WooCommerce SEO Checker: Product Page Audit

It first runs the same test as the indexability checker: status code, redirects, robots.txt, robots meta tags, X-Robots-Tag headers and the canonical. The headline comes from that alone and reads Nothing blocks indexing, Indexable, with warnings, or Not indexable as it stands, or Could not check this URL when the page did not load.

From the same fetch it then reads the title, the meta description, the canonical, every JSON-LD block, up to 200 images and the number of H1 headings, and turns each into one line of the report. Each line links to the tool that checks it in depth. The whole check has 30 seconds.

Because the headline is about indexing only, a product with broken Product markup and no meta description can still read Nothing blocks indexing. Read the lines under it.

The page type comes from the classes WordPress prints on the <body> element. single-product makes it a Product page; tax-product_cat or tax-product_tag a Product category; post-type-archive-product or woocommerce-shop a Shop page. Failing those, an og:type of product or any Product JSON-LD makes it a Product page. Anything else is Not recognised as a WooCommerce page.

The type changes the Product line. On a product page, missing Product markup is a fail. On a category or shop page the line is only informational. With no Product markup there, it reads “Category and shop pages list products rather than describe one, so Product markup is not expected here.” When a plugin prints a Product item for each listed product, the line gives the number of items and says Google does not use them on this page, and the Structured data panel shows their messages as notes rather than errors.

If no WooCommerce body class is found, the report adds “WooCommerce markers were not found on this page. The checks below still apply to any page.” That happens on headless storefronts, on themes or page builder templates that drop WordPress’s body classes, and on pages that are not store pages at all.

Google has two kinds of product result built from the markup on your page, and a third fed from Google Merchant Center. They have different requirements, and the checker’s messages name the one each rule belongs to.

The checker reads the page side. “Google needs at least one for a product rich result” is the product snippet rule, and “Google requires one for merchant listings (the shopping-style result)” is the image rule for merchant listings. Valid markup makes a page eligible; Google still decides what to show.

Merchant Center does not replace the markup. Google compares your feed with your pages and can disapprove a product when the price or availability disagree, so the on-page markup matters even if you sell through a feed.

The Product line shows the number of errors and the first one, or the number of missing recommended fields, for the most complete Product on the page. The Structured data panel lists every message for every Product. WooCommerce’s own markup passes most of these by design, so a message usually points to missing product data or to a second source of markup.

A product that passes reads “Product with name, offer, price, currency and availability.”

WooCommerce builds its Product JSON-LD while the product summary is displayed and prints it in the page footer, in one block that can also hold the page’s BreadcrumbList. It includes the name, URL, description, main image, sku, a valid GTIN if you entered one, the offer, and the rating with up to five recent reviews when the product has ratings.

So “No Product JSON-LD found” on a product page has three usual causes: the product has no price and no reviews, so WooCommerce prints nothing rather than invalid markup; a page builder template for single products never runs WooCommerce’s standard product hooks; or the markup is microdata, which this check does not read.

SEO plugins change this. Rank Math’s schema module replaces WooCommerce’s markup: on product pages it removes WooCommerce’s block and prints its own Product (a ProductGroup when its markup lists variants), following the Schema Type setting under Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Products. On shop and category pages Rank Math prints a short Product entry for each listed product only if you switch off Remove Schema Markup on Shop Archives under Rank Math SEO → General Settings → WooCommerce, or Remove Snippet Data under Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Product Categories; both are on by default. Free Yoast SEO leaves Product markup to WooCommerce; its paid WooCommerce add-on extends it. In SEOPress, product schema is a PRO feature.

Two Product entries in the Structured data panel, one from WooCommerce and one from a plugin, can give Google two sets of values for the same product. Keep one complete source. With two or more, the Product line is at best a warning: it starts “2 separate Product items on this page” and reports on the most complete one, the item with the fewest errors and then the fewest missing recommended fields. Variants listed under a ProductGroup’s hasVariant are part of that group, not separate items.

For a variable product whose variations cost different amounts, WooCommerce prints an AggregateOffer with lowPrice, highPrice and offerCount. When every variation costs the same, it prints a single Offer instead. The checker reads lowPrice as the price, so a variable product passes, and the panel shows its lowest price.

Some SEO plugins mark a variable product up as a ProductGroup, Google’s documented markup for products sold in variants. The group itself usually carries no offer: each variation is a Product under hasVariant with its own Offer. The checker counts those offers as the group’s, so the Product line passes when every variant has an offer with a price, currency and availability, and reads “ProductGroup with 3 variants, each with an offer, price, currency and availability”, followed by the price range. A problem on some of the variants is listed once, with how many variants it affects. A ProductGroup with no offer, review or rating on the group or on any of its variants still fails.

Google’s product documentation says not to use an AggregateOffer to describe a set of product variants, and merchant listings require a single Offer from the seller. For products sold in variants it documents ProductGroup with hasVariant (as of October 2026). Run a variable product through the Rich Results Test to see which result types it qualifies for.

Recent WooCommerce versions describe a single variation, with one Offer at that variation’s price, when the URL selects every attribute, for example ?attribute_pa_size=large. That is the kind of URL a Merchant Center feed links to. Check one separately: its canonical usually points to the parent product, which the report shows as an informational line, as it should.

The check reads the first BreadcrumbList on the page. When it is valid, the line lists the trail, such as “3 crumbs: Home › Mugs › Blue mug”. Otherwise it shows the first problem: no itemListElement entries, a crumb with no position or no name, positions out of order, or a crumb other than the last with no item URL. With none on the page, the line is informational.

WooCommerce prints a BreadcrumbList only when the theme shows WooCommerce’s own breadcrumb trail, and many themes replace that trail. Yoast SEO includes a BreadcrumbList in its schema even when visible breadcrumbs are off. Rank Math adds one when breadcrumbs are enabled under Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Breadcrumbs. A store running both a theme trail and a plugin can print two; the check reads the first.

For products in several categories, set the primary category in the Yoast SEO or Rank Math box on the product, so the trail uses the category you want.

Since January 2025 Google shows breadcrumbs only in desktop results; mobile results show only the domain instead. The markup is still supported, so it is not a reason to remove it.

Stores create many URLs for the same products: sorting, filters, attribute parameters and pagination. The canonical line judges each against what that kind of URL should declare.

Yoast SEO, Rank Math and SEOPress make paginated pages point to themselves by default, so a page 2 that points to page 1 usually comes from a theme or custom code. To set a canonical by hand, use the Advanced tab of the SEO plugin’s box on the product, or the same fields on the category’s edit screen under Products → Categories.

The title line warns above 60 characters (“Likely cut off in results; put the product name and the detail buyers search for first.”) and notes titles under 30 as short, suggesting brand, model, size or material. The meta description line warns when there is none or when it is over 160 characters, and notes one under 70 as short. Both are character counts; Google truncates by pixel width, so the title checker gives the closer answer.

Most store titles come from a template: Yoast SEO → Settings → Content types → Products, Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Products, or SEO → Titles & Metas → Post Types in SEOPress. A template that appends the store name to a long product name runs past 60 characters on most products. Override the worst ones in the SEO box on the product, and shorten the template if most products overflow. Categories have their own templates under the taxonomy settings of the same screens.

The H1 line expects one heading with text. Most WooCommerce themes print the product or category name as the H1. No H1 usually means a page builder template that shows the name in a styled paragraph; several usually mean a theme that also makes the logo or a banner an H1. More than one is informational only.

Illustrative values. A ceramics store on Yoast SEO checks a variable product, a stoneware mug sold in three sizes at $24 to $32.

Indexable, Canonical, BreadcrumbList (“3 crumbs: Home › Mugs › Hand-Thrown Stoneware Coffee Mug”) and H1 passed before and after. The headline read Nothing blocks indexing throughout, which is why the lines below it matter.

Run the product URL through Google’s Rich Results Test. It renders the page, so it also sees microdata and JSON-LD added by JavaScript, and it says whether the page qualifies for product snippets, merchant listings or both. The Schema Markup Validator at validator.schema.org checks every type against schema.org, whether or not Google uses it.

In Search Console, the Shopping section has Product snippets and Merchant listings reports covering the whole store. After a fix, open the issue and choose Validate fix. For a single product, URL Inspection with Test live URL shows the structured data Google detects now.

Leave these alone: informational lines (a short title or description, several H1s, no BreadcrumbList); an informational canonical on a filtered or variant URL; no Product markup, or unused Product items for listed products, on category and shop pages; and Not indexable as it stands on cart, checkout and my account pages, which WooCommerce marks noindex on purpose. A brand warning on products you make yourself goes away when you use your store name as the brand.