Recipe (Recipe, HowTo, ItemList) structured data

Help users find your recipe content by telling Google about your recipe with structured data. When you provide information such as reviewer ratings, cooking and preparation times, and nutrition information, Google can better understand your recipe and present it to users in interesting ways. Recipes can appear in Google Search results and Google Images.

An illustration of how recipe rich results can appear in Google Search. It contains 4 rich results from different websites, with details about how long it takes to cook the recipe, an image, and review information. An illustration of how a recipes can appear in Google Images. There are 6 images results showing different food items, with 3 results containing a recipe badge that tells the user it's a recipe

Based on how you mark up your content, your recipes can be eligible for the following enhancements:

Recipe enhancements
Recipe host carousel: Enable users to explore your recipe gallery pages by adding ItemList structured data. An illustration of how a recipe host carousel can appear in Google Search. It shows 3 different recipes from the same website in a carousel format that users can explore and select a specific recipe

How to add structured data

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. If you're new to structured data, you can learn more about how structured data works.

Here's an overview of how to build, test, and release structured data.

  1. Add the required properties. Based on the format you're using, learn where to insert structured data on the page.
  2. Follow the guidelines.
  3. Validate your code using the Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors. Consider also fixing any non-critical issues that may be flagged in the tool, as they can help improve the quality of your structured data (however, this isn't necessary to be eligible for rich results).
  4. Deploy a few pages that include your structured data and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Be sure that your page is accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or login requirements. If the page looks okay, you can ask Google to recrawl your URLs.
  5. To keep Google informed of future changes, we recommend that you submit a sitemap. You can automate this with the Search Console Sitemap API.

Examples

Here are some examples of recipes using JSON-LD code.

Recipe on Search

Here's an example of a page that's eligible to be displayed on Search.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Non-Alcoholic Piña Colada</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "Recipe",
      "name": "Non-Alcoholic Piña Colada",
      "image": [
      "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
      "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
      "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
      ],
      "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Mary Stone"
      },
      "datePublished": "2024-03-10",
      "description": "This non-alcoholic pina colada is everyone's favorite!",
      "recipeCuisine": "American",
      "prepTime": "PT1M",
      "cookTime": "PT2M",
      "totalTime": "PT3M",
      "keywords": "non-alcoholic",
      "recipeYield": "4 servings",
      "recipeCategory": "Drink",
      "nutrition": {
        "@type": "NutritionInformation",
        "calories": "120 calories"
      },
      "aggregateRating": {
        "@type": "AggregateRating",
        "ratingValue": 5,
        "ratingCount": 18
      },
      "recipeIngredient": [
        "400ml of pineapple juice",
        "100ml cream of coconut",
        "ice"
      ],
      "recipeInstructions": [
        {
          "@type": "HowToStep",
          "name": "Blend",
          "text": "Blend 400ml of pineapple juice and 100ml cream of coconut until smooth.",
          "url": "https://example.com/non-alcoholic-pina-colada#step1",
          "image": "https://example.com/photos/non-alcoholic-pina-colada/step1.jpg"
        },
        {
          "@type": "HowToStep",
          "name": "Fill",
          "text": "Fill a glass with ice.",
          "url": "https://example.com/non-alcoholic-pina-colada#step2",
          "image": "https://example.com/photos/non-alcoholic-pina-colada/step2.jpg"
        },
        {
          "@type": "HowToStep",
          "name": "Pour",
          "text": "Pour the pineapple juice and coconut mixture over ice.",
          "url": "https://example.com/non-alcoholic-pina-colada#step3",
          "image": "https://example.com/photos/non-alcoholic-pina-colada/step3.jpg"
        }
      ],
      "video": {
        "@type": "VideoObject",
        "name": "How to Make a Non-Alcoholic Piña Colada",
        "description": "This is how you make a non-alcoholic piña colada.",
        "thumbnailUrl": [
          "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
          "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
          "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
         ],
        "contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/video123.mp4",
        "embedUrl": "https://www.example.com/videoplayer?video=123",
        "uploadDate": "2024-02-05T08:00:00+08:00",
        "duration": "PT1M33S",
        "interactionStatistic": {
          "@type": "InteractionCounter",
          "interactionType": { "@type": "WatchAction" },
          "userInteractionCount": 2347
        },
        "expires": "2024-02-05T08:00:00+08:00"
       }
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Here's an example of a recipe summary page (a page with a list of recipes) with itemList structured data. This content may be eligible to be displayed in a grid in Search results.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Grandma's Best Pie Recipes</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org",
      "@type": "ItemList",
      "itemListElement": [
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 1,
          "url": "https://example.com/apple-pie.html"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 2,
          "url": "https://example.com/blueberry-pie.html"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 3,
          "url": "https://example.com/cherry-pie.html"
        }]
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Guidelines

You must follow the general structured data guidelines for your markup to be eligible to appear in Search results.

The following guidelines apply to Recipe structured data.

  • Use Recipe structured data for content about preparing a particular dish. For example, "facial scrub" or "party ideas" are not valid names for a dish.
  • To enable your recipes to appear in a carousel or grid, you must follow these guidelines:
    • Provide ItemList structured data to summarize the recipes for your list. You can provide ItemList structured data separately or together with recipe structured data.
    • Your site must have a summary page that lists all the recipes in the collection. For example, when a user clicks the summary link from Search results, they are properly directed to a page on your site listing the recipes related to their search.

Structured data type definitions

You must include the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result in Google Search. You can also include the recommended properties to add more information about your content, which could provide a better user experience.

Recipe

Mark up your recipe content with the following properties of the schema.org Recipe type. The full definition of Recipe is available at schema.org/Recipe. The Google-supported properties are the following:

Required properties
image

URL or ImageObject

Image of the completed dish.

Additional image guidelines:

  • Image URLs must be crawlable and indexable. To check if Google can access your URLs, use the URL Inspection tool.
  • Images must represent the marked up content.
  • Images must be in a file format that's supported by Google Images.
  • For best results, we recommend providing multiple high-resolution images (minimum of 50K pixels when multiplying width and height) with the following aspect ratios: 16x9, 4x3, and 1x1.

For example:

"image": [
  "https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
  "https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
  "https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
]
name

Text

The name of the dish.
Recommended properties
aggregateRating

AggregateRating

Annotation for the average review score assigned to the item. Follow the Review snippet guidelines and list of required and recommended AggregateRating properties.

If the Recipe structured data contains a single review, the reviewer's name must be a valid person or organization. For example, "50% off ingredients" is not a valid name for a reviewer.
author

Person or Organization

The name of the person or organization that wrote the recipe. To help Google best understand authors across various features, consider following the author markup best practices.
cookTime

Duration

The time it takes to actually cook the dish in ISO 8601 format, if applicable.

Always use in combination with prepTime.

datePublished

Date

The date the recipe was published in ISO 8601 format, if applicable.
description

Text

A short summary describing the dish.
keywords

Text

Other terms for your recipe such as the season ("summer"), the holiday ("Halloween"), or other descriptors ("quick", "easy", "authentic").

Additional guidelines

  • Separate multiple entries in a keywords list with commas.
  • Don't use a tag that's actually a recipeCategory or recipeCuisine.

    Not recommended:

    "keywords": "dessert, American"

    Recommended:

    "keywords": "winter apple pie, nutmeg crust"
nutrition.calories

Energy

The number of calories in each serving produced with this recipe. If nutrition.calories is defined, recipeYield must be defined with the number of servings.
prepTime

Duration

The length of time it takes to prepare ingredients and workspace for the dish, in ISO 8601 format, if applicable.

Always use in combination with cookTime.
recipeCategory

Text

The type of meal or course your recipe is about. For example: "dinner", "main course", or "dessert, snack".
recipeCuisine

Text

The region associated with your recipe. For example, "French", Mediterranean", or "American".
recipeIngredient

Text

An ingredient used in the recipe.

For example:

"recipeIngredient": [
  "1 (15 ounce) package double crust ready-to-use pie crust",
  "6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium)",
  "3/4 cup sugar",
  "2 tablespoons all-purpose flour",
  "3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon",
  "1/4 teaspoon salt",
  "1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg",
  "1 tablespoon lemon juice"
]

Additional guidelines:

  • Include only the ingredient text that is necessary for making the recipe.
  • Don't include unnecessary information, such as a definition of the ingredient.
recipeInstructions

HowToStep, HowToSection, or Text

The steps to make the dish.

There are several options for setting the value of recipeInstructions. We recommend using HowToStep. HowToSection can also be used to group HowToSteps when the recipe has sections.

  • HowToStep: Specify this recipe's steps with HowToStep. 
    "recipeInstructions": [
  {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "name": "Preheat",
    "text": "Heat oven to 425°F.",
    "url": "https://example.com/recipe#step1",
    "image": "https://example.com/photos/recipe/step1.jpg"
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "name": "Prepare crust",
    "text": "Place 1 pie crust in ungreased 9-inch glass pie plate, pressing firmly against side and bottom.",
    "url": "https://example.com/recipe#step2",
    "image": "https://example.com/photos/recipe/step2.jpg"
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "name": "Make filling",
    "text": "In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into crust-lined pie plate.",
    "url": "https://example.com/recipe#step3",
    "image": "https://example.com/photos/recipe/step3.jpg"
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "name": "Cover",
    "text": "Top with second crust. Cut slits or shapes in several places in top crust.",
    "url": "https://example.com/recipe#step4",
    "image": "https://example.com/photos/recipe/step4.jpg"
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "name": "Bake",
    "text": "Bake 40 to 45 minutes. The pie is ready when the apples are tender and the crust is golden brown.",
    "url": "https://example.com/recipe#step5",
    "image": "https://example.com/photos/recipe/step5.jpg"
  }, {
    "@type": "HowToStep",
    "name": "Cool",
    "text": "Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours before serving.",
    "url": "https://example.com/recipe#step6",
    "image": "https://example.com/photos/recipe/step6.jpg"
  }
]
  • HowToSection (only if a recipe has multiple sections): Use to group steps into multiple sections. See HowToSection for an example.
  • Single or repeated property of text: A block of text that includes one or more steps. Google treats all steps as being in a single section. Repeated property values are concatenated into a single block of text. Google then attempts to automatically split the single block of text into individual steps. Google tries to find and remove any section names, step numbers, keywords, and anything else that can incorrectly appear in recipe step text. For best results, we recommend you unambiguously specify steps with HowToStep. 
    "recipeInstructions": [
  "In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into crust-lined pie
plate. Top with second crust. Cut slits or shapes in several places in top
crust. Bake 40 to 45 minutes. The pie is ready when the or until apples are
tender and the crust is golden brown. Cool on cooling rack at least 2 hours
before serving."
]

Additional guidelines

  • Don't include metadata that belongs elsewhere. In particular, use the author property to specify the author, recipeCuisine for cuisine, recipeCategory for category, and keywords for other keywords.
  • Include only text on how to make the dish and don't include other text such as "Directions", "Watch the video", "Step 1". Specify those phrases outside of structured data.

    Not recommended:

    "recipeInstructions": [{
  "@type": "HowToStep",
  "text": "Step 1. Heat oven to 425°F."
}]

    Recommended:

    "recipeInstructions": [{
  "@type": "HowToStep",
  "text": "Heat oven to 425°F."
}]
recipeYield

Text or Integer

The quantity produced by the recipe, if applicable. Specify the number of servings produced from this recipe with just a number. If you wish to use a different unit (for example, number of items), you may include additional yields. This is required if you specify any nutritional information per serving (such as nutrition.calories).

Example

"recipeYield": [
  "6",
  "24 cookies"
]
totalTime

Duration

The total time it takes to prepare the cook the dish, in ISO 8601 format, if applicable.

Use totalTime or a combination of both cookTime and prepTime.

video VideoObject

A video depicting the steps to make the dish. Follow the list of required and recommended Video properties.

HowToSection

Use HowToSection to group a sequence of steps (or sub-sections) that make up part of the instructions for a recipe. Specify HowToSection directly within the definition of recipeInstructions property, or as an itemListElement of another HowToSection.

The HowToSection type defines a section of a single recipe and contains one or multiple steps. Don't use HowToSection to define different recipes for the same dish; instead, use HowToSection as part of a single recipe. For listing multiple recipes for a dish, use multiple Recipe objects. For example, for multiple ways to make an apple pie, list them as multiple Recipe objects, not HowToSection objects.

The full definition of HowToSection is available at schema.org/HowToSection.

Required properties
itemListElement HowToStep

A list of detailed steps for the section, and/or sub-sections. For example, a pizza recipe may have one section of steps for making the crust, one for preparing the toppings, and one for combining and baking.

Example:

{
  "@type": "HowToSection",
  "name": "Assemble the pie",
  "itemListElement": [
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "text": "In large bowl, gently mix filling ingredients; spoon into crust-lined pie plate."
    }, {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "text": "Top with second crust. Cut slits or shapes in several places in top crust."
    }
  ]
}
name Text

The name of the section.

HowToStep

Use HowToStep to group one or more sentences that explain how to do part of the recipe, if this makes sense for your content. Define the text property with the sentences or, alternately, define itemListElement with a HowToDirection or HowToTip for each sentence.

Mark up your recipe steps with the following properties of the HowToStep type. Specify a HowToStep directly within the definition of recipeInstructions property, or as an itemListElement of a HowToSection.

The full definition of HowToStep is available at schema.org/HowToStep.

Required properties
itemListElement HowToDirection or HowToTip

A list of detailed substeps, including directions or tips.

Optional if text is used.
text Text

The full instruction text of this step.

Optional if itemListElement is used. Additional guidelines:

  • Include only instructional text and don't include other text such as "Directions", "Watch the video", "Step 1". Specify those phrases outside of the marked up property.

    Not recommended:

    {
  "@type": "HowToStep",
  "text": "Step 1. Heat oven to 425°F."
}

    Recommended:

    {
  "@type": "HowToStep",
  "text": "Heat oven to 425°F."
}
Recommended properties
image ImageObject or URL

An image for the step. Additional image guidelines:

  • Image URLs must be crawlable and indexable.
  • Images must represent the marked up content.
  • Images must be in .jpg, .png, or. gif format.
name Text

The word or short phrase summarizing the step (for example, "Arrange pie crust"). Don't use non-descriptive text (for example, "Step 1: [text]") or other form of step number (for example, "1. [text]").

url URL

A URL that directly links to the step (if one is available). For example, an anchor link fragment.

video VideoObject or Clip

A video for this step or a clip of the video.

For VideoObject, follow the list of required and recommended Video or Clip properties.

HowToDirection and HowToTip

Use HowToDirection and HowToTip to describe directions or tips, if applicable. They have the same required and recommended properties.

The full definitions of HowToDirection and HowToTip are available at schema.org/HowToDirection and schema.org/HowToTip.

Required properties
text Text

The text of the direction or tip.

ItemList

In addition to Recipe properties, add the following properties for host-specific lists. While ItemList isn't required, you must add the following properties if you want your recipe to be eligible for a host carousel. For more information about host carousel, see Carousel.

The full definition of ItemList is available at schema.org/ItemList.

Required properties
itemListElement

ListItem

Annotation for a single item page.
ListItem.position

Integer

Ordinal position of the item page in the list. For example:

"itemListElement": [
  {
    "@type": "ListItem",
    "position": 1,
  }, {
    "@type": "ListItem",
    "position": 2,
  }
]
ListItem.url

URL

The canonical URL of the item page. Every item must have a unique URL.

Monitor rich results with Search Console

Search Console is a tool that helps you monitor how your pages perform in Google Search. You don't have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but it can help you understand and improve how Google sees your site. We recommend checking Search Console in the following cases:

  1. After deploying structured data for the first time
  2. After releasing new templates or updating your code
  3. Analyzing traffic periodically

After deploying structured data for the first time

After Google has indexed your pages, look for issues using the relevant Rich result status report. Ideally, there will be an increase of valid items, and no increase in invalid items. If you find issues in your structured data:

  1. Fix the invalid items.
  2. Inspect a live URL to check if the issue persists.
  3. Request validation using the status report.

After releasing new templates or updating your code

When you make significant changes to your website, monitor for increases in structured data invalid items.
  • If you see an increase in invalid items, perhaps you rolled out a new template that doesn't work, or your site interacts with the existing template in a new and bad way.
  • If you see a decrease in valid items (not matched by an increase in invalid items), perhaps you are no longer embedding structured data in your pages. Use the URL Inspection tool to learn what is causing the issue.

Analyzing traffic periodically

Analyze your Google Search traffic using the Performance Report. The data will show you how often your page appears as a rich result in Search, how often users click on it and what is the average position you appear on search results. You can also automatically pull these results with the Search Console API.

Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble implementing or debugging structured data, here are some resources that may help you.

  • If you're using a content management system (CMS) or someone else is taking care of your site, ask them to help you. Make sure to forward any Search Console message that details the issue to them.
  • Google does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results. For a list of common reasons why Google may not show your content in a rich result, see the General Structured Data Guidelines.
  • You might have an error in your structured data. Check the list of structured data errors and the Unparsable structured data report.
  • If you received a structured data manual action against your page, the structured data on the page will be ignored (although the page can still appear in Google Search results). To fix structured data issues, use the Manual Actions report.
  • Review the guidelines again to identify if your content isn't compliant with the guidelines. The problem can be caused by either spammy content or spammy markup usage. However, the issue may not be a syntax issue, and so the Rich Results Test won't be able to identify these issues.
  • Troubleshoot missing rich results / drop in total rich results.
  • Allow time for re-crawling and re-indexing. Remember that it may take several days after publishing a page for Google to find and crawl it. For general questions about crawling and indexing, check the Google Search crawling and indexing FAQ.
  • Post a question in the Google Search Central forum.