Rich-snippets for Offline Products and Services

Question

We are developing a new site and I'm keen to implement rich snippets and more descriptive meta data for our products and services pages in the form of Rich Snippets.

My problem is that our products and services cannot be purchased directly from the website as they are bespoke and custom built based upon users requirements. As a result they don't have a price and stock level.

I notice from the Google guidelines that they state:

The product should be available for purchase directly on the page

My question is, what is the best and most appropriate way to use rich snippets to describe these products and services? Can I use rich snippets at all to describe these products and services?

Answer 1

Consider using schema.org/AggregateOffer for Product Rich Snippets. Although main use case for it is marking one product available from different sellers, it seems suitable for you as well. It allows to indicate lowest and highest price - I guess you have some price limits even for bespoke products.

If you have reviews for those products on your site Review Rich Snippets are applicable for you. Use schema.org/Review or schema.org/AggregateRating for this.

Example for both:

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product">
  <img itemprop="image" src="cute_dress.jpg" />
  <span itemprop="name">Very Cute Dress</span>

  <div itemprop="aggregateRating"
    itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">
    <span itemprop="ratingValue">87</span>
    out of <span itemprop="bestRating">100</span>
    based on <span itemprop="ratingCount">24</span> user ratings
  </div>

  <div itemprop="offers" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateOffer">
    <span itemprop="lowPrice">$1250</span>
    to <span itemprop="highPrice">$1495</span>
  </div>
</div>

will give you

Breadcrumbs is another option for you. Use data-vocabulary.org for this purpose since breadcrumbs in schema.org are messy and incomplete.

Example:

<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
  <a href="http://www.example.com/dresses" itemprop="url">
    <span itemprop="title">Dresses</span>
  </a> ›
</div>  
<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
  <a href="http://www.example.com/dresses/real" itemprop="url">
    <span itemprop="title">Real Dresses</span>
  </a> ›
</div>  
<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Breadcrumb">
  <a href="http://www.example.com/clothes/dresses/real/green" itemprop="url">
    <span itemprop="title">Real Green Dresses</span>
  </a>
</div>

will give you