Google’s recipe structured data requirements have changed. The old way of structured data is no longer valid and Google requires updating the recipe structured data to the latest requirements.
Recipe Structured Data
Recipe structured data is information that publishers communicate to search engines like Google in order to help them better understand the content. Structured data also allows Google to display the content in engaging ways that call attention to the recipes called Recipe Enhancements.
Typical Recipe Enhancements are:
- Guided Recipes
- Recipe host carousel
Using valid structured data is important. Failure to use correct structured data could cause a site to lose eligibility for being shown in Recipe Enhancements and the subsequent loss of search engine traffic to other sites that do use the correct structured data.
Three Recipe Structured Data Properties Changed
Google’s documentation states that they removed their guidance for specifying a time range for the cookTime and prepTime properties.
The following wording is removed from the cookTime property recommendation:
“You can use min and max as child elements to specify a range of time.”
The following wording was removed from the prepTime property:
“You can use min and max as child elements to specify a range of time.”