Add custom data to Schema.org fields with metafields

Everyone's store creates a lot of data. That's one of the benefits of ecommerce, you have a lot more data you can work with compared to physical stores.

Sometimes that data is useful and can give you a competitive advantage in SEO and advertising, but it can be difficult to get it out.

Sometimes you might also create special workflows to create and use data differently than the typical Shopify setup. For example, instead of using Shopify's editor you might have various templates and bespoke copywriting you assemble into your product descriptions.

Luckily Shopify gives you metafields as a way to store the data, but they leave it up to you to get the data back out. No big deal if you know how to code or have a developer on staff, but it quickly gets complex and difficult to manage.

The structured data JSON-LD for SEO provides has had a similar story in the past.

We have a large set of standardized data we pull from your store and format for Google and other search engines. When then layer on dozens of customizations based on your store to help fine-tune the output.

We would run into limits though with how much data and what types of data we can extract. If 99% of Shopify stores don't use a field, it doesn't make sense to add it for the 1% and force the 99% to pay the cost of querying that data. That meant the benefits of every change we've added had to be weighed against the costs of getting the data.

With a recent change, that whole idea has been tipped on its side.

Using the new Custom Fields feature in the app, each store can now add new fields or override some of the existing fields in the structured data.

That means if you don't like how we get the data from a Product for its description, size, or pattern, now you can have the app use alternative data from a metafield. That also means if we want to add a field that only 1% of stores would use, we may be able to without impacting anyone who doesn't need it.

We've already added quite a few fields to Custom Fields and will be adding more overtime. There are a lot of potential fields in Schema and we've have a number of customer conversations over the years that we're pulling fields from. This article will list all of the fields and how to use them.

Custom Fields is really useful feature and can help stores that create a lot of their own data. We're actually considering changing how some of our code works to use Custom Fields instead (making the code run faster too).

Custom Field Options

The following is the list of Custom Fields you can add. Please reference Schema.org to ensure your data type matches their requirements. For example, some fields require numbers only or must be formatted in a specific way, while others support any text content.

Schema Type	Schema Field	Notes
Article	award
Article	dateModified	override of existing data
Article	keywords
Article	inLanguage
Organization	award
Organization	foundingDate
Product	color
Product	description	override of existing data
Product	gtin	override of existing data
Product	keywords
Product	material
Product	mpn	override of existing data
Product	name	override of existing data
Product	pattern
Product	size
ProductGroup	description	override of existing data
ProductGroup	name	override of existing data
ProductGroup	variesBy

The app may support more fields as it's updated regularly. I'll try to keep this current but if you're ever not sure if a field is supported, feel free to reach out to support@ilanadavis.com

Where data pulls from

It's really important to make sure your metafields are stored in the right place. This table will help to ensure your data is in the right location as we're only looking here. Meaning if you add a Product custom field for awards, we're only going to look at Product metafields. If it's stored in shop, we won't be able to see it.

Schema Type	Metafield Location
Article	blog posts
Offer	product
Organization/Store/Local Business	shop
Product Group	product
Product	product

We are unable to support other metafield locations at this time. Please check back here as we'll keep this article updated or reach out to support to see if we can help.

Additionally, metafield objects are not currently supported but we hope to. If you are able to ave the data as a metafield, that is the best way to ensure we can see the data. 

Alternatively, you can always add custom linked data using our unique @id's and custom code on your store. 

Note that metafields that are unsupported does not block you from using the metafield. It just means that the output can't be used in a meaningful way for schema.

Supported Shopify metafields

Metafield Type	One	List	Notes
single line text	x	x
multi-line text	x
integer	x	x
choice list (single line text)	x	x
email (single line text)	x	x
ID	x	x	requires a definition
decimal	x	x
URL	x	x
date	x	x	do not use for schema date fields that require ISO formatting - use date and time instead
date and time	x	x	requires a definition
true or false	x
color	x	x	outputs as hex code (e.g. #DC6060) -  does not meet merchant center requirements
language	x

More information coming soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please reach out to support@ilanadavis.com