Paywalled & Subscription Content

If your site has a paywall or subscription system, you must properly mark up gated content to avoid Google’s cloaking policies. schemaorg-kit provides helpers that make this easy.

Table of contents

1. Google’s Policy
2. For Articles
3. For Web Pages
4. Multiple Gated Sections
5. Free Preview Pattern
6. HTML Implementation
7. Common Mistakes

---

Google’s Policy

Google’s subscription and paywalled content guidelines require:

1. Structured data must match the visible content. If you show Google content that users can’t see without paying, it’s cloaking.
2. Use isAccessibleForFree: false + hasPart to tell Google which part of the page is behind the paywall.
3. Don’t block Googlebot with robots.txt or noindex. Let Google crawl and index the page.

---

For Articles

import { createPaywalledArticle } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const article = createPaywalledArticle(
  {
    headline: 'The Hidden Cost of Low Interest Rates',
    author: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Finance Desk' },
    datePublished: '2025-05-15',
    image: 'https://financepost.example/interest-rates.jpg',
    publisher: {
      '@type': 'Organization',
      name: 'Finance Post',
      logo: { '@type': 'ImageObject', url: 'https://financepost.example/logo.png' },
    },
  },
  { cssSelector: '.article-body' }  // CSS selector for the gated content
);

Output:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "The Hidden Cost of Low Interest Rates",
  "isAccessibleForFree": false,
  "hasPart": [
    {
      "@type": "WebPageElement",
      "isAccessibleForFree": false,
      "cssSelector": ".article-body"
    }
  ],
  ...
}

---

For Web Pages

import { createPaywalledWebPage } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const page = createPaywalledWebPage(
  {
    name: 'Member Dashboard',
    url: 'https://app.example.com/dashboard',
    description: 'Your personalized account dashboard.',
  },
  { cssSelector: '#dashboard-content' }
);

---

Multiple Gated Sections

If multiple sections are behind the paywall, use createArticle directly and customize hasPart:

import { createArticle } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const article = createArticle({
  headline: 'Premium Market Analysis',
  author: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Analyst' },
  datePublished: '2025-06-01',
  image: 'https://example.com/analysis.jpg',
  isAccessibleForFree: false,
  hasPart: [
    {
      '@type': 'WebPageElement',
      isAccessibleForFree: false,
      cssSelector: '.data-tables',
    },
    {
      '@type': 'WebPageElement',
      isAccessibleForFree: false,
      cssSelector: '.chart-section',
    },
    {
      '@type': 'WebPageElement',
      isAccessibleForFree: false,
      cssSelector: '.conclusions',
    },
  ],
});

---

Free Preview Pattern

If some content is free (lead paragraph, abstract) but the rest is gated:

import { createArticle } from 'schemaorg-kit';

const article = createArticle({
  headline: 'Exclusive: Inside the Fed's Next Move',
  author: { '@type': 'Person', name: 'Reporter' },
  datePublished: '2025-07-01',
  image: 'https://example.com/fed.jpg',
  // The article IS accessible for free (the preview part)
  // Only the specific element is behind the paywall
  isAccessibleForFree: false,
  hasPart: [
    {
      '@type': 'WebPageElement',
      isAccessibleForFree: false,
      cssSelector: '.premium-content',  // Only this section is gated
    },
  ],
});

---

HTML Implementation

Your page must visually separate free vs. gated content with CSS classes that match your cssSelector:

<article>
  <h1>The Hidden Cost of Low Interest Rates</h1>

  <!-- Free preview — visible to all -->
  <p class="article-intro">
    Interest rates have stayed near historic lows for over a decade...
  </p>

  <!-- Gated content — matches cssSelector: ".article-body" -->
  <div class="article-body">
    <p>The full analysis reveals that...</p>
    <!-- Paywall overlay should appear here for non-subscribers -->
  </div>
</article>

---

Common Mistakes

Don’t use isAccessibleForFree: false without hasPart. Without hasPart, Google doesn’t know which element is gated and may treat it as cloaking.

Don’t use noindex on paywalled pages. This defeats the purpose — the page needs to be indexed for Google to apply the subscription content treatment.

Test with Google’s Rich Results Test after implementing. The tool shows whether your paywalled markup is recognized correctly.