Structured Data Errors: How to Find and Fix Them
Structured data helps Google understand your pages and can earn rich results. Errors can lose them. Here's how to find schema problems and fix the most common ones.
Key takeaways
- Use Google's Rich Results Test for a single page and Search Console's enhancement reports for the whole site.
- Errors stop a page being eligible for rich results; warnings mean optional fields are missing.
- Markup must describe content that's visible on the page.
- Google has reduced which rich results show (for example FAQ and HowTo in 2023), so focus on types that still apply to you.
Structured data (usually JSON-LD schema markup) tells search engines what a page contains: an article, a product with a price, a local business, a recipe. Valid markup can make pages eligible for rich results such as star ratings, prices and breadcrumbs.
Where to find errors
| Tool | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Rich Results Test | Testing one URL or code snippet for Google rich result eligibility |
| Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org) | Checking general schema.org validity |
| Search Console → Enhancements | Site-wide reports for each rich result type (Products, Breadcrumbs, Videos…) |
| URL Inspection | Seeing the detected structured data on the live page |
Errors vs warnings
- Errors: required properties are missing or invalid. The item isn’t eligible for that rich result.
- Warnings: recommended properties are missing. The item can still be eligible, but adding them may help.
Common errors and fixes
Missing required field
For example, a Product without name, or an offer without price. Fix: add the field in your template or plugin settings.
Invalid value format
Dates not in ISO 8601 (2026-10-16), prices with currency symbols in the price field, or URLs without https://. Fix: correct the format.
Markup doesn’t match visible content
Reviews or prices in schema that aren’t on the page, or FAQ markup for questions users can’t see. This breaks Google’s guidelines and can lead to a manual action. Fix: mark up only visible content.
Duplicate or conflicting markup
Your theme and an SEO plugin both output Article or Organization schema with different values. Fix: disable one source.
Self-serving reviews
Google doesn’t show review stars for a business’s reviews of itself on its own site (LocalBusiness and Organization). Fix: remove that markup.
Rich results that changed
In August 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known, authoritative government and health sites and stopped showing HowTo rich results. FAQ markup isn’t harmful, but don’t expect it to produce rich results on most sites.
After fixing
- Test the URL again in the Rich Results Test.
- In Search Console, open the enhancement report and click Validate fix.
- Monitor over the following weeks.
Structured data checks are part of the technical SEO audit.