Google Updates Product Structured Data with New ‘hasAdultConsideration’ Property

Google Enhances Merchant Listings with Adult Content Labels

In a strategic move to improve content filtering and regulatory compliance, Google has officially introduced the hasAdultConsideration property to its structured data documentation. This new attribute is now a recommended property for both Merchant listings and Product variants, allowing e-commerce businesses to explicitly label adult-oriented products within their schema markup.

Bridging the Gap Between Search and Merchant Center

The primary objective of this update is to bring parity between Google Search’s structured data and the existing Merchant Center feed specifications. Previously, the ‘adult’ attribute was a staple of Merchant Center feeds, but it lacked a direct equivalent in the on-page structured data used by Google Search. By integrating hasAdultConsideration, Google ensures that product data is consistent regardless of whether it is ingested via a feed or crawled directly from a website.

What is ‘hasAdultConsideration’?

The property uses the AdultOrientedEnumeration type to indicate that a product is designated as adult-oriented. According to Google, this applies to items that contain nudity, sexually suggestive content, or products intended to enhance sexual activity.

While Schema.org defines several values for this enumeration, Google Search currently specifically supports the following value: https://schema.org/SexualContentConsideration.

The Impact on Visibility and Compliance

Implementing this property does not mean a product will be banned from Google. Instead, it allows Google to apply a more nuanced level of control over how these products are displayed:

• Eligible Listings: Adult-oriented products remain eligible for free listings and Shopping ads.
• Targeted Restrictions: The label triggers age-based and country-based restrictions, ensuring that adult content is not served to minors or in regions where such content is legally prohibited.
• Policy Adherence: Using this property helps merchants adhere to Google’s adult-oriented content policy, reducing the risk of accidental policy violations.

Guidance for Webmasters and SEOs

For e-commerce operators selling products that fall under Google’s adult-oriented definitions, it is now highly recommended to update their JSON-LD or Microdata. Properly labeling these items ensures that Google’s algorithms can accurately categorize the inventory and serve it to the appropriate audiences without violating safety guidelines.