Product schema: required properties, merchant listings and an example

What Product schema describes

Schema.org defines Product as any offered product or service, from a pair of shoes to a car rental. The properties that matter most:

• name, image, description
• brand: a Brand or Organization
• sku, mpn and gtin: identifiers that let engines match your item to the same product elsewhere
• offers: an Offer with price, currency and availability
• aggregateRating and review: only if those reviews are visible on the page

What Google requires

Google's documentation splits Product markup into two experiences. Product snippets are for pages where people cannot buy directly, such as editorial reviews. Merchant listings are for pages where the customer buys from you. For merchant listings, Google requires:

Level	Property
Product (required)	name, image, offers
Offer (required)	price and priceCurrency (or the same inside priceSpecification)
Product (recommended)	brand.name, gtin, sku, mpn, aggregateRating, review, color, size, material and more
Offer (recommended)	availability, itemCondition, shippingDetails, hasMerchantReturnPolicy, priceValidUntil, url

Google also says that providing both page markup and a Merchant Center feed maximizes eligibility.

Example

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Burr Coffee Grinder G2",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/img/g2.jpg",
  "sku": "G2-BLK",
  "gtin13": "0123456789012",
  "brand": { "@type": "Brand", "name": "Example Coffee Co." },
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "url": "https://www.example.com/grinder-g2",
    "price": "129.00",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
    "itemCondition": "https://schema.org/NewCondition"
  }
}

Variants, reviews and feeds

A product sold in several sizes or colors can be described as one group with variants. Google supports variant markup for both experiences, using properties such as inProductGroupWithID and isVariantOf. Each variant still needs its own price and availability.

Review markup is only valid for reviews readers can see on the page. Third-party star widgets that load in an iframe or after a script often fail this test, so check what is actually in the HTML before marking it up.

If you run Google Merchant Center, keep the feed and the page markup in sync. The feed is what Google Shopping reads in bulk; the markup is what crawlers see on the page. Google says providing both gives the most eligibility, which only helps if they agree.

Common mistakes

1. Price drift. The markup says one price, the page another. Generate both from the same source.
2. JavaScript-only markup. Google says dynamically generated Product markup can make Shopping crawls less reliable. Put it in the server-rendered HTML; see JavaScript SEO.
3. Ratings nobody can see. Only mark up reviews shown on the page.
4. Missing brand link. Point brand at the same entity as your Organization schema so engines connect products to the company.

Product markup is the commerce side of schema markup. Most store platforms output a basic version; check what yours emits (for example on Shopify or WooCommerce) before adding a second, conflicting block.