Structured data is machine-readable metadata added to the HTML code of your pages, helping search engines precisely understand the content of your store. By implementing the right Schema.org markup on your product pages, you unlock rich snippets — those enhanced results in Google that display review stars, prices, and availability directly in the SERPs, significantly boosting click-through rates.
What is structured data?
Structured data is a standardized markup vocabulary (primarily Schema.org) that allows you to annotate page content so that search engines understand not just the words, but their contextual meaning. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex all support Schema.org.
There are three main formats for implementing structured data:
- JSON-LD (recommended by Google): a JavaScript script placed in the
<head>or<body>. Easy to maintain as it is separate from the visible HTML. The preferred format for the vast majority of developers and modern CMSs. - Microdata: HTML attributes integrated directly into content tags (
itemscope,itemprop). Harder to maintain but historically the first adopted standard. - RDFa: a more complex format used mainly in academic contexts or specialized content management systems. Rarely used for e-commerce.
How Google uses structured data
When Google understands a page's structured data, it can display rich results that stand out visually in the SERPs. For e-commerce, the most valuable rich results are:
Reviews and ratings
Star ratings (1 to 5) and the number of reviews displayed directly in Google results. One of the most impactful features on click-through rates in e-commerce.
Price and availability
The product price, currency, and stock status (In Stock / Out of Stock) appear below the title in the SERPs, allowing shoppers to quickly qualify an offer.
Breadcrumb
BreadcrumbList replaces the URL with readable navigation (Home > Shoes > Men) in search results, improving user understanding of the site structure.
Essential schemas for e-commerce
For a PrestaShop store, four types of structured schemas are particularly important:
- Product: the fundamental schema for any product page. Contains name, description, image, SKU, brand, and offers (price, availability, accepted currencies).
- BreadcrumbList: hierarchical navigation structure. Improves understanding of site architecture and enables breadcrumb display in the SERPs.
- Organization: information about your company (name, logo, contact details, social networks). Contributes to the Google Knowledge Panel and builds search engine trust.
- FAQPage: for FAQ pages. Google can display answers directly in the SERPs as an accordion, increasing your visibility footprint.
JSON-LD example for a product page
Product markup example in JSON-LD
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Product",
"name": "Brown Leather Shoes",
"image": "https://store.com/img/shoes.jpg",
"description": "Full-grain leather shoes",
"sku": "SHO-1234",
"brand": {"@type": "Brand", "name": "MyBrand"},
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"price": "89.90",
"priceCurrency": "EUR",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"
},
"aggregateRating": {
"@type": "AggregateRating",
"ratingValue": "4.7",
"reviewCount": "124"
}
}Testing and validating your structured data
Google provides two official tools for validating your structured data:
- Rich Results Test: online tool (search.google.com/test/rich-results) that analyzes a URL or HTML code and indicates whether the page is eligible for rich results, along with any errors.
- Google Search Console → Page experience: dedicated report listing all pages on your site with valid or invalid structured data. Essential for monitoring the health of your markup across the full catalog.
Structured data ≠ guaranteed rich snippets
Structured data and PrestaShop
PrestaShop includes basic structured data markup in its default theme, but it is often incomplete or incorrect depending on the version used. The most frequently missing elements:
- Missing aggregateRating field: PrestaShop customer reviews are not always exposed in JSON-LD, depriving product pages of star ratings in Google.
- Incorrect availability: the In Stock / Out of Stock status must be synchronized in real time with your PrestaShop inventory management.
- Missing BreadcrumbList: navigation categories are not always marked up, depriving category pages of breadcrumb trails in the SERPs.
- Product variants not handled: for products with combinations, each variant should ideally have its own price and availability data.