Google adds structured data for subscription & paywalled content for new flexible sampling program

Excited for the new flexible sampling program for Google web search and Google News? Well, make sure you don't get in trouble for cloaking by using this new structured data.

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We reported earlier this morning that Google is doing away with the old “first click free” program and replacing it with flexible sampling. In short, Google is giving publishers more options for allowing search users to access their content without hurting ranking visibility in Google search results.

With that, Google has introduced a new paywall structured data element for subscription and paywalled content.

Google recommends publishers use this new markup when they are deploying flexible sampling techniques on their web sites. This will help Google understand that the publisher is not cloaking — when sites serve different content to Googlebot than users — and that it is an approved paywall.

Google says, “This structured data helps Google differentiate paywalled content from the practice of cloaking, which violates our guidelines.”

Here are the technical documents on this new structured data element. Here is the help document on the new flexible sampling for webmasters.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.

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