Questions
Why is my rich result not showing?
Because eligibility is not entitlement. Valid markup makes a page eligible for a rich result; Google then decides per query whether to show one, and frequently does not. The other common reasons are that the markup is valid but incomplete, that it does not match what the page displays, that the page is not indexed under the URL you are testing, or that the feature simply is not offered in your country or language.
Confirm the markup is eligible, not merely valid
The Rich Results Test reports which rich result types a page qualifies for, which is a different question from whether the JSON parses.
The Schema Markup Validator checks the markup against the vocabulary itself and will happily approve something Google has no feature for.
Each rich result type has documented required properties, and missing one produces valid markup with no eligibility.
Recommended properties are not optional in practice: Google's documentation states they improve the chance of display, and omitting several of them is a common reason nothing appears.
Check the page is indexed under the URL you are testing
A rich result can only appear for a page that is in the index. URL Inspection gives the verdict.
If Google selected a different canonical, the markup that matters is the one on the URL it chose, not the one you tested.
Markup injected by JavaScript is read when the page is rendered, which happens in a second pass with a variable delay. A very recently published page may be indexed without its structured data yet.
The live test in URL Inspection shows the rendered HTML, which is where you confirm the block is present after rendering.
Check the markup matches the visible page
Structured data must describe what is actually on the page. A price, a rating or a date present only in the markup is a guidelines violation.
The common accidental version is a template emitting an aggregate rating on every page, including ones with no reviews.
Stale values are the same problem arriving slowly: an event date in the past, a price that changed, availability that is no longer true.
A mismatch can lead to a manual action removing rich result eligibility for the whole site, which is visible in Search Console.
Reasons outside your control
Google decides per query. The same page can show a rich result for one search and a plain link for another.
Feature availability differs by country, language and device, and the documentation states which features are limited.
Some rich result types have been narrowed or removed entirely over time, and markup for a retired feature is simply ignored.
Quality thresholds apply: Google has said it may withhold rich results from pages it judges insufficiently useful, and it does not explain individual decisions.
Competition for the space: a result carrying a rich display in one position may lose it after moving, because the treatment depends on the result set rather than on the page alone.
What a scan can tell you
VeriFixScan reports `quality.structured_data` for the markup found in the served HTML, which is the view non-rendering consumers have.
`ecommerce.breadcrumb_schema` and `ecommerce.review_schema` report the two types most often present and most often malformed.
A block absent from the scan and present in the browser means the markup depends on rendering, which is worth knowing regardless of the rich result question.
No scan can report whether a rich result will be shown. That is a search engine's per-query decision, and Search Console is the only place its outcome is visible.
Frequently asked questions
- My structured data validates. Why is there no rich result?
- Validation is not eligibility, and eligibility is not display. Check required properties in the Rich Results Test, then accept that Google decides per query.
- How long after adding structured data should a rich result appear?
- There is no defined time. The page must be re-crawled and, for script-injected markup, rendered. Weeks is not unusual on a slowly crawled site.
- Can incorrect structured data be penalised?
- Markup that does not match the visible page violates the structured data guidelines and can lead to a manual action removing rich result eligibility site-wide.
Sources
Related
VeriFixScan crawls a site and applies its checks to every page it reaches, keeping the evidence behind each finding. Scanning one website is free.
Scan a website