Missing Material
Your apparel product doesn't specify a material. Material is a filterable attribute shoppers use to narrow down product choices — 'wool sweater', '100% cotton t-shirt', 'leather jacket'. Missing material means your product won't appear when shoppers filter by specific materials. Google also uses material to classify product quality signals (wool/leather typically cue premium positioning) and to prevent misleading categorization (e.g., submitting a faux leather jacket without clarifying).
Missing value [material] (recommended attribute)Impact: Missing material is a Warning for apparel products — it won't cause disapproval on its own but it restricts your product's reach. Shoppers filter by material (cotton, wool, leather, polyester) in Google Shopping apparel search, and products without the material attribute are excluded from those filtered results. For premium or material-specific brands, this can cut visible impressions by 30–50%.
Root Causes
- 1Your feed template doesn't include a material column — common oversight since material isn't required by Google's minimum spec but is recommended for apparel.
- 2Material information exists in your product descriptions (e.g., '100% cotton' mentioned in the text) but isn't extracted into a structured attribute for the feed.
- 3Your platform doesn't have a native material field — you'd need a metafield or custom attribute to capture it.
- 4Material varies by variant (cotton/linen blend versions of the same shirt) but your feed outputs one row per product, losing the variant-specific material.
- 5Imports from suppliers: supplier data includes 'fabric composition' but your feed plugin maps it to a field named 'material' that doesn't exist on your products.
Fix by Platform
- 1Add a Shopify metafield for material: Settings → Custom data → Products → Add definition. Namespace: 'google', Key: 'material', Type: Single line text.
- 2Set values per product: in the product editor, scroll to the Google metafields section → material → enter the primary material (e.g., 'Cotton', 'Wool', '80% Cotton 20% Polyester', 'Genuine Leather').
- 3For variants with different materials: use a variant-level metafield (Settings → Custom data → Variants → Add definition) to capture per-variant material. Configure your feed app to pull from variant metafields when present.
- 4In your feed app: map the 'material' attribute to the google.material metafield. In Simprosys: Feed Settings → Attribute Mapping → material → 'Metafield: google.material'.
- 5For bulk setting: Shopify admin → Products → bulk edit via CSV. Export products, fill the Metafield: google.material column, re-import.
{{ product.metafields.google.material }}
{% comment %} Examples: 'Cotton', '100% Linen', '80% Wool 20% Polyester' {% endcomment %}When This Doesn't Apply
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Frequently Asked Questions
What material values does Google accept?+
Google accepts any descriptive material name in English (or your feed's target language). Common values: 'Cotton', 'Wool', 'Leather', 'Polyester', 'Silk', 'Linen', 'Nylon', 'Cashmere', 'Suede', 'Faux Leather', 'Denim'. For blends, specify composition: '80% Cotton 20% Polyester' or 'Cotton/Polyester blend'. Up to 200 characters allowed. No generic terms like 'fabric' or 'material' — be specific.
How do I handle product with multiple materials?+
Submit up to three materials separated by forward slashes: 'Leather/Suede/Cotton'. Google ranks them by prominence — list the primary material first. For fabrics with precise composition requirements (legally required in some countries), use the percentage format: '80% Wool 20% Polyester' which is both Google-compliant and legally accurate.
Can I use material to differentiate variants?+
Yes — material can vary per variant just like color or size. A t-shirt available in '100% Cotton' and 'Cotton/Polyester Blend' should have two separate variant rows with different material values but sharing the same item_group_id. This enables shoppers to filter by material within the product family.
Does Google verify the material claim?+
Google cross-references material claims against your product images and descriptions but doesn't conduct physical verification. However, false material claims can trigger data quality reviews. If you claim 'genuine leather' in the material attribute but your description mentions 'PU leather' or 'vegan leather', Google may flag the mismatch. For premium materials (leather, wool, cashmere), ensure the material attribute matches what shoppers see on the landing page.