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VC002 – Price Visibility Check

Overview

Ensures price exists in structured data and is visible in the DOM, not hidden by CSS, and matches between schema and DOM.

Probability that AI systems use this signal: Crawlers and generative AI pipelines consume structured and visible page signals for training and inference. Assessment-specific signals (e.g. schema, canonicals, trust cues) affect how likely a page is indexed and surfaced. The probability that this assessment's signal influences AI behavior is high when the page is in a product or compliance context.

Impact on geo compliance: Passing this assessment supports geo compliance by ensuring machine-readable and visible content meet standards that reduce the risk of wrong locale, pricing, or trust in AI-generated answers. Failing can lead to non-compliant or misleading surfacing.

What We Check

  • SD001 and SD007 passed. Schema price from Product offers (first offer). DOM price: selectors .price, .product-price, .cost, .amount, .pricing, [class*="price"], [class*="cost"], [class*="amount"]; text must match price pattern (e.g. $/€/£ + digits, or digits + USD/EUR/GBP, or digits).
  • **Hidden price:** elements with those selectors checked for inline style containing "display: none" or "visibility: hidden". If found: −50.
  • **Mismatch:** _normalize_price (extract numeric) for schema vs DOM; if different: −60.
  • Missing schema price: −50. Missing DOM price: −50.

Pass / Fail and Score

  • **PASSED** if score >= 60. Score capped at 0.

How to Fix When It Fails

  • Add price to Product offers; display price prominently; make price visible (remove display:none/visibility:hidden); ensure schema and visible price match.

Common Issues

  • Price only in schema or only in DOM; price hidden by CSS; numeric mismatch (format/currency).

Dependencies

SD001, SD007.

How to Verify

  • Confirm price in offers and in visible element; no hiding; same numeric value.

Additional Resources

  • schema.org Offer: price and priceCurrency; ensure visible price in DOM matches. CT006 (compare-at pricing) and SD007 (offers) relate.
  • Price visibility: avoid hiding price with CSS (display:none, visibility:hidden); supports trust and WCAG-aligned visible content.