Google quietly expanded its structured data support for online stores on 7 July 2026. Two additions: proper schema support for sale duration, using the validFrom, validThrough and priceValidUntil properties, and a dedicated Product.category property that accepts both plain text and Google's own category codes.
What Sale Duration Actually Fixes
Before this, telling Google exactly when a sale price started and ended through schema markup was inconsistent. Store owners either left it out entirely or relied on Merchant Center feed attributes that did not always match what the on-page structured data said. Now the schema properties align directly with the Merchant Center feed attribute sale_price_effective_date, one consistent way to say a price is valid from this date to that date.
Why Product Category Matters
The new Product.category property lets you specify both a custom category name and a Google-defined category code on the same product. That gives Google a cleaner signal for matching your product to the right search queries and shopping placements, instead of guessing from your site's own category structure.
What South African WooCommerce Stores Should Do
If you run seasonal sales, Black Friday, a winter clearance, a founder's day promotion, this is worth setting up properly rather than relying on a plugin's default output. Check whether your SEO plugin, Yoast or Rank Math, has added support for the new properties yet, and if you hand-code schema, add validFrom and validThrough to every sale product going forward. It is a small technical change, but it is the difference between Google understanding your sale is time-limited and treating your discounted price as the new permanent price.