“Missing field “brand”” and “No global identifier provided (e.g. gtin, mpn, isbn)” are non-critical issues in Search Console, not errors: your product pages can still be indexed and still show price and stock in Google. They mean the product data on the page (the JSON-LD that Google reads) has no brand and no barcode. On a current WooCommerce store, the fix is to fill in the brand under Products > Brands and the barcode in the GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN field. WooCommerce then adds both to the page by itself.

Why it happens

  • The products have no brand. WooCommerce has had a Brands feature in core since version 9.6 (January 2025), but it starts empty. A product with no brand assigned has no brand in its data.
  • The brand is stored somewhere Google can’t see. Many stores keep the brand as a product attribute (“Brand: Acme”) or in the title. WooCommerce only puts the brand in the structured data when it comes from the Brands taxonomy.
  • The GTIN field is empty. The GTIN field arrived in WooCommerce 9.2, in the product’s Inventory tab. Stores that imported their catalog before that, or keep the barcode in the SKU or a custom field, have it empty.
  • The code doesn’t look like a barcode. WooCommerce removes anything that isn’t a digit and only prints the GTIN if 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits are left. A 10-digit ISBN or a SKU like TSHIRT-RED is left out.
  • Your SEO plugin or theme writes its own product data. Rank Math and the Yoast WooCommerce SEO add-on can replace or extend WooCommerce’s product markup, and they take the brand and GTIN from their own settings. Some themes add a second Product block. If that plugin isn’t told where your brand is, the warning stays even when the product has one.
  • The product really has no barcode. Handmade items, your own products or bundles often have no GTIN. Then the warning is expected.

How to check it yourself

  1. In Search Console, open Shopping > Merchant listings (or Product snippets). Click the issue to see the list of affected pages. If your report only shows warnings and no errors, nothing is blocking your products.
  2. Copy one affected URL and paste it into Google’s Rich Results Test. Open the Product item and look for brand and gtin. If they’re missing there, Google is right.
  3. Count the Product items the test finds. If there are two, your theme or SEO plugin is adding a second block, and one of them is probably the one missing the fields.
  4. Open the same product in WordPress. Look at the Brands box in the right sidebar and the GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN field in Product data > Inventory. For variable products, the GTIN goes in each variation.
  5. If the product has a brand and a GTIN in WordPress but not in the test, the problem is the plugin or theme that writes the markup, not your catalog. Clear your page cache and test again before you change anything.

How to fix it

Add the brand:

  1. Go to Products > Brands and create your brands. If you don’t see the menu, update WooCommerce to 9.6 or later.
  2. Edit each product and tick its brand in the Brands box. For many products at once, export them from Products > All Products > Export, check whether your version includes a brands column, fill it in and import the file again with “Update existing products” ticked. If there’s no such column, a bulk editing plugin can assign the taxonomy.
  3. If you sell only your own products, your brand is your store name. Create it once and assign it to everything.

Add the GTIN:

  1. Take the barcode printed on the box or from your supplier’s price list. Don’t make one up and don’t copy the SKU: Google uses the GTIN to match your product with the same product in other stores, and a fake code does more harm than a missing one. Some guides show a snippet that copies the SKU into the GTIN; only use it if your SKUs really are barcodes.
  2. Paste it in Product data > Inventory > GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN. For variations, open each one under Variations.
  3. For a large catalog, use the CSV importer: the GTIN has its own column (“GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN”) in the WooCommerce export.
  4. Check the codes before you upload them. A wrong check digit (the last digit) is the most common mistake. You can paste a whole list into our free GTIN validator.

If you use Rank Math or Yoast:

  • Rank Math: go to Rank Math SEO > General Settings > WooCommerce and choose the field that holds your brand.
  • Yoast WooCommerce SEO: set the brand and manufacturer in the add-on’s settings, and the identifiers in the Yoast SEO tab of each product.
  • Then run the Rich Results Test again and check there’s only one Product block with the brand and GTIN in it.

If a product has no GTIN: leave it. Google’s documentation lists brand, gtin and mpn as recommended, not required. If the manufacturer gives a part number (MPN), you can add it with your SEO plugin; WooCommerce has no MPN field of its own.

When you’re done, go back to the issue in Search Console and click Validate fix. Google checks the pages again over the next days.

One thing that isn’t optional: Google Merchant Center. If you send your products to Shopping, the feed needs a brand for most products and the GTIN for any product that has one. The Search Console warning is a hint; in Merchant Center a missing identifier can mean fewer impressions or a rejected product.

How to stop it from happening again

The warnings come back every time someone adds a product without a brand or a barcode, or an update changes how your SEO plugin writes the markup. Melopo Radar checks your catalog every day and lists the published products with no GTIN (missing_gtin), no brand (missing_brand) or a GTIN with a wrong check digit, ordered by what they sell. With the Catalog That Sells add-on you can type the GTIN from the panel and Radar writes it in the WooCommerce field. Each day it also reads the live page of up to 20 of your best-selling simple products and warns you if one has no product structured data at all (missing_product_schema, in the Technical SEO add-on), which usually means a theme or plugin removed it. To be clear about the limits: Radar reads the brand only from WooCommerce Brands or Perfect Brands, so a brand kept as an attribute shows as missing; it doesn’t check whether brand and gtin appear inside the page markup; and it doesn’t connect to Search Console. If you tell Radar you don’t sell on Google Shopping, it stops warning about brand and GTIN.

FAQ

Does “Missing field brand” hurt my rankings? Not directly. It’s a non-critical issue: the page stays indexed and can still show a product rich result. Adding the brand gives Google more to work with, especially for Shopping listings.

Where is the GTIN field in WooCommerce? In the product editor, Product data > Inventory, labelled “GTIN, UPC, EAN, or ISBN”. It’s there since WooCommerce 9.2, and each variation has its own.

Can I use the SKU as a GTIN? Only if your SKU is the real barcode. A made-up number can get your products matched to the wrong item or rejected in Merchant Center.

I added the brand and Search Console still shows the warning. Why? Google re-crawls slowly, so click Validate fix and wait. If the Rich Results Test also misses the brand, a cache, your SEO plugin or your theme is serving markup without it.

My products are handmade. What do I do? Use your store name as the brand and leave the GTIN empty. The GTIN warning will stay, and that’s fine.