{"id":883,"date":"2019-09-16T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/technicalseo.com\/insights\/?p=883"},"modified":"2019-09-05T08:21:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T15:21:26","slug":"product-schema-google-merchant-vs-google-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technicalseo.com\/insights\/blog\/product-schema-google-merchant-vs-google-search\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Schema for Google Merchant vs. Google Search"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s an unexpected battlefield. Schema.org<\/a> is a mutual effort amongst search engines to create a code meant to deliver essential information about a webpage in the most succinct and direct manner possible. It\u2019s reasonable to expect structured data that works for Google Search should work for Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in Google Merchant, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We discovered incongruity between Google Search<\/a> Product structured data and Google Merchant<\/a> Product structured data.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Offer vs. AggregateOffer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The markup for a product page seems straightforward at first. You\u2019re selling a widget and that widget has a price, name, availability, image, etc. One widget, one price, and one offer in the eyes of structured data. This is when you use the “Offer” type with the “offers” property. Using the example code provided by Google<\/a>, we can test it with the Rich Results Test<\/a> and see an example of what this looks like in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rich Results Test for Google\u2019s example code<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Often a merchant will sell widgets that vary in size and price. This is when you use “AggregateOffer”\u2014one widget, several prices, and several offers in the eyes of structured data. Schema allows for price variances based upon color as a property, not size. Given the number of products that vary in price due to size, this seems like a big omission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Represent a range of prices (product variants)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Product variants are marked-up with the “AggregateOffer” type with the “offers” property. The most common example is when multiple sellers are offering the same product on one page, but that\u2019s not the only use case. Every product variant is an offer. The small, medium, and large widgets are actually three individual products on offer. Again, using Google\u2019s example code, we can test it with the Rich Results Test and see an example of what this looks like in the SERP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rich Results Test for Google\u2019s example code<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the “Offer” type, “AggregateOffer” displays a range of prices in the rich results. This is what should be done for Google Search, but it can\u2019t be done with Google Merchant<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Product variant code example: https:\/\/support.google.com\/merchants\/answer\/6386198<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Google Merchant is looking to match the PLA listing price with a price on the page and in the code. “AggregateOffer” has “lowPrice” and “highPrice”.  “AggregateOffer” doesn\u2019t list all the possible prices; therefore, Google Merchant cannot properly match the listing price with a price in the code. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens when Google Merchant can\u2019t properly match the listing price with a price in the code and on the screen? The PLAs are rejected due to mismatched price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When this happened to a client, the Merkle Feeds and SEO teams investigated and discovered a few issues: <\/p>\n\n\n\n