Google updates impact Shopify product review apps

By Ilana Davis

I’ve written previously about SEO and how search engines utilize structured data as part of their algorithms to determine how a page is displayed in search results.

We depend on Google because many of us use Google as our primary search engine. I usually lean on SEO apps to help take Shopify stores to the next level by ensuring their structured data is used correctly.

This is because many themes don’t do this right nor do they update their structured data when changes need to be made. I’ve found myself removing structured data more often recently because themes just don’t have this functionality built-in or it’s not correct.

What happens when Google makes updates to its algorithm and adds new rules about Review Rich Results?

How do you ensure your Shopify store is taken care of so you don’t lose your Rich Results?

The impact of Google’s algorithm update for Shopify Product Reviews may be something you want to pay attention to.

The too long; didn’t read version:

When there’s an error in a set of structured data, Google will ignore that data. With this update, the structured data from many Shopify product reviews apps now have errors and “will cause Google to ignore that review data and remove any Rich Results from it.”

As a reminder, structured data is what Google uses to create Rich Results that shows the price, if the product is in stock, review rating, and more.

What does this mean exactly?

If you depend on structured data that has this error, you may lose Rich Results which will make your search results less appealing. Which is not something you want going into the competitive holidays.

How do I solve this?

First of all, contact your review app. Ask them what they are doing to solve this issue. If they tell you it’s a non-issue, push back and demand they show you that it’s been resolved, like showing you that the data is error-free in Google’s testing tools. Don’t settle.

If you’re not already a customer of JSON-LD for SEO, buy the app today. The app integrates with a dozen review apps and correctly formats the review data to meet Google’s guidelines.

Still not sure, contact me at support@ilanadavis.com for a free structured data audit for any Shopify store.

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