Schema Markup for E-commerce. What Kinds of Data Are Helpful?

Schema.org structured data for e-commerce

How can schema be useful for your website and why is it part of technical SEO services?

Schema.org are tags usually placed in the HTML code. They organize and categorize website information which consequently allows the search engine to understand your page (or an online store) better. They also enable creating search results that are valuable and tailored to users – these are all-stars, ratings, reviews, images, and information that make it easier to find the product and decide to purchase it.

Creating a page description, snippet is one of the ways of displaying structured data. It’s also possible to expand it and complement it with extra defining elements (rich snippet).

Exemplary search results without the snippet:

Exemplary search results with the snippet (product options):

This element makes the search result look significantly better, but you must admit that the rich snippet is even finer:

An entry discussing structured data in detail was published on our blog a while ago. It’s worth checking it out!

Schema for products in online stores

Schema implementation should be particularly appealing to e-commerce owners. It’s possible to apply even a dozen schemas in an online store. They can be incorporated into HTML code (microdata), via HTML5 extensions (RDF) and also in JavaScript tags (JSON-LD).

When it comes to schema helpful in online stores, you should primarily use https://schema.org/Product and https://schema.org/Offer. But of course, everything depends on the industry you operate in and the products in your offer.

Structured data worth implementing in your online store

What to focus on? Well, start by determining the data that’s most important for your business. Price, reviews, weight, number of products, availability – you need to think carefully about the information you want to give to customers and facts needed at the search stage itself. These conclusions will show you what rich snippets are the most suitable for your store.

There’s nothing more valuable for a website than relevant Schema.org tags assigned to products. They’re crucial to reach top positions in the SERPs. So what structural data is the most useful in e-commerce?

Product

Product is the most important structured data whose implementation is essential in case of online stores. Its proper deployment guarantees that items from your store will be displayed in the search results in an attractive way and Google will know what kind of a website (a blog or an online store) it’s dealing with.

The elements that should definitely be placed in the Product tag are:

1. Product name

2. Brand of the product

You can also add an image, meaning the URL of a photo of the product in your offer. Thanks to it, product photos will be displayed in the search results on mobile devices.

Price

The product description itself should also be complemented with the Offer and AggregateRating elements, which will make your snippet more attractive and approachable for customers.

One of the necessary data that needs to be completed is the price. This is the first element analyzed by every potential buyer. Especially if the same item is sold by a number of sellers. The price should also include information on priceCurrency.

Product availability

The availability tag indicating your stock status, in simple words available products or orders, is another important element that should appear in your online store. Thanks to it, you’ll give potential customers specific tips that will encourage them to visit your store and place orders.

Ratings and reviews

In online stores, it’s also advisable to show customer reviews. These are factors that make potential visitors browse your page and buy in your e-shop.

In this case, it’s worth applying the following tags:

1. ratingValue, i.e. the average customer rating

2. bestRating/worstRating – best/worst rating,

3. ratingCount, which is the number of ratings given by users

Links to individual subpages

In order to be able to move to a relevant subpage when searching your store, you need to place the URL tag. This improves site navigation and immediately shows the store’s offer and popular products. Sometimes it even allows you to go directly to the contact form.

BreadcrumbList

It’s also worth “guiding” customers around our shop, thus introducing them to the site architecture. “The path” to the product can be easily represented by BreadcrumbList which enables easier orientation. The application of such a chain of URLs is helpful for both users and Google robots.

Table

To show even more data and make it easier for the customer to find relevant information in the rich snippet, you can use the table schema:

Contact details

Finally – don’t forget to apply brand-related structured data with the most important and relevant information about the company, such as contact details, social media links, address of the traditional store or company headquarters, etc.

What benefits does the implementation of structured data bring to online stores?

It’s obvious: structured data organizes websites and helps search engines understand the content and type of the page – in this case, we’re talking about the online store’s product range. Therefore, they support the SEO process.

Of course, the mere presence of structured data in an online shop won’t make you reach top positions in the search results. However, it’ll definitely improve your visibility as the rich snippet will stand out from the crowd and attract visitors. Stars, availability, price, or other parameters will highlight your presence on Google. Moreover, structured data can also help you increase CTR, which, apart from indicating the effectiveness of your activities, generates website traffic. And as you know, the greater the website traffic, the greater the chances of attracting converting users.

The takeaway

There are many more tags that can come in handy in e-commerce. However, implementing the abovementioned ones should be enough to significantly improve your position among other online shops displayed in the search results which will translate into better sales, visibility, and brand recognition.