Google has new structured data markup for car dealerships, it is called vehicle structured data. You can use it to communicate to Google information about your new car listings for improved visibility within the Google Search results.
Google said this is only available right now for US and US territories but do show up both on mobile and desktop surfaces.
The technical details are over here which explains that there is now an additional way to submit this data to Google. The old way still works, it is through the vehicle listings partner portal. The new way is through basic structured data, where you add markup to your content on your site.
Google said the structured data method is “relatively easy to implement and maintain structured data markup on websites,” but it “could take longer for Google to detect changes on websites,” and there is no one-on-one support for those who use this method. While the file feed upload system through the partner portal website “may require system development to create and maintain feed files,” plus “all inventory data in feed files is recognized by Google,” there is also one-on-one support available to address any issues with feed uploads at the vehicle listings partner portal but “feeds support more detailed properties for vehicle inventory,” Google added.
Google said it “recommends using the markup for those who haven’t yet signed up for vehicle listings on Google and prefer a simpler setup via markup.”
The technical details on how to implement this is in the Google documentation.
Here are the guidelines for using this markup:
- The dealership must have a claimed and verified Business Profile on Google in the US or US territories.
- The Business Profile must have the Place type vehicle_dealer. See How to choose a category for your Business Profile.
- Note: Google hides the Business Profile Products when showing vehicle listings on Business Profiles.
- Only include vehicle inventory for sale directly from the dealership. Vehicles from private sellers, individuals, or auto brokers are not permitted.
- Only include vehicle inventory for cars that are for sale in the US or US territories.
Here is the FAQs on this new markup:
- If you’re using a content management system (CMS) or someone else is taking care of your site, ask them to help you. Make sure to forward any Search Console message that details the issue to them.
- Google does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results. For a list of common reasons why Google may not show your content in a rich result, see the General Structured Data Guidelines.
- You might have an error in your structured data. Check the list of structured data errors.
- If you received a structured data manual action against your page, the structured data on the page will be ignored (although the page can still appear in Google Search results). To fix structured data issues, use the Manual Actions report.
- Review the guidelines again to identify if your content isn’t compliant with the guidelines. The problem can be caused by either spammy content or spammy markup usage. However, the issue may not be a syntax issue, and so the Rich Results Test won’t be able to identify these issues.
- Troubleshoot missing rich results / drop in total rich results.
- Allow time for re-crawling and re-indexing. Remember that it may take several days after publishing a page for Google to find and crawl it. For general questions about crawling and indexing, check the Google Search crawling and indexing FAQ.
- Post a question in the Google Search Central forum.
Google also launched new Search Console reports, the Rich result reports in Search Console that shows valid and invalid items for pages with structured data:
And the Google Rich Results Test lets you post a URL of a page or a code snippet. Using the tool, you can confirm whether or not your markup is valid instantly without waiting for Rich result reports to be updated.
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