Google recently altered its product structured data guidance to make it more transparent which product-related pages are eligible for structured data. Google Search Central has revised its Product Structured Data documentation to comply with this new policy. Below, we get into what that means for you and your webpage.
What is a Product Structured Data?
Search engines use structured data to parse data from web pages. It is not visible to visitors of the website.
Structured data allows search engines to understand web pages better and display the information attractively and practically, which may generate more website traffic. That’s why it’s critical to follow Google’s specifications for product structured data, particularly.
Google search and Google Images both display rich results for products. Prices, customer reviews, and availability are all displayed in rich results for products.
Google’s guidelines on structured data in product-rich results are firm on which pages the data can be used. Product structured data may only be used on pages about a single product and not on any other pages.
Using Structured Data For Product Variants
Products are frequently provided in various dimensions, designs, and colors, and retailers commonly publish identical product web pages with multiple options. That makes it easier for prospective buyers to compare and select the same product. However, what about websites that publish multiple web pages for the same product? Is utilizing the same structured data (with minor alterations) on each webpage acceptable?
Google Search Central recently revised the product structured data guidelines to clarify how to utilize structured data for product variants. Is it your preference to select one page as a product representative or to utilize structured data on that page?
The same guidance applies to using structured data for each product. Google has clarified that rich results can now be awarded to web pages focused on a single product and that they can benefit from having their structured data.
You must publish the product variation page on a “unique URL” to qualify for a lucrative result. The product structured data guidance says:
“Use markup for a specific product, not a category or list of products. For example, “shoes in our shop” is not a specific product. Currently, product-rich results only support pages that focus on a single product.”
Immediately after the previous sentence shows the updated guidance:
“This includes product variants where each product variant has a distinct URL.”
Why all the fuss?
Google has clarified whether to embed structured data onto product pages that feature the same item in different variations. For instance, a shoe shop might have a website with a shoe description and several other websites with shoe colors.
Google will provide rich results for the web pages of the different colors of the footwear based on product structured data. There will be no change in search-related guidance warning against creating cookie-cutter web pages nearly identical to one another with only minor differences.
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