Structured Data & Schema
Used to mark up elements on a webpage, structured data (or schema) helps search engines further understand the content which is contained on a website. Structured data is also used to generate further rich results and featured snippets within search results. Our SEO Office Hours Notes below cover recommendations for the implementation of structured data / schema, as well as insights from Google.
To learn more about structured data’s impact on SEO, check out our additional resources:
Updated Organisation Schema Takes Weeks to Update in Google
Structured data updates take longer to update in Google’s index after crawling than the primary content of a page, such as titles and descriptions. It can take a week or so to process. Use Submit to Index in Fetch as Google or Inspect URL to to get Google to reprocess a page more quickly.
Injecting Markup Using JavaScript Isn’t Recommended
Avoid injecting markup on a page using JavaScript as this makes it more difficult to debug and test that the schema is working correctly. Include markup in the source code where possible.
Having JSON-LD Visible on a Page Will Break the Markup
If a CMS plugin includes JSON-LD within
tags making it visible on the page, this will break the structured data.
Adopting Unsupported Structured Data Can Influence What Google Will Support in Future
If Google sees websites widely implementing markup for particular elements, then that can influence which types of structured data it will work to support in future.
Ensure Page Markup is Consistent With Visible Content on Page
Make sure the information in a page’s markup is consistent with what is visible on the page. For example, if a site logo differs in the organizational markup compared to the logo on the page, this may confuse Google’s search algorithms.
Invalid HTML Can Impact Google’s Ability to Understand Structured Data
Invalid HTML can make it difficult for Googlebot to understand which parts of a page belong together for structured data.
Use Author Profile Pages & Article Markup to Inform Google About Content Authors
While authorship and Google Plus have been deprecated, you can let Google know about the authors of your content with author profile pages and by implementing article markup on your site.
Image Aspect Ratio Important For Some Types of Structured Data
Image aspect ratio can be important for some types of structured data and rich results like recipes. John recommends following Google’s suggested image aspect ratio and minimal size.
Position Property Needed For Schema.org Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs in Schema.org need information about position so Google can understand the order of items and pick them up as clean breadcrumbs.
Include Date in Structured Data For Articles
Google recommend using dates directly in the structured data of articles as this makes it easier for Google to extract the correct date.