Structured data carousels (beta)

Google uses structured data
to understand the content on the page and show that content in a richer appearance in search
results, which is called a rich result. This guide focuses on a new carousel rich result that’s in beta,
which is a list-like rich result that people can scroll horizontally to see more entities
from a given site (also known as a host carousel). Each tile in the carousel may have information
from your site about the price, rating, and images for entities on the page.

To be eligible for this beta rich result, add ItemList structured data in combination
with at least one one of the following supported structured data items:

• LocalBusiness
  and its subtypes, for example:
  • Restaurant
  • Hotel
  • VacationRental
• Product
• Event

Here’s how carousels can look in Google Search when you add ItemList markup in
combination with a supported content type:

Feature availability

This feature is in beta and you may see changes in requirements or guidelines, as we develop this
feature. This feature is also only available in European Economic Area
(EEA) countries, Turkey, and South Africa, on both desktop and mobile devices. In EEA countries,
this experience is available for queries related to hotels, vacation rentals, ground transportation,
flights, local businesses, things to do (events, tours, and activities), and shopping. In Turkey,
this experience is only available for queries related to hotels, vacation rentals, and local
businesses. In South Africa, this experience is available for queries related to hotels, vacation
rentals, things to do (events, tours, and activities), flights, shopping, food delivery, car hire,
and bus booking.

If your business is based in the EEA or Turkey, or serves users in the EEA or Turkey, fill out the
applicable form:

• For queries related to ground transportation, hotels, vacation rentals, local business, and
  things to do (for example, events, tours, and activities), use this
  Google Search aggregator features interest form
• For flight features, use this
  flight queries interest form
• For shopping queries in CSS Program countries,
  get started with the
  Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) program

If your business is based in South Africa, fill out the
Google Search South African Badging and Refinement Chips Interest Form.

Add structured data

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page
content. If you’re new to structured data, you can learn more about
how structured data works.

Here’s an overview of how to add structured data to your site.

1. Pick a single summary page that contains some information about every entity in the list.
   For example, a category page that lists the “Top hotels in Paris”, with links out to specific detail
   pages on your site for more information about each hotel. You can
   mix and match different types of entities (for example, hotels, restaurants), if needed for your
   scenario. For example, if you have a “Things to do in Switzerland” article that lists both local
   events and local businesses.
2. Add the required properties to that summary
   page. You don’t need to add markup to the detail pages in order to be eligible for this beta feature.
   Based on the format you’re using, learn where to
   insert structured data on the page.
3. Add the required and recommended properties for the specific content type that the carousel
   is about:
   • LocalBusiness and its subtypes, for example:
     • Restaurant
     • Hotel
     • VacationRental
   • Product
   • Event

   Depending on your scenario, you may choose the best type to use. For example, if you have
   a list of hotels and vacation rentals on your page, use both Hotel and
   VacationRental types. While it’s ideal to use the type that’s closest to your
   scenario, you can choose to use a more generic type (for example, LocalBusiness).

4. Follow the guidelines.
5. Validate your code using the
   Rich Results Test.
6. Deploy a few pages that include your structured data and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Be sure that your page is
   accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or
   login requirements. If the page looks okay, you can
   ask Google to
   recrawl your URLs.
7. To keep Google informed of future changes, we recommend that you
   submit a sitemap. You
   can automate this with the
   Search Console Sitemap API.

Guidelines

For your page to be eligible for carousel rich results (beta), you must follow the Search Essentials
and general structured data guidelines. In addition,
the following guidelines apply to carousel rich results (beta):

• Use of generic types is allowed. However, to use recommended properties, you must use the
  respective types. For example, to use amenityFeature, use the LodgingBusiness
  type.
• Use of additional or extra fields is allowed, but may not appear in the rich result.
• Your site must have a summary page and multiple detail pages. Currently, this feature isn’t
  designed to support other scenarios, such as an all-in-one page where the “details” are anchor
  points within the same page.
• The markup must be on a summary or category page, which is a list-like page that contains information
  about at least three entities and then links out to other pages on your site for more information
  on those entities. While you don’t need to add markup to the detail pages, you must include the
  detail page URLs in your summary page’s markup.
• Mark up all items that are on the summary or category page. For paginated categories, add an
  ItemList to each subsequent page and include the entities that are listed on that
  page. For infinite scroll, focus on marking up the entities that are initially loaded in the
  viewport.

Examples

The following is a high level structure of the carousel. The order specified in the markup is the
order that will be used to order the tiles in the carousel rich result.

Structured data type definitions

You must include the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich
result. You can also include the recommended properties to add more information about your content,
which could provide a better user experience.

ItemList

ItemList is the container item that holds all elements in the list. All URLs of the
elements in the list must point to different pages on the same domain.

The full definition of ItemList is available at
schema.org/ItemList.

Common list item properties (LocalBusiness, Product, or Event)

All of the carousel item types have the following properties in common.

Additional type-specific properties definitions

LocalBusiness (and subtypes)

In addition to the ListItem properties, Google supports the
following LocalBusiness properties (including its subtypes) for carousel rich results
Nest these properties under itemListElement.item.

Product

In addition to the ListItem properties, Google supports the
following Product properties for carousel rich results. Nest these properties under
itemListElement.item.

Event

In addition to the ListItem properties, Google supports the
following Event properties for carousel rich results. Nest these properties under
itemListElement.item.

Examples for common scenarios

Restaurant example

Here is an example of a restaurant carousel in JSON-LD.

Lodging (Hotels and VacationRental) example

Here is an example of a lodging carousel in JSON-LD.

Things to do example example

Here is an example of a things to do carousel in JSON-LD.

Product example

Here is an example of a product carousel in JSON-LD.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble implementing or debugging structured data, here are some resources that
may help you.

• 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
  and the Unparsable structured data report.
• 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.