How to improve store's SEO with Growave Reviews and structured data

Google helps users find your website by displaying a small part of the content called a "snippet". Rich snippets highlight structured data embedded in web pages, providing additional information beyond standard search results. Reviews are one type of data displayed as rich snippets.

Below is an example of how a search result may appear with a review rating as a rich snippet:

Having star ratings appear next to your online store in Google search results is highly beneficial. Star reviews make your store more eye-catching and help you stand out from competitors on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). They also build social proof, giving potential customers confidence in your products based on feedback from others.

Additionally, star ratings have been shown to improve click-through rates (CTR), increase organic traffic to your site, and ultimately drive more sales.

How Growave helps with rich snippets

There is a standard Schema.org markup for product pages, which is typically managed by the shop theme provider. To this markup, users can manually add a product rating snippet so that it appears in search results (showing stars with the average rating).

Growave users can manually add such a snippet with the product’s average rating (calculated through our Reviews app) using metafield values. To use this snippet, follow the instructions for adding an average rating markup on the Schema.org website.

JSON-LD example:

  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "3.5",
    "reviewCount": "11"
  }

To include Growave's metafield values, you can modify the snippet as follows:

"ratingValue": "{{ product.metafields.ssw['avg_rate'] }}",
"reviewCount": "{{ product.metafields.ssw['count_rate'] }}"

These Schema.org snippets with Growave metafield values should be inserted into the default product page in your Shopify admin.

Microdata example

To offer an alternative for adding structured data, users can also use Microdata format with the itemscope and itemprop attributes in HTML. This method involves embedding structured data directly within the HTML of a webpage, as shown in the example below:

<div style="position:absolute;left:-9999px;" itemprop="aggregateRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">
  <span itemprop="itemReviewed">{{product.title}}</span>
  <div>Product rating:
    <span itemprop="ratingValue">{{ product.metafields.ssw['avg_rate'] }}</span> out of
    <span itemprop="bestRating">5</span> with
    <span itemprop="ratingCount">{{ product.metafields.ssw['count_rate'] }}</span> ratings
    <span itemprop="worstRating">1</span>
  </div>
</div>

In this example, the structured data is added to the page with a style setting that hides the content from users, but search engines like Google can still parse it.

It may take Google several days to crawl your reviews, but once completed, the star ratings will appear in Google search results.

If you encounter any issues with adding these snippets or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@growave.io

How to verify rich snippets

To check if your product is displaying rich snippets, you can use tools like Google’s structured data testing tool, which provides a preview of how your product appears in search results. Here are two options for validating your rich snippets:

1. Rich Results Test 

• Go to the Rich Results Test tool and enter your product link.
• The tool will check if your page supports rich results, verify if the widget is integrated correctly, and confirm if the widget is displayed in search results.

2. Schema.org Markup Validator

• Visit the Schema.org Markup Validator and insert your product link.
• This will validate your product schema and confirm the same details as the Rich Results Test tool.

If you have any other questions or need assistance, don't hesitate to contact our support team at support@growave.io or through the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.