What it does
Structured data tells search engines what the elements on your page mean: this is the price, this is the availability, this is the rating. That enables the enhanced results that show a price and stars under a listing.
Those enhanced results attract more clicks than plain ones, which makes this one of the better returns available for a modest piece of technical work.
What a product needs
- Name, description and image
- Price and currency, matching what is on the page
- Availability, accurate and updated
- Brand and product identifiers where you have them
- Aggregate rating and review count, if you have reviews
The markup must match what a visitor actually sees. A price in the markup that differs from the page is a violation and can result in the enhancements being withdrawn.
Common mistakes
- Availability not updating when stock changes
- Review markup on pages with no visible reviews
- Price excluding tax in markup and including it on the page
- Markup on collection pages that does not describe a single product
- Duplicate or conflicting markup from theme and app both adding it
Beyond products
Organisation markup with your contact details, breadcrumb markup for navigation context, and FAQ markup where you genuinely have a question-and-answer section.
All are straightforward and all help search engines present your pages more usefully.
Test it
Use the search engines' own testing tools on a sample of product pages, and check the coverage reports for errors. Both are free and both find problems quickly.
Check after any theme or app change, because those are when markup most often breaks or duplicates.