Issue 60

What is this issue?

Blog posts or news articles are missing Article, BlogPosting, or NewsArticle schema, losing eligibility for Top Stories, Google Discover, and AI citation attribution.

Without Article schema:

Your articles won't appear in Google's Top Stories carousel
You won't be eligible for Google Discover
AI search engines can't properly attribute content to authors
Rich snippets showing publish date and author won't appear
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals are weakened

A proper Article schema should include: @type (Article, BlogPosting, NewsArticle, or TechArticle), headline, author, datePublished, dateModified, image, and publisher.

Why does it matter?

Article schema is critical for content visibility and authority:

Top Stories eligibility: Articles with proper schema can appear in Google's Top Stories carousel
Google Discover: Enables content to appear in Google Discover feed
AI citation attribution: AI search engines use Article schema to properly attribute and cite content
E-E-A-T signals: The author field is critical for Google's quality evaluation
Rich snippets: Enables publish date, author, and article image in search results
Freshness signals: datePublished and dateModified help search engines understand content freshness

Resolving this issue improves your SEO health score by ensuring articles are properly structured for maximum visibility and authority.

How to fix it

Add Article/BlogPosting JSON-LD structured data to all article pages:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "headline": "How to Implement Schema in 2024",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/image.jpg",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Jane Smith",
    "@id": "https://www.example.com/author/jane"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example Corp",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://www.example.com/logo.png"
    }
  },
  "datePublished": "2024-03-01T08:00:00Z",
  "dateModified": "2024-03-15T10:00:00Z"
}

Include required properties:
- headline: Article title
- author: Author information (use Person type with @id for E-E-A-T)
- datePublished: ISO 8601 format with timezone
- dateModified: Last modified date
- image: Article featured image URL
- publisher: Organization publishing the article
Use the correct Article subtype:
- Article: Generic article type
- BlogPosting: For blog posts
- NewsArticle: For news articles
- TechArticle: For technical articles
Link author to Person schema: Use @id to connect to author's Person schema page
Validate with Google's Rich Results Test

Examples

Example 1: Missing Article Schema on Blog Post

Problematic state:

<!-- Blog post without Article schema -->
<html>
  <head>
    <title>How to Implement Schema in 2024</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>How to Implement Schema in 2024</h1>
    <p>By Jane Smith | Published March 1, 2024</p>
    <p>Article content goes here...</p>
  </body>
</html>

Corrected state:

<!-- Blog post with Article schema -->
<html>
  <head>
    <title>How to Implement Schema in 2024</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
      {
        "@context": "https://schema.org",
        "@type": "BlogPosting",
        "headline": "How to Implement Schema in 2024",
        "image": "https://www.example.com/image.jpg",
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Jane Smith",
          "@id": "https://www.example.com/author/jane"
        },
        "publisher": {
          "@type": "Organization",
          "name": "Example Corp",
          "logo": {
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https://www.example.com/logo.png"
          }
        },
        "datePublished": "2024-03-01T08:00:00Z",
        "dateModified": "2024-03-15T10:00:00Z"
      }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>How to Implement Schema in 2024</h1>
    <p>By Jane Smith | Published March 1, 2024</p>
    <p>Article content goes here...</p>
  </body>
</html>

Example 2: Article Schema with NewsArticle

Corrected state (for news article):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsArticle",
  "headline": "New SEO Guidelines Released",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/news-image.jpg",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "John Doe"
  },
  "datePublished": "2024-03-10T14:30:00Z",
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example News"
  }
}

Example 3: Incomplete Article Schema