Learn How to Add Structured Data to Boost your Store's SEO

What is Structured Data?

Structured data is the structured search results parameters that you see on google, such as links, explanations, names, places, social profiles, creators, writers, etc. That is also known as the markup of your schema.

You can use this testing tool to see if your structured data is set up: https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

Let’s cut to the chase. You know it’s important, and you know why. If you don’t, you don’t, check out our Ultimate Guide to Structured Data For Shopify. But HOW do you set up structured data?

The steps below are for Shopify because Shopify does not come equipped with easy ways to add structured data to your posts/pages/products like many other websites. Don’t let that small detail stop you from reaching great heights on Google! These basic steps can be applied to any platform you have access to at the front-end.

How to add a Structured Data Markup to your Shopify Homepage?

You should include the following data types on your homepage:

• WebSite
• Organization

WebSite

Schema.org explains that a "Website" is a group of related web pages that usually have the same domain. The WebSite data type needs to have the following properties:

• URL - your website's URL.
• Target - Indicates a specific EntryPoint for an Action.
• Query-input - This is a text search deep link with -input that embeds the result of -input properties within action URLs.

Organization

An example of this might be a business such as a hardware store, a bike shop, a bookstore, a union for workers at these establishments, or any number of other locally owned establishments. Keep in mind that the Organization type is better the more specific it is. The Organization data type must contain the following properties:

• The name of your Shopify website or store
• URL - your website's URL
• description - a description of your company (who you are, what you do/sell, how your product or service helps your consumers, etc.)
• Logo - Google includes your logo in search results and the Knowledge Graph.

• image
• sameAs - the links to your social media profiles (Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• address (PostalAddres) - streetAddress, addressLocally, postalCode, address Country

You can also add a price range (priceRange), geolocation, contact information (like a phone number), and more.

Here’s a visual:

Site Navigation Schema Markup

The Site Navigation Element markup can improve search engines' knowledge of your site's navigation and structure and can be used to influence organic sitelinks.

In this case below, we’ll show you an Organization markup to the HulkApps homepage.

You may need additional technical help in case you’re not well versed with schema markup.

1. Create a JSON file for the Organization schema markup

Below is the JSON file that your technical expert will generate for you, and in our case, our Shopify specialists have already generated it for our website:

                    <script type="application/ld+json">
                    {  
                        "@context": "http://schema.org",  
                        "@type": "Organization",  
                        "url": "https://www.hulkapps.com",  
                        "name": "HulkApps",  
                        "logo": {  
                        "@type": "ImageObject",  
                        "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/assets/no-image-2048-5e88c1b20e087fb7bbe9a3771824e743c244f437e4f8ba93bbf7b11b53f7824c_200x.gif"  
                        },  
                        "sameAs": [  
                        "https://www.facebook.com/hulkcode",  
                        "https://twitter.com/hulk_code",  
                        "https://www.instagram.com/hulkcode/"  
                        ]  
                    }  
                    </script>
                

2. Test the schema markup

In order to see if your pages are qualified for rich results, you can use the following tools:

• Google Structured Data Testing Tool
• Rich Results Test

You may run URLs or code snippets through various tests using the structured data testing tool. We will utilize the code snippet testing in this situation.

Run Test

Note that if the Structured Data Testing Tool detects an error, you must fix it as it might (and probably will) hurt your rankings. Warnings, on the other hand, are not something you should lose sleep over - usually, warnings refer to recommended properties you could include in your markup.

Similarly, you can test your schema with the Rich Results Test tool. Here’s how

Use the code snippet test

Paste the schema & test the code

3. Add the schema to the theme.liquid file of your Shopify store.

4. After adding the schema file, it takes a couple of days to crawl the schema markup and showup the schema in the SERP.

Apart from that, there are certain myths about structured data & schema markups and we’ve decided to burst them all. Check out the next article here and find out what all myths people carry around while dealing with Structured Data & Schema Markups.

Let us now explain how to incorporate Structured Data into your product pages.

How to incorporate Structured Data Markup into Shopify Product Pages?

You must include three data types on your product pages:

• Product
• Offer
• BreadcrumbList

Product

Product type is a description of the product itself, its size, SKU, barcode, etc. The offer type describes a product variant. You need a product and an offer for each variety. If you do not have variants for a product, its characteristics will include its price, SKU, barcode, etc. These attributes are added as a default variant in Shopify, which you may utilize to design your offer type.

Required properties

• name - product name
• Image - imageObject or URL containing the product image
• offers - product variants

Recommended properties

• productID
• AggregateRating - the product's average review score
• brand
• description
• review
• SKU - a product's unique Stock Keeping Unit
• Using global identifiers - gtin8 / gtin13 / gtin 14 / mpn / isb

Relevant for you are the following recommended qualities: productID, make, and mpn (Manufacturer Part Number, MPN), and gtin (Global Trade Item Number, GTIN). That will help Google match your product search queries.

In Shopify, the GTIN is known as a barcode and can be added to your product variants. The GTIN is also your productID, and it can also be used as an MPN.

Offer

Required properties

• availability (e.g. InStock, OutOfStock)
• price
• priceCurrency

Recommended properties

• itemOffered
• priceValidUntil (in ISO 8601 date format)
• url (the URL of the product page)
• itemCondition
• sku

BreadcrumbList

Your product pages should use breadcrumb markup. Google will be able to better interpret and classify the data on your product pages if you do this. It is recommended that the BreadcrumbList type be used in the breadcrumb markup. List items are required for the BreadcrumbList type. The characteristics of the List item type are as follows:

• position
• item
• id
• name

Follow the same steps mentioned above to create a JSON file.

 A product page would display this JSON-LD representation of the product.

                <script id="productLd" type="application/ld+json">
                {
                    "@context": "http://schema.org/",
                    "@type": "Product",
                    "name": "Shopify Structured Data for E-commerce",
                    "image": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1564/7647/products/StructuredDataforE-commerce_600x600.jpg?v=1587479185",
                    "sku": "",
                    "description": "In an SEO setting, &quot;structured data&quot; ordinarily alludes to actualizing a few sorts of markup on a webpage, in order to supply extra detail around the page’s substance. This mar...",
                    "brand": {
                    "@type": "Thing",
                    "name": "HulkApps"
                    },
                    "offers": {
                    "@type": "Offer",
                    "priceCurrency": "USD",
                    "price": "149.0",
                    "priceValidUntil" : "2020-08-19",
                    "url" : "https://www.hulkapps.com/products/structured-data-for-e-commerce",
                    "availability": "http://schema.org/InStock"
                    },
                    "review": {
                    "@type": "Review",
                    "reviewRating": {
                        "@type": "Rating",
                        "worstRating": "0",
                        "ratingValue": 5,
                        "bestRating": "5"
                    },
                    "author": {
                    "@type": "Person"
                    }
                }
                }</script>
            

Test the schema using the tools above and add it to your theme.liquid file in your Shopify store.

Here’s a visual of the output:

Similarly, you can add different types of schemas to your collection pages, articles, etc. With that said, we also would like you to know that Structured data use is increasing. The top advantages of structured data include increased click-through rates, enhanced search visibility, and voice search dominance.

Higher CTR

It's an excellent approach to enhance click-through rates and draw more attention to your product listings if you have good product ratings and appear in SERPs with rich snippets.

More Conversions

Having rich snippets can also increase your conversion rates because if more people see your listings and the listings are positive, the likelihood that they will buy from you will increase.

Having integrated structured job data in Google Jobs, organizations like ZipRecruiter have increased the visibility and conversion of their job listings for relevant searches, which is good news for job search engines and job seekers alike.

Get Features Snippets & Be the Winner for Voice Search Queries

Getting featured snippets is the Holy Grail for SEO.

Your website will appear at the top of the search engine results page, ahead of the organic rankings. Having organized data is unnecessary, but it may increase your chances of earning a featured snippet, raising your click-through rates and traffic.

Voice search results are pulled from featured snippets, and you could be the only result for a voice search because Google uses these results for verbal answers.

Structured Data Tips

Unfortunately, with SEO, some things are often abused.

Don't become spammy when using your structured data. Your content should only include structured data that is important to it.

If you don't follow this rule, you may receive a spammy structured data manual action from Google, which would result in your structured data not being shown in the SERPs until you have cleaned up your site and the manual action has been lifted.

Also, make sure you have updated structured data. Things change all the time and new things are constantly coming out from a structured data perspective.

Job postings are a good example of this. You must set an expiration date for the posting.

Because this is sort of new, sites that don’t have this will get an error message in Google search console, so make sure you stay on top of this.

Conclusion

Don't overlook structured data. Organic search is becoming more competitive. Any other information you can give search engines will be helpful:

• Improve click-through rates. 
• Enhance your search engine rankings.
• You can appear in the Knowledge Graph, featured snippets, and voice searches by assisting algorithms in understanding user intent.

More Structured Data Resources

• Structured Data For Shopify: The Ultimate Guide
• Structured Data: Myths & Reality