Most schema issues don’t come from manual errors — they come from automation that breaks quietly. Your CMS, theme, or plugin might generate structured data for you. But over time, those tools fall out of sync with Google’s guidelines, leading to invisible problems that suppress visibility.
The most common structured data failures
These are the issues we see most often in ecommerce product pages:
Invalid JSON-LD syntax
→ A single missing bracket or comma can break the entire schema block.
Incorrect data types
→ Example: wrapping a URL field in quotation marks turns it into a plain text string (“https://…” instead of <https://…>).
Missing required fields
→ Fields like price, availability, or brand are required for Product schema eligibility in rich results.
Conflicting schema blocks
→ Shopify apps and custom themes often generate multiple overlapping Product schemas, which Google sees as ambiguous.
Not being built for this, native tools can mislead
Platforms like Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce do generate schema by default — but that doesn’t mean it’s correct:
- Theme updates can overwrite or remove schema.
- Plugins may inject duplicate or outdated markup.
- Native schema generators often lag behind Google’s evolving requirements.
Just because your pages have structured data doesn’t mean they have valid, complete, or non-conflicting data.
There’s a reason these issues go undetected
Unlike feed errors, broken schema doesn’t throw an error in Google Merchant Center. GMC does not validate your on-page structured data. It evaluates feed data and landing page fetchability (e.g., pricing mismatch, missing availability). If your on-page Product schema is broken, GMC doesn’t flag that.
Google Search Console, on the other hand, does show rich result eligibility reports (under Enhancements > Products) and will flag some schema issues — missing fields, invalid format, incorrect nesting.
Manual actions are rare, but automated disqualifications from rich results are not.
Google has two ways of deciding whether your page qualifies for rich results:
1. Manual actions
These are rare and usually tied to spammy or deceptive practices — like marking up fake reviews or misusing schema types. When they happen, Google flags them in Search Console under Manual Actions, and you can submit a reconsideration request.
- Think: a penalty. Human-reviewed. You’ll know it happened.
2. Automated disqualifications
This is what hits most ecommerce sites. If your structured data is missing required fields, formatted incorrectly, or includes conflicting information, Google simply decides that your page isn’t eligible for enhanced display. It removes the product snippet, review stars, or other rich result features — without notifying you.
- Think: a silent filter. No alerts. No reconsideration process.
So when we say “automated disqualifications are common,” we’re talking about Google quietly stripping enhanced presentation from your listings due to schema issues — not because of shady tactics, but because your markup doesn’t meet eligibility rules.
That’s why most teams miss it:
Schema impacts how listings appear, not whether they rank — so you lose clicks, not positions.
If your PDPs still rank on page 1, but they’re missing price, review stars, or availability in the SERP, your CTR drops — and you may not even notice unless you’re comparing before/after SERP screenshots or running a CTR audit.
It doesn’t break the page visually, so there’s no QA catch.
Your product page looks fine to customers. QA tests for layout, functionality, and maybe SEO tags — not invisible JSON-LD markup buried in the page source.
It’s not included in feed diagnostics, so Shopping advertisers don’t see it.
Advertisers live inside Google Merchant Center and feed tools. If it’s not flagged in Diagnostics, it doesn’t hit their radar — even if it’s silently disqualifying products from organic carousels or Free Listings.
The only way to catch structured data issues is to manually test your pages or audit your output — something most marketers don’t have time (or tools) for.
