Google updated the requirements for the logo structured data for AMP articles. The update is a clarification of how publishers can display the structured data for their logos so that they remain eligible for rich results.
Logo Structured Data
The logo structured data is used by Google to show the correct logo in their rich results of the search results and in the Knowledge Panel.
Correctly specifying the logo through structured data without making a mistake is important. Incorrectly coding the logo structured data could result in Google being unable to correctly display the logo in the rich results or knowledge panel
Logo is a structured data property. A property can be thought of as a thing and the structured data types can be thought of as attributes of that property.
The logo has two expected types (attributes of the logo property).
The two types that are expected are:
- ImageObject
- URL
The logo is used in the structured data for the following types:
- Brand
- Organization
- Place
- Product
- Service
This change however only affects structured data for the Article structured data type and will likely be most often be used with the Organization structured data type.
What Was Updated to the Logo Structured Data?
The update to the developer pages is actually a clarification. The update makes it clearer what Google’s logo requirements are for the AMP structured data.
There are two ways to code the structured data for a logo.
A publisher can use an ImageObject type to describe the logo. A publisher can also use the Logo property to communicate what the logo is.
The Difference Between a Structured Data Property and a Type
A type is an attribute of a property. A property can be thought of as a thing. The type can be thought of as an attribute of that thing.
For example, a car can be an example of a property and the color of that automobile can be the attribute.
Examples of How to Show a Logo in AMP Structured Data
Google published this example of the ImageObject type for the logo structured data:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Google",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://google.com/logo.jpg"
}
}
}
The key part of the above structured data is this part:
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://google.com/logo.jpg"
It features the logo property with the ImageObject type, followed by the URL of the actual logo. That takes three lines to describe what the logo is.
This is the other way to display the logo property by using just a URL:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Google",
"logo": "https://google.com/logo.jpg"
}
}
In the above example it takes just a single line to describe what the logo is:
"logo": "https://google.com/logo.jpg"
The update to Google’s developer pages was to make this clear that either way can be used.
Google’s changelog for this update announced:
“Modified the publisher logo requirements of AMP Article structured data to more accurately reflect that we understand both raw URLs as well as ImageObject markup.”
Citation
Read the updated developer page here:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/article#article-types
