Structured data after Google's cutbacks: what still earns something

What Google has switched off

Google has been clearing rich results out of its results page for two years, in the name of a simpler page. Each time it said which markup no longer shows anything.

When it announced the 2025 round, Google said the change would not affect how pages are ranked; only the visual enhancement goes. And its guide to generative AI features (updated 10 July 2026) adds that structured data is not required for AI Overviews or AI Mode and that there is no special markup for them, while recommending you keep using it for rich results.

For your company: do not pay for new FAQ, HowTo or "AI schema" work aimed at Google. Put the time into the three types below, which still feed features a buyer sees.

Organization: the cheapest thing to get right

Organization markup goes on your home page. Google says it helps it tell your company apart from others with similar names, and that some properties influence which logo appears in results and in your knowledge panel. It has no required properties; you add what applies: name, logo, URL, address, contact details and profiles elsewhere.

For online sellers it now does more. Google moved merchant return policies to their own documentation in June 2025 and says a store-wide return policy must be defined under Organization. In November 2025 it added store-wide shipping policies (ShippingService), which let you set costs and delivery times by destination country, and which Google can show alongside your products and in knowledge panels. Loyalty programme markup also sits here, but Google shows it only in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico, the UK and the US.

One rule matters for anyone who also uses Merchant Center. Google's shipping documentation sets an order of precedence: shipping settings sent through the Content API come first, then settings in Merchant Center or Search Console, then product-level markup, then Organization-level markup. If you enter shipping in Search Console, Google uses only that.

For your company: if you sell into several countries, list each destination country with its real delivery time and cost, in one place, and make sure the markup, Merchant Center and your visible shipping page say the same thing.

Product: where Google is still adding features

Merchant listing markup (Product with an Offer) is the type Google keeps extending. It can make a product page eligible for the shopping knowledge panel, Google Images, popular product results and product snippets, with price, availability, shipping and returns. In 2026 Google added three things to the documentation: a property for products with adult considerations (20 May), and on 7 July both a category property that lines up with Merchant Center's product type fields and guidance on sale dates, using validFrom and validThrough to say when a sale price starts and ends.

Reviews come with a new warning. On 24 July 2026 Google added a guideline to its review snippet rules: no fake reviews, and no reviews written in return for money, discounts, vouchers or free products unless that is clearly and prominently disclosed, whether on the page or in the markup. Breaking review guidelines can lead to a manual action.

For your company: before Black Friday, mark sale prices with start and end dates rather than editing the price by hand and forgetting to change it back. If you send free products to reviewers, show that next to their reviews. Someone searching Black Friday Angebot Keramik Tasse (Black Friday deal, ceramic mug) is comparing exactly what this markup carries: price, sale dates and delivery.

LocalBusiness: only if customers come to you

LocalBusiness markup is for a place people visit: a showroom, a shop, a workshop with a counter. It needs only a name and a physical address, and it can carry opening hours, departments and coordinates. It is not for a web shop without premises.

There is one new reason for European businesses to keep local details crawlable. Google's documentation on regional differences, updated 18 September 2026, says the supplier unit shown to users in the European Economic Area now covers local business queries as well as hotels, flights, long-distance transport and products. It is meant for direct providers, such as brick-and-mortar shops, and Google says no data is needed beyond what it can crawl, with feeds as an optional extra.

For your company: if you have premises, mark up the address and opening hours exactly as they appear in your Business Profile, and remove any review markup about your own business.

How to check what you have

Run your home page and one product page through the Rich Results Test, then open the Search Console enhancement reports for merchant listings and product snippets. If a report shows errors on price, availability or shipping, fix those before anything else. If you would like an outside view first, HB Crossborder's free visibility check reviews your site basics and tests five real customer questions in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. See our services, or send one URL and get a free visibility check within 48 hours.