# The properties Google recommends and almost nobody uses

109 of the 314 properties Google recommends for rich results are used by fewer than 100,000 websites.

> Source: https://eduarddziak.com/structured-data/recommended-gap/
> Snapshot: July 2026
> Requirements read: 11 August 2026
> Data: /data/schema-stats.json and /data/schema-stats.csv
> Licence: Apache 2.0, credit requested. Requirements CC BY 4.0

## Summary

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Recommended properties used by fewer than 100,000 websites | 109 |
| Recommended properties present in the usage file | 314 |
| Share thinly used | 34.71% |
| Recommended properties across all live features | 339 |
| Live rich result features | 33 |
| Requirements read from Google on | 11 August 2026 |
| Usage snapshot | July 2026 |

## Where the gap is, by feature

Every row below carries the address of the Google page I read it from and that page's own last-updated date, so you can check any requirement against the source before you act on it.

| Feature | Thinly used | Recommended | Share | Status | Google page | Page updated |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Merchant listing | 18 | 44 | 40.91% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing | 2026-07-07 |
| Return policy | 11 | 17 | 64.71% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/return-policy | 2025-12-10 |
| Shipping policy | 11 | 24 | 45.83% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/shipping-policy | 2026-01-07 |
| Dataset | 10 | 19 | 52.63% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/dataset | 2025-12-10 |
| Job posting | 9 | 12 | 75.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/job-posting | 2025-12-18 |
| Recipe | 8 | 15 | 53.33% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/recipe | 2025-12-10 |
| Organization | 7 | 28 | 25.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization | 2026-04-15 |
| Discussion forum | 4 | 12 | 33.33% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/discussion-forum | 2026-03-24 |
| Vacation rental | 4 | 39 | 10.26% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/vacation-rental | 2025-12-10 |
| Video | 4 | 10 | 40.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/video | 2026-02-13 |
| Book | 3 | 8 | 37.50% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/book | 2025-12-10 |
| Education Q&A | 3 | 5 | 60.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/education-qa | 2026-01-06 |
| Q&A page | 3 | 10 | 30.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/qapage | 2026-06-15 |
| Image license metadata | 2 | 5 | 40.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/image-license-metadata | 2025-12-10 |
| Local business | 2 | 17 | 11.76% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business | 2025-12-10 |
| Math solvers | 2 | 3 | 66.67% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/math-solvers | 2025-12-18 |
| Product snippet | 2 | 9 | 22.22% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-snippet | 2025-12-10 |
| Loyalty program | 2 | 3 | 66.67% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/loyalty-program | 2025-12-10 |
| Factcheck | 1 | 7 | 14.29% | Phasing out | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/factcheck | 2025-12-10 |
| Movie | 1 | 4 | 25.00% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/movie | 2025-12-10 |
| Product variants | 1 | 9 | 11.11% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-variants | 2026-05-20 |
| Profile page | 1 | 9 | 11.11% | Live | https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/profile-page | 2025-12-10 |

## Features Google has retired

| Feature | Removed | Why, in Google's words |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Job training | 2022-05-31 | Documentation removed. Tested with a group of site owners and found not useful for the ecosystem at scale. |
| How-to | 2023-09-14 | Documentation removed. The rich result is no longer shown in search results, on both desktop and mobile devices. |
| Home activity | 2024-06 | Documentation removed. The feature no longer appears in Google Search results. |
| Sitelinks search box | 2024-11-29 | Documentation removed and the nositelinkssearchbox rule archived. The feature is no longer available in Google Search results. |
| Special announcement | 2025-09-09 | Documentation removed. No longer shown in Google Search results. |
| Course info | 2025-09-09 | Documentation removed. No longer shown in Google Search results. Distinct from the Course carousel feature, which is still live. |
| Estimated salary | 2025-09-09 | Documentation removed. No longer shown in Google Search results. |
| Learning video | 2025-09-09 | Documentation removed. No longer shown in Google Search results. |
| Vehicle listing | 2025-09-09 | Documentation removed. No longer shown in Google Search results. |
| Practice problems | 2026-01-06 | Documentation removed. Search Console rich result reporting, the Rich Result Test and the Search appearance filters dropped it in January 2026. |
| FAQ | 2026-06 | Documentation removed. Google: "The FAQ rich result feature is no longer shown in Google Search results." Restricted to well-known authoritative government and health websites from 2023-09-14, then withdrawn entirely. |

## Known limits of this data

- Google lists enumeration values in the same table column as property names, so a few of the rows below are values rather than properties. EventScheduled on the event page is one. I have not stripped them by hand, and until I do you should read a handful of the entries as approximate.
- Names with a dot in them, such as offers.price and ListItem.position, are Google notation for a property nested inside another type rather than Schema.org terms in their own right. The usage figure against them is for the last part of the name.

## How this is measured

Google documents what each rich result needs on its own page and publishes no machine-readable version of any of it, so I read the requirements out of the markup of those pages on 11 August 2026, covering 33 live features. Every requirement below carries the address it came from and that page's own last-updated date. Google rewrites these pages without announcing it, so a requirement quoted without a date is a claim about a target that has already moved.

I then matched those requirements against Google's usage file for July 2026. Google recommends 339 properties across the live features, and 314 of them appear in the usage file, which is what lets me put an adoption figure against each one. 109 of those, 34.71%, are used by fewer than a hundred thousand websites.

One decision shapes this whole report, and you should weigh it before acting on anything here. I counted only what Google recommends, not what it requires, because required fields are adopted far more widely and the systematic gap is not there. That is not universal. A few features do require a property almost nobody uses, and Book is the clearest case, so a required field is worth checking rather than assuming. But what Google merely suggests is where the broad opportunity sits, and it is also where you should be most careful, because a recommended property is a hint about what Google can use rather than a promise of a rich result. The known limits above apply to the table as well.

Analysis © Eduard Dziak, licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Please credit eduarddziak.com with a link. Source data: Google and the Schema.org community, Schema.org usage statistics dataset. Rich result requirements: Google Search Central, licensed CC BY 4.0. Term descriptions: Schema.org, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, each term linking to its own page.