E-commerce merchants relying on structured data to surface promotional pricing and category signals in Google Search now have two new tools at their disposal. Google confirmed in its July 7, 2026 update to the Merchant Listing Structured Data documentation that it has added formal support for sale price date ranges and the `Product.category` property, two capabilities that previously existed in Google Merchant Center feeds but had no structured data equivalent in Google Search Central.
Sale Price Date Ranges: New Markup for Specifying When Discounts Are Active
Google's updated documentation explains how to use the `validFrom`, `validThrough`, and `priceValidUntil` schema.org properties to set the effective range for sale prices, including best practices and examples for placement on either `Offer` or `PriceSpecification` nodes.
Google stated in its Search Central changelog that the change "aligns schema.org usage with the Merchant Center feed attribute `sale_price_effective_date`, providing clear instructions and best practices for merchants using structured data."
The documentation specifies that date values must be submitted in ISO 8601 format, for example, `2025-12-31T23:59:59+01:00`, and that both a start and end date and time should be provided to clearly define the sale window. Google recommends including the timezone alongside the time for accuracy in its systems.
For merchants implementing the markup, placement depends on where the sale price is defined in the schema. When the sale price is held directly in the `price` property on the `Offer` node, `validFrom` and either `validThrough` or `priceValidUntil` are added there. When the sale price is defined within a `PriceSpecification` node, typically alongside a strikethrough price, `validFrom` and `validThrough` are added to that node instead. Google's documentation notes that `priceValidUntil` is not applicable to the `PriceSpecification` type.
Product Category Support: Merchant-Defined and Google-Defined Taxonomies
Google has updated the Merchant Listing documentation to detail how the `Product.category` property can be used with both `Text` and `CategoryCode` types, aligning with the Google Merchant Center feed specifications for the `product_type` and `google_product_category` attributes.
Google stated the update is intended to "help merchants provide both merchant-defined and Google-defined category information within their schema.org markup, enhancing product information for Google Search and Shopping."
The distinction between the two category types matters in practice. Using `Text` allows merchants to apply their own internal category taxonomy, while `CategoryCode` maps to Google's standardized product taxonomy, the same classification system used in Merchant Center feed submissions.
Alignment with Merchant Center Feed Specifications
Both changes are explicitly framed by Google as steps toward consistency between what merchants can express in a Merchant Center product feed and what they can communicate through on-page structured data. Google's Search Central documentation states that providing both structured data on web pages and a Merchant Center feed maximizes eligibility for shopping experiences and helps Google correctly understand and verify product data, noting that some experiences combine data from both sources if available.
When Product markup is added to a page, it can be eligible for display in merchant listing experiences on Google Search, including the shopping knowledge panel, Google Images, popular product results, and product snippets.
What This Means for E-Commerce Marketers
For merchants managing structured data independently of a Merchant Center feed, these additions close a gap that previously made it difficult to communicate time-limited promotions or category classification through on-page markup alone. With Q3 and Q4 promotional periods, including back-to-school, Black Friday, and holiday sales events, approaching, merchants who encode accurate sale start and end dates directly in their structured data may reduce the risk of discounted prices displaying outside of intended windows or failing to display at all. The `Product.category` property, available in both `Text` and `CategoryCode` formats, gives Google additional signals to match products to relevant queries, which is consistent with how category accuracy functions in Merchant Center feed quality guidance. Merchants should validate any implementation changes using Google's Rich Results Test before deployment.
Google confirmed these changes in the July 7, 2026 revision to its Merchant Listing Structured Data help document at Google Search Central, with the accompanying changelog entry specifying that both additions bring schema.org markup into alignment with existing Merchant Center feed attribute capabilities.
