Which interaction counts does Google accept for discussion posts?

Definition: In discussion forum structured data, Google accepts an InteractionCounter in a post's interactionStatistic property. The counter names the action with interactionType and records its total with userInteractionCount.

Key facts

• Google's discussion forum documentation describes interactionStatistic as user statistics applied to the main post, when applicable.
• Google accepts https://schema.org/LikeAction for likes or upvotes.
• Google accepts https://schema.org/DislikeAction for dislikes or downvotes.
• Google accepts https://schema.org/ViewAction for views.
• Google accepts https://schema.org/CommentAction or https://schema.org/ReplyAction for comments, and https://schema.org/ShareAction for reshares.

Which action types are supported?

Google's documentation says it supports five interaction categories for the post statistic. LikeAction represents likes or upvotes, DislikeAction represents dislikes or downvotes, and ViewAction represents views. For comments, the accepted action can be either CommentAction or ReplyAction. ShareAction represents reshares.

The action value is a Schema.org URL. Schema.org describes interactionType as the Action that represents the type of interaction. Its guidance names LikeAction for up votes and DislikeAction for down votes, then says to use the most specific Action for other interactions.

Where does the count go?

The interactionStatistic property belongs to the main DiscussionForumPosting when the post has a statistic to report. Its value is an InteractionCounter. The interactionType field identifies the category, while userInteractionCount carries the number of interactions for the CreativeWork using the website or application, as defined by Schema.org.

Google's example uses LikeAction with a count of 27:

"interactionStatistic": {
  "@type": "InteractionCounter",
  "interactionType": "https://schema.org/LikeAction",
  "userInteractionCount": 27
}

The count and action must describe the same statistic. A likes total uses LikeAction; a views total uses ViewAction; a reshares total uses ShareAction. Google documents the field on the main post, so a counter for an author profile belongs to a different property and is outside this mapping.

How should a site map its labels?

Map the visible engagement label to the closest supported action. A button or total labelled “likes” or “upvotes” maps to LikeAction. A “dislikes” or “downvotes” total maps to DislikeAction. A view total maps to ViewAction. A comments or replies total maps to either of Google's two comment actions. A reshares total maps to ShareAction.

Schema.org's InteractionCounter definition calls it a summary of how users have interacted with a CreativeWork and says authors generally use a subtype for the specific interaction. The Google list supplies the narrower set for discussion forum post statistics.

Related terms

• Which content fields are required for a forum post?
• How should nested forum replies be ordered in structured data?
• How can a forum report partial comments?
• When should a forum use DiscussionForumPosting instead of Article?

FAQ

Can you use CommentAction and ReplyAction for a comments total?

Yes. Google lists both action URLs for the number of comments.

Which action represents a reshare total?

Use https://schema.org/ShareAction. Google's description assigns that action to the number of reshares.

What does userInteractionCount represent?

It records the number of interactions for the CreativeWork using the website or application. The action in interactionType identifies which kind of interaction the number counts.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Discussion forum (DiscussionForumPosting) structured data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "InteractionCounter", n.d.
3. Schema.org, "interactionType", n.d.

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