Use new reports in the structured data dashboard to fix markup errors

Webmaster Level: Medium or High

Since its launch last year, the Structured Data Dashboard has become one of the most requested features in Webmaster Tools. We continue to work on simplification and convenience of finding errors in the markup.

Now, in the dashboard of structured data, you can not only find out whether the Google search robot understands the markup on your site, but also determine where exactly the mistakes are made. New reports in Webmaster Tools are the result of our collaboration with site owners who participated in the June beta test. We took their feedback into account before launching a new version of the structured data dashboard.

In new reports, each object represents one element of structured top-level data (nested objects are not taken into account), marked up with HTML code. Objects are grouped by data type, which is then sorted by the number of errors.

We have added a separate graph of the number of errors on the right side of the dashboard so that you can clearly see what changes on the site increase or decrease the number of errors.

To make our reports more detailed, we also updated our data processing systems, therefore, at first, incomplete data may be displayed on the chart.

How to fix markup errors

• To find out what caused errors in a particular type of content, simply click on it. A list of malformed markup elements appears. Using the top tabs, it can be filtered by error type.

• The list will indicate where the markup does not comply with Google’s guidelines for the various types of content . In our example, the startDate property is not specified for several events. There may also be no properties for nested content types, for example, for reviews added to products, this property is lowprice.

• Click on the URL in the table to find out exactly what markup errors found when scanning the page. To instantly test your markup using the Structured Data Validation Tool , click the Verify Data button. Often the same mistakes are made on the pages, which can be fixed at once, for example, by changing a parameter or template in the content management system.

• Correct the detected errors and run the structured data verification tool again. After rescanning and processing the pages, the changes will also be displayed in the structured data dashboard.

We hope that the new error reports will simplify the work with the markup of structured data. In addition, in the coming months we will expand the list of detected errors. In the meantime, you can share your opinion about the new feature and ask questions in the corresponding section of the forum for webmasters.