Why is my brand field showing warnings in Google search?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Multiple merchants report new Google Search Console warnings for the brand field starting around Oct 1, with some noting it began after moving to a Shopify 2.0 theme. The issue appears tied to product JSON-LD using brand @type set to “Thing” instead of “Brand.”

  • Fix: Edit the product structured data to set brand @type to “Brand” and keep the name as the product vendor. Code snippets are central to this thread.
  • File locations vary by theme: Snippets > product__structured-data.liquid; product.liquid (Debut); Sections > main-product.liquid; featured-product.liquid; or snippets > schema.liquid.
  • Validation: Test with Google’s Rich Results Test first. In Search Console, use “Validate fix” (may take 1–30 days) or request indexing via URL inspection to speed it up (often 1–2 days).
  • Alternatives: Some resolved it via the “SEO, JSON-LD, Schema” app by Webrex Studio (paid/pro plan), though others object to paying for a fix.
  • Open items: One user couldn’t edit the theme file (suggested to contact support). No official Shopify confirmation of a platform-wide change; community fix is the prevailing solution.

Status: Largely mitigated by manual schema edit or app; monitoring in GSC continues.

Summarized with AI on January 29. AI used: gpt-5.
4

I found a solution. I’m not sure why search console is suddenly acknowledging this error and I’m not sure if my file always had the wrong code or if google made a recent update. According to google the the code within the product structured data file should read

"brand": {
        "@type": "Brand",
        "name": "ACME"
      },

I checked in my file and indeed it was wrong. It read…

“brand”: {
“@type”: “Thing”,
“name”: {{ product.vendor | json }}
},

So I simply changed the word “Thing” to “Brand” and its now fixed.

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