Prohibited, Regulated, or Harmful Products: Google Rich Results Not Permitted

Google Rich Results are the extra visual and interactive features shown in the Google search results. It was initially known as "rich snippet" or "rich card". Google’s current product structured-data guidelines state that content promoting widely prohibited or regulated goods—or information capable of facilitating serious harm—is not eligible for product rich results. Examples include firearms, recreational drugs, tobacco, vaping products, and gambling-related products. Google stated that rich results will not be provided for such items. Product examples include firearms & weapons, recreational drugs, tobacco, vaping products, gambling-related products, and other products that can pose acute threats of physical harm. For eligible products, technical SEO helps ensure structured data remains accurate, visible to Google, consistent with page content, and compliant with applicable rich-result guidelines.

The new guidelines stated in Google Search Central were as follows:

The new policy is already in force, hence rich results in Google Search will not be visible. This states that Google will be excluding display information about costs, availability, or star ratings, among other things. In order to promote uniformity and clarity, Google stated that "this policy change will unify the rich snippets feature with other Search surfaces that display product information from merchants." If in case the rules are violated, Google won't take any active action in Google Search Console; instead, it will simply stop displaying rich results in Google Search. Structured-data management should form part of a broader digital marketing strategy connecting technical SEO, content accuracy, search visibility, and customer acquisition.