Adding products from Squarespace to Google Merchant Center without the html Verification tag
I have an online store through squarespace that I’m trying to connect to Google Merchant Center to automatically sync my products.
The problem is that I’m unable to connect it from the squarespace side because my site was already verified and claimed, but not with the html tag. I’m not able to get the html tag because of this (I have contacted support and they say it is not possible), and without the html tag squarespace somehow can’t see that my site is verified and claimed (I have also contacted their support and they say I have to work this out with GMC).
When I try to connect it from the GMC side, I don’t have the option to connect an online store, only manual options for adding products, which I do not want to do. Support keeps saying that I have to make sure the markup is structured properly and that the robots.txt file does not block Google from crawling, however I don’t have access to edit the markup or robots.txt file on squarespace and either way I *highly* doubt that is the issue since Google shopping/GMC is a third party extension for squarespace and I can see in GMC that it sees products on my site, but they are not added to GMC. I also confirmed that I don’t have issues with indexing my pages in Google search console.
Prior to switching to squarespace, I developed my own site and had a html verification tag through Google analytics. I tried using that tag in squarespace, but still got the same error.
Has anyone else encountered this issue and have advice on things I can try?
The short answer is:
This is a classic and extremely frustrating technical issue caused by the Squarespace Google Shopping integration logic.
The problem isn’t your verification, it’s that Squarespace is checking for the HTML tag method specifically, even though you used another valid method (like the Google Analytics tag, which is an alternate verification route).
Since you cannot edit the necessary code to add the tag or force the Squarespace integration to recognize your existing claim, you need to completely bypass the Squarespace-Google Merchant Center integration and instead use a direct API connection to automatically send your product data.
This API-based solution is what third-party feed services use, and it offers better control and reliability than the standard built-in integration anyway.
The long answer is:
I can absolutely help you with this, and you’ve already correctly identified that the issue is not likely proper HTML or robots.txt settings, as those would affect indexing in Search Console, which you’ve confirmed is fine.
Your hunch that the Squarespace integration is too rigid is correct.
Squarespace’s automatic product sync often relies on a specific sequence of verification and claiming steps, and if you used an alternate method (like the DNS record or the GA tag) to verify your site in Google Search Console, the Squarespace Google Shopping connection can fail because it’s only looking for the HTML meta tag in a specific, locked-down code injection area.
The solution is to skip the faulty Squarespace integration altogether and use a server-side, programmatic approach to feed your products, which is known as the Content API for Shopping (soon to be the Merchant API).
This is the “excellent and cheap long-term solution” you’re looking for.
This server-side architecture uses a small, dedicated tool to act as a secure, continuous bridge between your Squarespace product catalog and Google Merchant Center, essentially creating a reliable, automated feed without touching the broken Squarespace integration.
Here’s how it works:
Squarespace API/Webhooks: Squarespace provides a Commerce API that allows third-party tools (like a feed manager) read-only access to your product, inventory, and pricing data.
This is how you will extract your product information in an automated way.
The goal is to retrieve the necessary fields like id, title, description, price, and link for all your products.
Google Tag Manager Server Container + Stape/GCP: This is the middle-man.
Instead of hiring a developer to custom-code a server to run this process, you can use a server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM) container hosted cheaply on a platform like Stape or your own Google Cloud Platform (GCP) instance.
While sGTM is primarily for tracking, it can also function as a lightweight server environment to run the logic needed to connect two different APIs.
Content API for Shopping: This API is Google’s preferred method for programmatically adding, updating, and managing product data in Google Merchant Center.
Instead of uploading a static file (like a CSV) daily, the API allows you to send product updates in real-time.
The Server-Side Connection Logic: You or a developer would implement a service (often a custom sGTM tag or server-side script) that polls the Squarespace API for changes to your product catalog.
When a change is detected, or on a daily schedule, the script takes that structured data, formats it into the exact requirements of the Content API for Shopping, and then sends a guaranteed products:insert or products:update request directly to your Google Merchant Center account.
This completely bypasses the broken verification flow in the Squarespace UI, because Google Merchant Center’s API accepts the products directly without the front-end platform’s explicit “connect” button.
This solution is considered the gold standard for many reasons: it fixes your verification issue by eliminating its requirement from the platform side, it’s more reliable than a static feed file, it’s highly scalable, and the hosting costs for a server container on a service like Stape are often negligible, making it a very cheap long-term fix that gives you maximum control over your product data quality.
You’ll be able to manage your feed data directly in a single, robust system instead of relying on a finicky built-in integration.
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