Rich results

Rich results cover many formats: product prices and stock, star ratings, FAQ answers, breadcrumbs, recipe cards, event dates, job listings, sitelinks and some images. Most rely on structured data that Google validates for that type. Some, like sitelinks and some images, are chosen by Google without markup.

Eligibility is not a guarantee. You can pass all tests and still see only a plain result. Treat rich results as a bonus that comes and goes per query.

Use JSON-LD. Google also reads Microdata and RDFa. JSON-LD can sit in the head or body, and Google renders pages, so injected scripts are read. Most answering AI crawlers do not run scripts, so prefer server-rendered JSON-LD when you can.

• Article: headline, image in 16:9, 4:3 and 1:1, datePublished, dateModified, author with name and url. Long headlines may be truncated. AMP is not required for Top Stories.
• Product: name, and at least one of review, aggregateRating or offers. For offers add price, priceCurrency, availability value like InStock, url. image, brand, sku, gtin are recommended. Merchant listing results also read shipping and returns.
• SoftwareApplication: name, offers.price and offers.priceCurrency, and a rating via aggregateRating or a review. applicationCategory and operatingSystem are recommended.
• Organization: name, url, logo at least 112x112 and crawlable, sameAs profiles. contactPoint, address, founder, foundingDate help knowledge panels. Merchant return and shipping fields can also live here.
• BreadcrumbList: itemListElement of ListItem with position from 1, name, and item URLs. The last item may omit the URL.
• Review snippet: itemReviewed must be a supported type like Product or SoftwareApplication. Provide reviewRating with ratingValue and bestRating, author name. Or aggregateRating with ratingValue and ratingCount. Self-serving reviews for your own LocalBusiness or Organization are not shown.
• FAQPage: mainEntity list of Question with acceptedAnswer text. Since 2023, Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known government and health sites.
• HowTo: markup is harmless, but Google removed HowTo rich results in 2023.
• WebSite with SearchAction: the sitelinks search box was removed in 2024, so this markup earns nothing now.

Use the Rich Results Test at search.google.com/test/rich-results. It tells you which Google rich results a page is eligible for and what fields are missing or invalid. The tool reads the rendered page, so it finds markup added by scripts after load.

Use the Schema Markup Validator at validator.schema.org to check schema.org syntax. It does not apply Google’s rules. The old Structured Data Testing Tool was retired in 2020.

• Common blockers: a required field missing, a relative URL where an absolute URL is needed, dates not in ISO 8601, a price as text with a currency sign, a rating out of range.
• Policy violations: marking up content not visible on the page, or nesting types in a way that breaks the graph.
• You can include several things in one @graph, for example Organization, WebSite and BreadcrumbList.

Open Enhancements to see which types Google found and any errors and warnings. Fix errors first, then warnings that would improve completeness. Re-run the test and request validation when ready.

1. 1

   See clicks by appearance

   In Performance, add the Search appearance dimension. Compare clicks and CTR for, say, Product results versus Web results over 28 days.

2. 2

   Check by page

   Filter to a URL like /pricing or /guides/getting-started. Look for queries where the rich form shows. Compare CTR to the plain Web form.

3. 3

   Decide what to scale

   If Product results lift CTR on /store/widget, roll out Product and Review markup to more product pages. If CTR is flat, fix title and snippet first.

Structured data is not a ranking factor by itself. It helps machines read the page and makes you eligible for rich results. Focus first on pages that can win the click and lead to a signup or sale.