How are product pros and cons encoded in structured data?

Definition: Product pros and cons are review-level structured data for an editorial product review. Add positiveNotes for positive statements and negativeNotes for negative statements to the nested Review; Google's product snippet documentation requires at least two statements in any combination.

Key facts

• Google's product snippet documentation limits the pros and cons appearance to editorial product review pages. Merchant product pages and customer product reviews are excluded.
• The same documentation says to add positiveNotes and/or negativeNotes to the nested product review when you want to tell Google about the review's pros and cons.
• Google requires at least two statements about the product, in any combination of positive and negative statements. Its example says that two positive statements in an ItemList are valid.
• Schema.org defines positiveNotes as positive considerations and negativeNotes as negative considerations. Both properties can describe the reviewed item from the perspective of a Review.

What belongs on the nested Review?

Google's product snippet documentation describes positiveNotes as an optional nested list of positive statements about the product, or pros. It describes negativeNotes as an optional nested list of negative statements, or cons. The properties belong inside the product's nested Review, alongside the other review properties.

The underlying Schema.org Review definition gives both properties the expected types ItemList, ListItem, Text, or WebContent. It also describes the values as either repeated unstructured text or a list when the statements are ordered. In a Google product snippet implementation, use the ItemList form because Google's pros and cons instructions describe these notes through ItemList and ListItem.

How is the minimum statement requirement counted?

Google's required properties table says you must provide at least two statements about the product in any combination of positive or negative statements. This makes the requirement a total across positiveNotes and negativeNotes, rather than a requirement for one statement in each property. Google's explicit example accepts two positive statements, so a review can meet the minimum with two pros, two cons, or a split between the two properties.

The two properties themselves are optional nested lists in Google's table. The requirement applies to the combined pros and cons data supplied for the review. A single statement by itself therefore falls short of the documented minimum.

How should the statements be listed?

Google's product snippet documentation says that positive and negative notes inside Review use the generic ItemList and ListItem types. Each ItemList uses an itemListElement array. Each statement is a ListItem whose name contains the key statement. Google recommends position; position 1 identifies the first statement in the list.

Schema.org's ItemList definition says that ListItem supplies additional context for ordered lists and that markup order alone is insufficient to indicate order when a position matters. Use one ListItem per statement and give ordered statements positions that match their order.

{
  "@type": "Review",
  "positiveNotes": {
    "@type": "ItemList",
    "itemListElement": [
      {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Consistent results"},
      {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Still sharp after many uses"}
    ]
  },
  "negativeNotes": {
    "@type": "ItemList",
    "itemListElement": [
      {"@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "No child protection"}
    ]
  }
}

The example uses the statement names and list structure shown in Google's product snippet documentation. The product review page must remain an editorial review page for the pros and cons appearance to be eligible under Google's stated guideline.

Related terms

• Product structured data
• Which minimum fields make Product markup eligible for a product snippet?
• Which pages qualify for Google's product pros and cons display?
• Structured data

FAQ

Must a review contain both positiveNotes and negativeNotes?

No. Google's product snippet documentation sets the minimum at two statements in any combination of positive or negative statements. Its documented valid example contains two positive statements.

Can a note be plain text instead of an ItemList?

Schema.org's Review definition allows Text as an expected type for both properties. Google's product snippet instructions describe the pros and cons implementation with ItemList, ListItem, itemListElement, and name.

Are merchant product pages eligible for the pros and cons appearance?

Google limits this appearance to editorial product review pages. Merchant product pages and customer product reviews are excluded by the documented guideline.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "How To Add Product Snippet Structured Data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "Review", 16 September 2026
3. Schema.org, "ItemList", 16 September 2026

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