Structured data design for the category and product templates

What the live pages emit today

Every page on the existing Category Page type outputs the same single block: a CollectionPage whose only content is a two-item breadcrumb. Checked on 12 November on 11 chromatography pages, including the pages that are really product pages.

What that means for the design:

• The breadcrumb is flat. It never shows the category level, so it does not match the new trail (Home › Chromatography › GC).
• Product pages are typed as collections. There is no Product markup anywhere on www.
• The page itself is not described. The block carries no name, description or image.
• Nothing site-wide exists. The home page has no structured data, and no page has Open Graph tags.

The new templates keep the one thing the live pattern gets right, a single JSON-LD block per page built from page data, and replace the rest.

Rules for both templates

These apply to every page on the new Category and Product types.

1. One block per page. A single <script type="application/ld+json"> holding one @graph. The new types must not also output today's CollectionPage block.
2. In the page source. The block is in the HTML the server sends, not added by JavaScript after load.
3. Every value comes from a field. Nothing is typed per page. The only fixed values are the ones listed below.
4. Empty field, no property. If a field is empty, its property is left out. No empty strings and no placeholders. Software products have no part number, so they output no sku or mpn.
5. Plain text only. HTML tags are stripped, entities decoded and line breaks collapsed before a value is output.
6. Canonical URLs. Every URL is absolute, https, on www, with no trailing slash and no query string, and is the page's canonical URL.
7. Stable identifiers. Each object's @id is the page URL plus a fixed suffix: #webpage, #breadcrumb, #listing, #product.
8. The breadcrumb comes from the same data as the visible trail. The names and order in the markup are the names and order the visitor sees. The last item, the current page, carries no item URL, as Google's breadcrumb guidance allows.

Fixed values

Category template

A category page outputs up to three objects: the page, its breadcrumb, and the list of instruments it shows.

• All products, not the first screen. The list holds every product the listing can show for the category, in its default A to Z order. Filters and paging do not change it.
• Entry pages output no list. Chromatography Software and Chromatography Consumables have no instrument listing, so they output the page and the breadcrumb only.
• Stat points, hero button, consumables link and page sections are not marked up. They have no matching schema property that search engines use.

Sample for Gas Chromatography. The image URL is illustrative; the other values are the Batch 1 values in the IA sheet.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "CollectionPage",
      "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc#webpage",
      "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc",
      "name": "Gas Chromatography (GC)",
      "description": "PerkinElmer gas chromatography systems for volatile and semi-volatile compounds: Clarus Nova, Clarus 690 and Arnel analyzers for labs worldwide.",
      "image": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/sites/default/files/example/gc-hero.jpg",
      "inLanguage": "en",
      "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc#breadcrumb" },
      "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc#listing" }
    },
    {
      "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
      "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc#breadcrumb",
      "itemListElement": [
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Chromatography", "item": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "GC" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "ItemList",
      "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc#listing",
      "numberOfItems": 4,
      "itemListElement": [
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Arnel petrochemical analyzers", "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/arnel-petrochemical-analyzers" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Clarus 690 GC", "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/clarus-690" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Clarus Nova GC", "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/clarus-nova" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "GC 2400 System", "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Product template

A product page outputs three objects: the page, its breadcrumb, and the product. Instruments and software use the same design; software simply has fewer fields filled.

What is left out, and why

• No price or offer. Product pages carry no price; buying goes through Request a Quote. Markup must describe what is on the page, so there is no offers.
• No ratings or reviews. The pages have none, and they must not be invented.
• Also listed in, Applications, Resources, hero button, consumables link and page sections are not marked up. Applications could be added later as additionalProperty rows if PerkinElmer wants them exposed.

Sample for GC 2400 System. The short description, image URLs and specification row are illustrative, because they are read from the shop. The other values are the Batch 1 values in the IA sheet.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "ItemPage",
      "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400#webpage",
      "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400",
      "name": "GC 2400 System",
      "description": "PerkinElmer GC 2400 System: smart, simplified, sustainable gas chromatography with a detachable touchscreen for industrial, environmental and pharma labs.",
      "inLanguage": "en",
      "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400#breadcrumb" },
      "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400#product" }
    },
    {
      "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
      "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400#breadcrumb",
      "itemListElement": [
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Chromatography", "item": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "GC", "item": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/category/chromatography/gc" },
        { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "GC 2400" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "Product",
      "@id": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400#product",
      "url": "https://www.perkinelmer.com/product/gc-2400",
      "name": "GC 2400 System",
      "description": "Example short description, as read from the shop for this product.",
      "image": [
        "https://www.perkinelmer.com/sites/default/files/example/gc-2400-1.jpg",
        "https://www.perkinelmer.com/sites/default/files/example/gc-2400-2.jpg"
      ],
      "sku": "N6400000",
      "mpn": "N6400000",
      "brand": { "@type": "Brand", "name": "PerkinElmer" },
      "category": "Chromatography > GC",
      "additionalProperty": [
        { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "Technology Type", "value": "GC" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Validation

The markup is checked on UAT before PerkinElmer's QA, on four pages that between them cover every case: one category page with a listing, one entry page, one instrument and one software product.

UAT is not public, so both tools are used in paste-code mode. After go-live the same checks are repeated on the live URLs, and the Breadcrumbs report in Search Console is watched for the new pages.

Results on the samples in this document, 12 November

The design itself was run through both tools before build, using the two samples above plus two variants: a software product and an entry page.

These results cover the design. The built pages still need the checks in the first table, because they test the wiring to the fields.

Points to confirm

For Kalai, before PERK-31 and PERK-32 build from this.

1. Breadcrumb names. The IA sheet uses short names (Home › Chromatography › GC › GC 2400). The Build Standard says the Title feeds the last item, and its example uses long names (Gas Chromatography › GC 2400 System). The markup follows whatever the visible trail shows, so this needs settling once, in PERK-27. The samples above use the IA sheet's names.
2. A crumb with no page. Software has no page yet, so the IA sheet shows it as plain text. Google needs a URL on every item except the last, so the recommendation is to leave that crumb out of the markup and keep it in the visible trail.
3. The full instrument list. The ItemList needs every product for the category, whatever the paging and filters show. If that is costly to build, drop the ItemList; nothing Google shows depends on it.
4. Product markup with no price. Google's tools will flag it, as described under Validation. The recommendation is to keep it and tell PerkinElmer in advance, so a Search Console notice is not read as a fault.
5. Where today's block comes from. The current CollectionPage block must not appear on the new types. Pages staying on the old type, such as Mass Spectrometry and Hyphenated Technology, keep it unchanged.

Outside the two templates

Not part of PERK-16; noted so they are not lost.

• FAQ markup is left out. Google retired FAQ rich results in May 2026, so FAQPage markup would show nothing in Google. It can be added later from the FAQ section if PerkinElmer wants it for other search engines.
• Organization and WebSite markup. The home page has none. It belongs site-wide, once, and would let the product brand point to a single PerkinElmer entity.
• Open Graph tags. No page has them today. The Build Standard already says the meta title and description feed social sharing, so the templates should output og:title, og:description and og:image from those fields and the hero or first product image.