Images of photocopies or screenshots aren’t accepted.” The names and addresses on them have to line up with what you enter and with your Merchant Center and payments profiles; document verification has the detail. And Google is plain about the stakes: “If a fraudulent attempt is detected or if you reach the maximum number of failed attempts, your account may face full suspension.”

Google's fix page for missing contact information lists incomplete identity verification among the usual reasons for a “Misrepresentation” notice, so it is worth doing properly rather than quickly. Product Experts on Google's Merchant Center Community add a practical point: the flow first asks whether you verify as a business or an individual, and “Make sure to choose the correct option for your type of business.” A sole trader and a limited company need different documents; pick wrong and you are uploading the right papers to the wrong question.

This is a manual account task: StoreVerifier does not see verification requests, documents or their outcome, and you should never upload identity documents to it. What the free scan does is check the store side first, flagging a footer without enough to identify the business or without a physical address, so the name and address on the site agree with your documents. The identity checks are listed on the misrepresentation checker.