Recipe structured data makes it easier for Google to comprehend the content and intent of a recipe website, making it easier for people to locate it. The influence of structured data (SD) on SEO metrics like clicks, impressions, and average position is a hot topic among SEOs and webmasters.

So, why is structured data in recipes important? Is it worth it to put it in place? We examine the influence of an unintentional removal of recipe structured data on overall metrics such as clicks, impressions, and average position of a food-related website in this study. What we discovered may surprise you.

Data Structured for Recipes and Extensive Results

Schema.org recipe structured data markups, when properly applied, may produce in a number of aesthetic upgrades on the search engine results page (SERP), which can lead to clicks. Rating stars, cook and preparation time, and nutrition information are all examples of visual upgrades. Recipe structured data can also enable recipes to be exhibited in a recipe gallery (often known as a recipe carousel), which may include Google Home integration "Cook" buttons that transmit the recipe straight to customers' Google Home.

The Cook button in the recipe carousel distributes recipes to Google Home devices directly.

It's worth noting that for recipe-rich results to display in the SERP, appropriate Schema.org markups are necessary. Unlike Breadcrumbs, which Google can deduce from the URL route, structured data is required for more complicated information.

As a result, the (missing) rich results performance was harmed by the unintentional removal of recipe markups.

However, Google's claim that "structured data like this has little influence on online search ranking" ignores the significance of rich results for specific sorts of inquiries.

When a recipe website's recipe gallery is the only item displayed above-the-fold on a mobile SERP, failing to "rank" in it can be devastating. News publishers, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and the Top Stories feature all faced the same problem. Although AMP is not a ranking factor, it is necessary (until next year) to appear in the news carousel, which leads to more clicks on mobile than traditional blue links.

Furthermore, while omitting rich results may not effect ranking, it may result in fewer aesthetically appealing snippets and hence a lower click-through rate (CTR).

As a result, once the recipe schema was deleted, we witnessed a 51 percent decline in mobile clicks, demonstrating the importance of recipe carousels in generating mobile traffic to the site. Thousands of organic visitors were lost as a result of the drop in overall visibility.

Clicks on desktop were not as affected (18 percent decline), although desktop represents less than a third of organic traffic for this page. On desktop SERPs, we ascribe the discrepancy to the amount of viewable results above-the-fold.

Features and Rich Results Rankings vs. Eligibility

The average position is also impacted by not being shown in a carousel or gallery, as these top ranks are simply missing.

While we were unable to filter ranking data sufficiently to determine how blue links were affected on their own, we did examine the number of pages ranking before and after the recipe structured data removal and discovered that the removal of structured data did not result in fewer pages ranking in the SERP. This reaffirms Google's prior statement that recipe structured data has no bearing on ranking in typical blue-link results.

Wrap-up

While structured data has little bearing on a site's ability to rank in the SERPs, it does have a big influence on its overall organic performance, especially on mobile, where rich results and unique features like carousels are important to visibility.

When site owners ensure that that structured data is effectively handled, their sites can benefit from more than simply cosmetic improvements in the SERP. Recipe structured data drives impressions and clicks by triggering recipe rich results and carousel elements.

Recipe structured data is required to do well in recipe-related searches, and recipe carousels can account for a significant amount of organic traffic and overall performance for some sites. To find out more on how we can help you contact us today.