What Is ProductGroup Schema? The Complete Guide (2026)

ProductGroup vs. Product: What Is the Difference?

ProductGroup and Product serve different roles in the structured data hierarchy:

The ProductGroup entity itself is not sold — only its child Product variants are. Rich result eligibility (Product Snippets, Merchant Listings) flows through the child Products, not the ProductGroup directly.

Required Properties

Note: Google's documentation only requires name on the ProductGroup itself. Greadme additionally requires productGroupID because without it, variants cannot correctly reference the group and Merchant Listings eligibility is severely reduced.

Recommended Properties

variesBy: The Six Supported Values

The variesBy property tells Google which attributes distinguish one variant from another. Google's documentation explicitly supports six values. Always use the full Schema.org URI form:

Values outside this list are not documented as supported by Google. Using multiple values is valid — e.g., ["https://schema.org/color", "https://schema.org/size"] for a product that varies by both.

Two Implementation Approaches

Google supports two structural patterns for linking ProductGroups to their variant Products:

Do not mix the two approaches on the same page. On multi-page setups, each variant page must carry complete, self-contained structured data. Google explicitly requires that every variant has a unique URL that directly pre-selects that variant (via query parameters or similar).

ProductGroup Schema Code Example

A single-page ProductGroup with nested variants using the hasVariant approach:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "ProductGroup",
  "name": "Wool Winter Coat",
  "productGroupID": "WC-2026",
  "description": "A warm wool coat available in multiple colors and sizes.",
  "brand": {
    "@type": "Brand",
    "name": "NorthStyle"
  },
  "variesBy": [
    "https://schema.org/color",
    "https://schema.org/size"
  ],
  "hasVariant": [
    {
      "@type": "Product",
      "name": "Wool Winter Coat — Green, Small",
      "sku": "WC-GRN-S",
      "color": "Green",
      "size": "S",
      "image": "https://example.com/coat-green-s.jpg",
      "offers": {
        "@type": "Offer",
        "price": "249.00",
        "priceCurrency": "USD",
        "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
        "url": "https://example.com/coat?color=green&size=s"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Product",
      "name": "Wool Winter Coat — Green, Medium",
      "sku": "WC-GRN-M",
      "color": "Green",
      "size": "M",
      "image": "https://example.com/coat-green-m.jpg",
      "offers": {
        "@type": "Offer",
        "price": "249.00",
        "priceCurrency": "USD",
        "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
        "url": "https://example.com/coat?color=green&size=m"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Variant Requirements: What Each Product Needs

Each Product inside hasVariant (or referencing the group via isVariantOf) must be fully self-contained. Greadme validates each variant individually:

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Missing productGroupID: Greadme errors on this (−15 pts). Without a stable group ID, variants cannot reference the group via inProductGroupWithID, breaking the variant linkage.
• Missing hasVariant: A ProductGroup with no variants listed is technically valid schema but defeats the purpose. Greadme warns and deducts 10 points.
• Price of 0 on a variant offer: Greadme errors on variant offers with a price of 0 or below. This is stricter than the standard Product validator, which accepts 0 for free products. ProductGroup variants are expected to be purchasable items with a real price.
• Variant offers.url not deep-linking to the variant: Google requires each variant's offer URL to directly pre-select that specific variant (via query parameters or similar). Pointing all variants to the same base URL fails this requirement.
• No unique identifier on variants: Every variant must have a unique sku or gtin. Variants sharing an identifier cannot be individually tracked in Merchant Listings.
• Using variesBy values outside the 6 supported: Google documents exactly 6 values. Custom values are ignored. Use the full Schema.org URI form for each — short names like "color" (without the URI) may not be parsed correctly.
• Setting url on a multi-page implementation: The url property on ProductGroup is only for single-page setups where all variants share one canonical URL. On multi-page implementations, omit it — each variant page provides its own URL.
• Repeating brand on every variant: Set brand once at the ProductGroup level. Google does not require it to be repeated on each child Product.

How Greadme Validates ProductGroup Schema

Greadme runs a dedicated ProductGroup validator that checks both the group-level properties and each individual variant. The score starts at 100:

Greadme also reports a Merchant Listings eligibility count — the number of variants that have a valid offer (price greater than 0, currency, and Offer type). Only eligible variants count toward Merchant Listings display.

Frequently Asked Questions