Learn · Development · Beginner
Learn how to check, step by step, whether the page for your tool, plugin or app meets the properties Google documents for software app structured data, and what to do when it does not.
Structured data is a standard format for describing what a page is about. Google documents a type called SoftwareApplication for pages about apps and other software. When a page meets the requirements, it can be eligible for a richer search result showing details such as a price and rating.
This guide checks a page against those requirements one property at a time. You do not need to write code to follow it.
Google's documentation lists three required properties for software app rich results and says that items missing required properties are not eligible. It also says it does not guarantee that features using structured data will appear. Check the page against the software app documentation so you know what is missing and why.
Open the page and view its source. Search for the text SoftwareApplication. Google supports three formats for structured data: JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa, and recommends JSON-LD. If you find nothing, the page has no software markup yet.
You will know it worked when You know whether the page has software markup and which format it uses.
Google lists name, an offer with a price, and either an aggregate rating or a review as required. If the software is free, the price should be 0. If it costs money, Google recommends also giving the currency. Tick each property as you find it.
You will know it worked when You have a list showing which of name, price and rating or review are present.
A new product may have no ratings. Google's general guidelines say not to mark up fake reviews, and that reviews or ratings not by actual users may result in a manual action. If you have none yet, note that the rating requirement is not met, rather than adding a made-up value.
You will know it worked when Every rating or review in the markup is a genuine one from a real user, or you have noted that none exist yet.
Google recommends applicationCategory, from its supported list, and operatingSystem. For apps that run in a browser or on a phone it also supports the WebApplication and MobileApplication types. Check that any category you use is on Google's list.
You will know it worked when Category and operating system are present and the category matches Google's list, or you have noted they are missing.
Google says not to mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page. Compare each value in the markup with what a visitor can see: name, price and any rating should appear on the page in ordinary text.
You will know it worked when Every value in the markup is visible on the page and says the same thing.
Google recommends validating with the Rich Results Test and fixing critical errors, then using the URL Inspection tool to see how Google reads the page, making sure it is not blocked by robots.txt, noindex or a login. Google says it can take several days for a published page to be found and crawled.
You will know it worked when The test shows no critical errors and URL Inspection shows the page is accessible to Google.
Send Dean the page address and the markup it carries. The reply says which required properties are missing and which cannot honestly be added yet.
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