What can go wrong with installing JSON-LD for SEO in your store

By Ilana Davis

One big thing I’ve learned from software development is to think about the worst case conditions and what could go wrong.

Even if they never happen, it’s great to think about them to prepare yourself.

One customer, Booth, seems to think the same way and wrote me this email:

I wanted to know what could go wrong? Meaning, for some shops the generating of JSON-LD might result in worse results in Google, perhaps due to incomplete information or poorly written meta description. And if something isn’t optimal, is there a clear path to making things better?

For most stores, I don’t see many things that could go wrong.

If you don’t have any existing structured data from your theme there shouldn’t be any compatibility issues.

Even if you do have existing structured data, Google is pretty good at using the most complete version you have. In most cases that will be the JSON-LD for SEO version.

You’ll also want to make sure your products have the correct data entered in Shopify because the app will use that. e.g. description, images, price, availability.

The only other part that trips people up is that Google takes their time updating the search results.

I tell people it takes roughly 8-11 weeks from when Google first sees the JSON-LD data before they results are updated. This affects every site but not everyone knows or understands it. It’s the same process if you launched a new site.

Some stores will see results within the first week but it’s better to go in with the expectations that it’ll take awhile and then be pleasantly surprised if it happens faster.

JSON-LD for SEO

Get more organic search traffic from Google without having to fight for better rankings by utilizing search enhancements called Rich Results.

Linking Llama

Link discontinued products to their best substitute. Keep discontinued products published on your website and continue to benefit from traffic to these pages.