How does a carousel summary page link to detail pages?

Definition: A carousel summary page briefly describes each item in an ItemList and connects each ListItem to a separate page containing the full details for that item. In Google's format, ListItem.url is the canonical URL of the item's detail page.

Key facts

• Google describes a summary page with multiple detail pages and a single all-in-one-page list as the two carousel layouts in its carousel structured data documentation.
• On a summary page, each ListItem contains @type, position, and url; the URL identifies a page with full details about the item.
• Google requires at least two ListItem elements in the ItemList, and all items must have the same type.
• Summary-page URLs must be unique and point to different pages on the same domain, including a subdomain or superdomain of the current page.
• Schema.org says that the order of elements in markup is insufficient for expressing list order, so an ordered list uses ListItem with position.

What does the summary page contain?

Google's documentation says that the summary page has a short description of each item and that each description points to a separate detail page focused entirely on one item. Its ItemList then uses one ListItem for each entry. The example can be reduced to this two-item pattern:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "ItemList",
  "itemListElement": [
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 1,
      "url": "https://example.com/peanut-butter-cookies.html"
    },
    {
      "@type": "ListItem",
      "position": 2,
      "url": "https://example.com/triple-chocolate-chunk.html"
    }
  ]
}

The visible summary can describe each item and link that description to the same detail URL. The structured data therefore records the ordered entries and their destinations; the full item information belongs on the linked pages.

What does ListItem.url reference?

Google defines url on a summary page as the canonical URL of the item detail page. URLs in the list must be unique and must live on the same domain as the current page, including the documented subdomain or superdomain relationship. position is a 1-based number, so the first item uses position 1.

Schema.org defines ListItem.url as a URL of the item. Its ItemList definition permits itemListElement values such as ListItem, text, or another thing, and describes ListItem as useful for ordered lists that need context about an element. Schema.org also states that markup order alone is insufficient for indicating order, which is why the numeric position is explicit.

What belongs on each detail page?

The detail page is focused entirely on one item. Google says that it defines the specific structured data type represented by the carousel. For a summary of cookie recipes, Google's example puts Recipe structured data for the specific recipe on each detail page. The summary page's url should therefore resolve to the page that contains that item's complete information and applicable content-type markup.

The Google page used here was last updated 8 September 2026. It lists Course, Movie, Recipe, and Restaurant as the supported content types for this carousel documentation.

How can you check the links?

Validate the structured data with Google's Rich Results Test, then use URL Inspection to test how Google sees the page. Check that the summary page and every destination page are accessible to Google and are not blocked by a robots.txt file, a noindex tag, or login requirements. Google's instructions also recommend deploying a few pages containing the structured data before asking Google to recrawl the URLs.

Related terms

• Structured data
• JSON-LD
• Crawlable internal links
• Canonical URL

FAQ

Does ListItem.url point to the full detail page?

Yes. When you use the summary-page format, Google defines it as the canonical URL of the item's detail page. The separate page is focused entirely on that one item.

How many ListItem elements should you include?

You should include at least two ListItem elements in the ItemList, and all items should have the same type.

Can the detail page be on another domain?

Google's summary-page rule requires unique URLs on the same domain as the current page, with the documented subdomain or superdomain relationship.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Carousel (ItemList) Structured Data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "ItemList", undated
3. Schema.org, "ListItem", undated

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