A recent discussion in a Facebook SEO group highlighted how Google’s structured data testing tool can produce misleading results, making Schema.org structured data difficult to debug, especially for people who aren’t skilled with JSON-LD. That’s kind of not Google’s fault because the tool is explicitly a Rich Results Tester, not a Schema.org Structured Data debugger. That’s why Schema.org’s Structured Data Validator is a useful addition to your structured data debugging toolkit because it can be a better solution when used alongside of the Rich Results Tester.
WordPress Plugin For Structured Data
The person who started the discussion said they were using a WordPress plugin to output their structured data. What may have caused the issue is that the plugin requires a premium subscription in order to add LocalBusiness structured data. What the user did was to add AggregateRating structured data then added a LocalBusiness as what was being rated. As you’ll see below, using AggregateRating in this manner falls outside of Google’s Rich Results guidelines.
This became an issue for debugging it in Google’s Rich Results Test tool. The point is that this showed how Schema.org’s Structured Data Validator can be useful for debugging structured data and Google’s Rich Results Test is useful for debugging Rich Results because that’s what it’s tuned for.
This doesn’t mean that the output is wrong, it just means, as you’ll see, that Schema.org’s tool is something that can be helpful for debugging your structured data.
What Happened
A person incorrectly used AggregateRating Schema.org structured data type on their local business website, using the LocalBusiness data type. That was an incorrect use of the AggregateRating structured data type according to Google’s Rich Results guidelines. Google’s guidelines recommend that kind of use for web pages that are rating multiple businesses, like you might see on Yelp.
This is what Google’s guidelines recommend:
“Review snippet (Review, AggregateRating) structured data
You can supply ratings for the following features:
Local business (only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses; see the guidelines about self-serving reviews)”
When that user went to validate their structured data in the Rich Results Tool, the output from the tool incorrectly cited that this was LocalBusiness structured data, when in fact it was AggregateRating of a LocalBusiness.
The Rich Results tool correctly identified the structured data as a Review Snippets structured data, which is Google’s terminology. That’s correct for the context of testing for Rich Results. Schema.org’s Rich Results Validator is more precise because it identifies the actual structured data, AggregateRating.
This article doesn’t link to the private Facebook group discussion but it does provide screenshots from debugging the site that was discussed.
Google Rich Results Tool Error
The person should have been using the LocalBusiness structured data but the code on the page was for AggregateRating. When the person checked it on Google’s Rich Results Test it incorrectly showed that they were using the LocalBusiness structured data. Google is correct that there is a LocalBusiness data type in the structured data, but it’s in the context of AggregateRating.
You can call it a mismatch, if you want. Or you can call it misleading. The point is that the user was confused by the Rich Results tool because it was telling them that they had LocalBusiness structured data, which wasn’t the case.
Screenshot Of Misleading Google Rich Results Test
The weird part is that Google’s tool enables users to view the structured data that’s in the HTML and it accurately shows that the web page was using AggregateRating, not LocalBusiness, Schema.org structured data.
Screenshot: Google’s Tool Detects “Wrong” Structured Data
The tool detects LocalBusiness structured data but that is actually something that’s a part of the AggregateRating structured data, which is not precisely detected. Google shows it as Review Snippets.
What the tool is showing is related to rich results, but the label on the tool confusingly says it’s showing detected structured data.
Schema.org Structured Data Validator
The more accurate Schema.org structured data validation tool is the one provided by Schema.org, not Google.
Here’s the structured data that the official Schema.org tool detected:
Why Did Google’s Tool Fail?
What happened is that the website was using the AggregateRating structured data to review their local business. Google’s Rich Results Test tool mistakenly identified the LocalBusiness structured data and ignored that the script was really about AggregateRating.
The official Schema.org validator accurately identified the structured data.
This doesn’t mean that Google’s tool is broken though. I think what’s happening is that Google’s tool has a functionality that may be limited to testing for whether a website’s structured data qualifies the page for rich results, which is why it’s called the Rich Results Tester. It maybe doesn’t validate the structured data so if you want to accurately debug your code then it’s probably a good idea to give the official Schema.org tool a spin.
If you’re having trouble debugging structured data and reading HTML isn’t a part of your skill set you may want to give the official Schema.org structured data tool a try, it may help you better understand what’s wrong with your structured data.
Maybe it’s time SEOs and publishers add the official Schema.org Structured Data Validator to their list of tools to use.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Viorel Sima
