Product schema on a B2B store: +111% clicks, per Simplified Search

What did Simplified Search test?#

Ryan Shelley of Simplified Search studied whether earning a rich result changes impressions, clicks and organic traffic. His hypothesis was that schema.org markup would bring more of all three once a page earned a rich feature. The study covered 2,702 URLs across seven sites in software, local business, manufacturing, IT and marketing services, ranging from about 100 pages to more than 5,000. The window ran from January 2019 to June 2020.

He used Search Console’s Search Appearance filter to date when each feature was earned, and custom Google Analytics segments to isolate organic traffic to the tracked pages. Five features were tested: Product, review, the general rich results appearance, video and FAQ. Control groups were built where possible, but not for Product or review.

The Product test ran on a large B2B store, where Product markup was added dynamically to every product. Because it went on all products at once, there was no control group. The author states it was the only major SEO task performed on those pages during the test.

What results did the Product markup case report?#

After the Product rich feature was earned, the author reports the following changes.

• Impressions up 119.14%.
• Clicks up 111.13%.
• Organic users up 42.21%.
• Organic sessions up 37.44%.

The author also reports revenue from those pages rose more than 500%, or over $80K more than the previous period. No baseline revenue, page count or exact dates for the Product test are given, so the size of the base is unknown.

His explanation is that the markup tagged product images for Google Image Search and put details such as price into the listing, which he reasons improved visibility and drew clicks. That is an inference, not something the test isolated.

How do the controlled tests in the same study compare?#

They are the most useful part of the study, because they show what a comparison group changes. On the three features with a control group, the experimental pages gained far more impressions, but clicks did not always follow.

Feature	Group	Impressions	Clicks
Rich results	Experimental	+106.88%	+10.81%
Rich results	Control	+29.26%	+41.16%
Video	Experimental	+138.38%	+21.64%
Video	Control	+87.08%	+65.82%
FAQ	Experimental	+337.68%	+817.60%
FAQ	Control	+43.41%	+71.75%

For rich results and video, the control pages grew clicks faster than the pages that earned the feature. Only FAQ beat its control on clicks, and the author notes some FAQ gains spiked and then normalized. FAQ is also now history: Google removed FAQ rich results from Search in May 2026.

Review markup on about 1,500 pages of another client, also uncontrolled, raised impressions 18.23% but lowered clicks 8.47% over roughly 30 days, while organic users rose 23.96%.

How much can this case prove about Product schema?#

Less than the headline suggests. The site is anonymous, the figures are self-reported, and the Product test had no control group, so seasonality or other changes cannot be ruled out. The controlled tests elsewhere in the same study show that pages without a feature can grow clicks faster than pages with one. The author’s own conclusion is that his hypothesis was not fully proven: rich features lifted impressions, with mixed results for clicks and traffic.

What should ecommerce teams check before adding Product markup?#

Start with which Google experience applies. Google’s Product documentation splits it in two: merchant listings for pages where customers can buy from you, and product snippets for product pages where people cannot buy directly, such as reviews. It also states that enhancements are shown at the discretion of each experience, so valid markup does not guarantee a rich result.

For product snippets, Google requires name plus one of review, aggregateRating or offers. It points to the Rich Results Test before deployment, and to the Merchant listings and Product snippets reports in Search Console afterwards. You can check a page’s markup against those fields with the Product snippet schema checker, and review rules are covered in Google’s review and AggregateRating requirements.

Then measure it the way this study could not: date the feature with the Search Appearance filter, hold back a set of comparable products where you can, and track revenue, not only clicks. For the markup fields themselves, see the structured data hub.