Solve 'CSS not selected for this destination' for Free Listings

Follow this guide if your products show the issue “CSS not selected for this destination” for Free Listings.

The CSS not selected for this destination error occurs when the Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) associated with your Merchant Center account hasn't been selected to represent your domain for Free Listings in Europe.

Why does this cause issues?

Google allows each merchant domain to select only one CSS for Free Listings in Europe.

If multiple Merchant Center accounts or CSSs are associated with the same domain, only offers uploaded through the CSS selected for Free Listings in Europe are eligible to show.

To resolve this, create a Google Merchant Center shell account, verify and claim your website URL, and select Channable CSS for Free Listings in Europe.

Before you start

You'll need

• Admin access to your website, or access to a supported verification method (e.g. Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics).

  • This is required to verify and claim your domain in the shell account

Good to know

• This won't affect your listings or cause downtime.
• Your product feeds and Shopping campaigns will continue running through Channable CSS.
• Changes to CSS settings can take up to 24 hours to take effect.

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1

Create an administrative (shell) Merchant Center account

1. In Google Merchant Center, create a new account.
2. In the sidebar, go to Settings > Business info.
3. In the Details tab, at Your online shop, click Add online shop.
4. Enter your online store URL in the text field.
5. Click Save.

This account is a shell account. Use it only to verify and claim your website URL, and to manage which CSS represents your domain for Free Listings.

Do not upload product data to this account.

2

Verify and claim your URL

After you enter your URL, Google will ask you to verify that you own or manage the website.

1. Choose one of the available verification methods:

   • Use your eCommerce platform
   • Add an HTML tag or file
   • Use Google Tag Manager
   • Use Google Analytics
2. Select an option and follow the instructions that appear.
3. Click Verify your online store.

Google may show a warning that another Merchant Center account already uses this domain. This is expected if your products are managed through a Merchant Center under another CSS.

You can safely continue with the website claim for the shell account.

Once your website domain has been verified and claimed in the Google Merchant Center shell account, you can manage the authorized Comparison Shopping Services for that domain.

3

Select Channable CSS for Free Listings

Once your website has been claimed:

1. Go to Settings > General.
2. In the Comparison Shopping Services tab, expand CSS selection.
3. Hover over the row with Channable CSS and click (the three dots).
4. Click Make this the CSS for free listings in Europe.

You can also select Channable CSS for placing products outside of Europe. This setting affects both Shopping ads and Free Listings outside of Europe.

4

Update your product source

1. Go to your primary Merchant Center account that contains your product source.
2. Go to Settings > Data sources.
3. Click Update for the product source containing your products.

It can take up to 24 hours for CSS authorization changes to apply.

After 24 hours, check your product status again. The issue should be resolved if Channable CSS has been selected successfully and your products meet Google’s Free Listings requirements.