Structured Data - Change History & Alerts

Google updated the merchant listing documentation relating to energy efficiency. The update removed the EnergyConsumptionDetails properties, added a note regarding backwards compatibility for developers who implemented the original markup, and provided an alternative solution for the certificationIdentification property for merchants without EPREL codes.

This follows the announcement made in October 2024 that the EnergyConsumptionDetails type would be replaced by the more robust Certification type.

Google has announced that the Special announcement search feature will be deprecated on July 31, 2025. This rich result was brought in originally to help organizations with urgent announcements surrounding COVID-19.

Google has updated the Education Q&A documentation to confirm that the education Q&A carousel is now available in Portuguese in all regions where Google Search is available. 

This comes just a couple of weeks after the education Q&A documentation was updated to include Spanish (Mexico) and Vietnamese (all regions where Google Search is available).

Google has removed a mention of the ‘AI tools while browsing’ feature from the subscription and paywalled content documentation.

Google's update confirms that the AI while browsing feature is no longer available.

New and updated vocabulary in the area of financial incentives, legislation, and product shipping. Various build and documentation fixes.

• Added vocabulary to represent financial incentives, for example in the area of sustainability: Added new type FinancialIncentive. Added new properties for use on FinancialIncentive. 
• Added new properties for use on Legislation to include changes to the European Legislation Identifier (ELI) model.
• Enhanced shipping vocabulary: Deprecated DeliveryTimeSettings and superseded by new ShippingConditions. Added existing properties for use on ShippingConditions. Added new properties for use on ShippingConditions. Added shippingConditions with range ShippingConditions. Added fulfillmentType with a range of new enumeration FulfillmentTypeEnumeration. Added ShippingService with properties fulfillmentType, handlingTime , validForMemberTier, and shippingConditions. Added hasShippingService with range ShippingService for use on Organization and OfferShippingDetails. Added ServicePeriod with existing properties duration, cutoffTime, and businessDays for use as additional range for handlingTime and transitTime. Added orderPercentage and weightPercentage for use on ShippingRateSettings. Added Mass to the range of weight. Deprecated: shippingSettingsLink, shippingLabel, and transitTimeLabel.
• Added new property aggregateElement for use on ItemList to allow capturing of aggregate information of list items.
• Corrected definition for netWorth.
• Added wordCount for use on CreativeWork.
• Build and documentation fixes and cleanups.

Google has updated the Education Q&A documentation to confirm that the education Q&A carousel is now available in more languages and regions. The results are now available in Spanish (Mexico) and Vietnamese (all regions where Google Search is available).

Google updated the documentation for Merchant listings to include an example for returnPolicyCountry, since this is a required property for MerchantReturnPolicy.

Google has simplified how breadcrumb structured data is used in Search. Breadcrumb rich results will no longer appear on mobile devices and will only be available on desktop. This change aims to streamline mobile search results while maintaining desktop functionality.

Google updated the Review snippet rich result documentation, adding a recommendation about accepting ratings and reviews. They recommend implementing a setup that only accepts ratings and reviews that are accompanied by a review comment and author's name, as this approach can help your users understand the context for a given rating.

Google updated the Image metadata documentation to include information on how they extract C2PA metadata for use in Search. If an image contains C2PA metadata, Google can extract those details and may show information in the "About this image" feature, such as how the image was created or if it was edited with AI tools.

Google have updated the Merchant listing documentation to add Certification markup support. They also announced that, starting in April 2025, they're replacing the EnergyConsumptionDetails type with the more robust Certification type, as the new type supports more countries and a broader scope of certifications.

Google added the priceType property to the merchant listing documentation, to make it easier for merchants to specify sale pricing through structured data and bring parity with price features in Merchant Center. Also added new sale pricing examples.

Added support for member programs, and various build improvements:

• Added support for loyalty programs through new classes MemberProgram, MemberProgramTier, and enumeration TierBenefitEnumeration. Also added properties isTierOf, hasTiers, hasMemberProgram, program, hasTierBenefit, and validForMemberTier.
• Added new enumeration value RegularPrice for enumeration PriceTypeEnumeration.
• Added new enumeration values Reserved and MadeToOrder for enumeration ItemAvailability.
• Fixed documentation for duration, which must be specified in ISO 8601 duration format.
• Cleaned up PaymentMethod class.
• Removed non-existing link to count under statType.
• Added Organization to range of founder.

Google updated their documentation to add a new recommended property of ineligibleRegion, which allows you to specify a region where the video isn't allowed (if applicable). If not specified, then Google assumes the video is allowed everywhere.

Note that Google also supports the regionsAllowed property, and suggests you add either ineligibleRegion or regionsAllowed, whichever makes sense for your site.

You can embed IPTC photo metadata directly inside an image, and Google will extract the recommended property Digital Source Type. They ar now able to extract the IPTC NewsCode of compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia (The image is a composite of trained algorithmic media with some other media, such as with inpainting or outpainting operations).

Google updated their documentation, adding MerchantReturnPolicy to allow organizations to specify a general return policy for an Organization as a whole.

Google removed the search feature for Home Activities, which no longer appears in Google Search results. The Home Activities rich result was designed to help people discover activities that they can do from home - for example for upcoming video livestreams or online events.

Adding support for GS1 Digital Link and a few smaller updates:

• Added new property hasGS1DigitalLink for use on Product, Offer, Organization and Place to allow the specification of GS1 digital links.
  
• Added new property certificationRating for use on Certification to allow the specification of a certification rating with a scale.
• Add existing property acceptedPaymentMethod for use on Organization to allow the specification of the payment method(s) a business accepts.
• Add build-time spell checks using codespell.

Google updated their documentation for the Video rich result to remove details of the 'Video host carousel', which was a limited access feature that Google decided 'wasn't useful for the ecosystem at scale.'

Google clarify that there is no harm in leaving the markup on your pages, even though the SERP feature has been removed.

Google updated the Product structured data documentation by adding new 3DModel markup support for merchant listings, allowing site owners to link a 3D model to a specific product (on pages with multiple products).

Google updated the Recipe rich result documentation by removing the section on 'Guided Recipes', which was a Google Assistant feature that has now been deprecated. Previously, recipeIngredient and recipeInstructions were required properties for Guided Recipes but only recommended properties for Google Search, so the documentation now also reflects that these are just recommended properties.

This is a brand new carousel rich result that's in beta, which is a list-like rich result that people can scroll horizontally to see more entities from a given site (also known as a host carousel). Each tile in the carousel may have information from your site about the price, rating, and images for entities on the page.

To be eligible for this beta rich result, you need to add ItemList structured data in combination with at least one one of the following supported structured data items:

• LocalBusiness (and its subtypes, e.g. Restaurant or Hotel)
• Product
• Event

This is a brand new rich result designed to better support product variant scenarios for ecommerce sites. They also added a new isVariantOf property to the product structured data documentation and clarified that Google support product variants with distinct URLs. The purpose of this update is to enhance the support offered to e-commerce websites in managing product variants.

Recognizing the complexity and significance of product variants for e-commerce, particularly in categories such as apparel and electronics, Google is providing expanded examples and guidance on implementation of product variant structured data.

Google updated the Merchant listings return policy documentation, clarifying when to use FreeReturn versus ReturnShippingFees as value for returnFees for product returns, in order to better support more granular shipping and return fee scenarios.

Restoring Physician subtype of MedicalBusiness:

• Clarifying that PhysiciansOffice is a subtype of MedicalBusiness.