How to get started as a CSS on Google

If you run a CSS business that complies with the requirements to participate in the CSS programme, follow these steps to get through the CSS programme onboarding process and get access to opportunities offered by Google.

Instructions

Create a new Merchant Center account.
Click on Business info in the left navigation menu and select the 'Details' tab. Then click on Edit business details to add the following information:
1. Your business display name as you'd like it to be shown to users, with a maximum of 10–15 characters.
2. Your business address
3. Your customer service contact information (URL, email and phone number)
Next, go back to the 'Details' tab and click Edit online shop and add your website, including the schema (http:// or https://). Then, verify your website URL in one of the following two ways:
1. If you don't currently have another account advertising with Shopping ads for the given domain, verify and claim the website in Merchant Center.
2. If you're currently advertising with Shopping ads for the given domain, claiming the site may interfere with ads or listings served from other Merchant Center accounts that you already have. In this case, use Google Search Console to verify your domain, but don't claim it. Log in with a user who has access to the Merchant Center account created, navigate to Search Console and add the property.
Stop at this point, and sign up here to transform your account into a CSS multi-client account and get access to your CSS Centre. Don't upload any offers to this initial account. You'll be notified by email once the CSS multi-client account has been successfully created and access has been granted to your CSS Centre.
Log in to your CSS Centre account and confirm your eligibility to participate in the CSS programme for the specific country. Your site must show products from at least 50 merchants that deliver to that country via the CSS requirements report.
1. All merchant domains for which you have uploaded products are included in the count for their respective countries.
2. If you have product offers from additional merchants on your website that you'd like to add, you can upload a list of additional merchants.
You're set up to participate in CSS programme opportunities in the eligible countries.

To start participating in additional CSS programme opportunities, you can follow the below guides:

Best practices

These are recommendations for your setup and features of your CSS website that we think will help you provide users with a great experience to compete against other CSSs.

Filtering and sorting

Allow users to filter and sort product offers on your website by relevant criteria (for example, by price, merchant or brand). You may want to offer different options for filtering and sorting depending on the type of product (for example, colour and style for clothing, or technical specifications for electronics).

Comparison of offers for the same product

If multiple merchants sell the same product through your website, allow users to access an overview that compares offers for the same product from different merchants. You may want to provide details for each offer, such as price, delivery cost, delivery time, payment methods, ratings and reviews etc. This allows users to select a merchant based on what's important to them.

Language and currency

Help your users to find offers in the language and currency of their country. When a user is taken from Google to your CSS website, the language and currency of the offers shown on your site should correspond with the language and currency of your listing on Google.

Presence in multiple countries

If you use the same CSS domain for multiple countries, you can adapt the offers shown based on what you know about the users and their locations. Alternatively, you can use a separate CSS website for each country.

There are a few ways in which you can do this:

Use different brands for each country.
Use different country domains for the same brand (for example, somecss.fr and somecss.de).
Use a different subdomain for each country (for example, fr.somecss.com and de.somecss.com).

Each website will have its own CSS Centre. You will be able to view all your CSS domains in the CSS group overview of your CSS Centre.

You can also distinguish different language versions of your website for countries where multiple languages are spoken (for example, fr.somecss.be).

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