Google just announced a significant update to structured data that e-commerce sites will likely find very beneficial. The new feature allows for the marking up of individual variants within a product group. For example, if you sell T-shirts in various colors (green, blue, red) and sizes (small, medium, large), you can now detail all these variants within structured data. This advancement is particularly powerful for scaling up the process.
John Mueller’s announcement provides a high-level overview of what this update entails. E-commerce professionals are encouraged to review this post for more in-depth information.
The implementation of this update hinges on a key documentation feature. In the provided documentation, Google offers specific examples of how to mark up product variants. For instance, when marking up a Woolwinter coat, the recommendation is to use ‘type: ProductGroup’ instead of ‘type: Product’. The rest of the fields, such as description and URL pattern, remain largely unchanged. However, you’ll need to specify the ‘varies by’ schema type, indicating all attributes by which the product varies, such as size and color.
For every variant within a product group, a new product structured data must be provided, detailing attributes like SKU, GTIN, and image. By specifying variants by color and size, this method allows for a detailed representation of each product variant, such as a green and small winter coat or a light blue and large one.
This update opens up exciting opportunities for e-commerce sites by enabling the markup of a wide range of product variants across different attributes at scale. It enhances the likelihood of products being eligible for popular products on Google and improves signaling to Google about the content available on a website for highly specific, transactional keywords.
E-commerce sites are highly recommended to explore this new structured data type. Adopting it could allow for rapid and scalable markup of product details, providing Google with a wealth of data and potentially improving search visibility for a wide array of products.
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About Chris Long
Chris Long is the VP of Marketing at Go Fish Digital. With 10+ years of SEO experience, Chris works unique problems and advanced search situations to help clients improve organic traffic through a deep understanding of Google’s algorithm and web technology.
Chris has advised on the search strategies for clients such as GEICO, Adobe & The New York Times. He is a contributor for Moz, Search Engine Land, and Search Engine Journal. He is also a speaker at industry conferences such as MozCon, SMX East, BrightonSEO and more.