Structured data is invisible information in the code of your pages. It tells search engines and AI assistants in no uncertain terms: this is a product, it costs €49, it’s in stock and it has 4.8 stars. That lets Google show price and stars right in the search results, and AI assistants understand your offer without guessing. Good Shopify themes include the basics, but important parts are almost always missing.
What structured data is
A human looking at your product page sees a photo, a price and stars. A machine initially sees only text and numbers. Structured data translates that into a fixed format that all major search engines understand (Schema.org, usually as JSON-LD in the code).
Here’s a simplified example:
{
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Men's linen shirt, white",
"brand": "Your brand",
"offers": {
"price": "49.00",
"priceCurrency": "EUR",
"availability": "InStock"
},
"aggregateRating": {
"ratingValue": "4.8",
"reviewCount": "126"
}
}You don’t have to write this yourself. The theme generates it from your product data. All that matters is that every field is filled in.
The 5 most important data types for stores
| Type | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Product with Offer | Product page | Price and availability in search results |
| AggregateRating and Review | Product page | Stars in search results |
| Organization | Homepage | Name, logo, contact, social profiles. Google and AI recognize your brand |
| BreadcrumbList | Product and collection pages | Clean breadcrumb trail instead of a long URL |
| FAQPage | Pages with an FAQ block | Machine-readable questions and answers, valuable for AI assistants |
On top of that, shipping and return details can go in the Product entry where needed. Google shows them in Shopping results.
Checking and typical gaps
Google’s Rich Results Test shows whether your data is right: enter a product URL, read the result. Search Console also reports errors for the whole store.
What we find in almost every audit:
- No reviews in the code. The review app shows stars on the page but doesn’t pass them on to Google.
- Brand missing. The “Vendor” field in Shopify is empty or contains the store name instead of the brand.
- Duplicate entries. The theme and an app both generate a Product entry, with different values.
- No product identifiers. GTIN or SKU are missing. A real disadvantage in Shopping results, especially for branded goods.
- Organization missing entirely. Google doesn’t know for sure who’s behind the store.
FAQ
Does structured data guarantee stars on Google? No. It makes them possible; Google decides. But without it, you definitely won’t get any.
Does Google still show FAQ questions in search results? Hardly at all for stores anymore; Google has heavily restricted it. The FAQ entry is still worth it, because AI assistants read it.
Do I need an app for this? Not necessarily. Usually the theme can be extended directly. That’s leaner than yet another app.
Can you take care of this? Yes. Checking and filling the gaps is part of our SEO setup and part of every audit.