In short
What gets checked
whether the markup is present, whether its syntax is valid and which types it declares.
Vocabulary
Schema.org, created by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex, with more than 450 billion objects deployed on the web.
Key nuance
Google states that a manual action for structured data removes the rich result, but doesn’t affect ranking in web search.
Severity in Wakaris
Improvement. It appears on 19.2% of pages analyzed by the checker.
What it is and what this finding checks
Structured data is, according to Google’s documentation, a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. In practice it’s a block of code that turns what the page already says into fixed labels: this is an article, this is its author, this is the date; or this is a product, this is its price and this is its rating.
The vocabulary used for those labels is Schema.org, an initiative created by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex, whose labels are deployed on more than 450 billion objects on the web.
This finding looks at three different aspects of your page’s markup. Whether there is structured markup. Whether its syntax is correct, that is, whether it’s well written and can be read. And which types it declares, in other words, what it says the page is.
How it’s checked
Wakaris analyzes the URL you give it, finds the page’s structured markup and returns the three results separately: whether it’s missing, whether the syntax is broken and which declared types it found. It’s the direct way to find out without installing anything or creating an account.
It’s worth understanding what each result means, because they don’t carry the same weight. Missing markup is an absence: there’s no error, there’s an unused opportunity. Invalid syntax is an error, and a costly one, because a badly written block isn’t half read: it’s discarded entirely, and all the markup work is lost without warning. And uncommon declared types are an observation, not a failure: the vocabulary has hundreds of types and only a subset produce special presentations in search.
One note on scope. The check is done on a specific address and describes that page’s markup. It’s common for the template to generate it and repeat it across the site, but also for each page type to carry its own: a clean result on the home page says nothing about the product pages.
Why it matters
The stated reason is that Google uses structured data to understand the page’s content and be able to show it with a richer look in results: star ratings, recipe cooking time, breadcrumbs.
Now the part almost nobody explains accurately, and that’s worth knowing before investing effort. Marking up doesn’t guarantee that special presentation. Google requires all of the type’s required properties to be present for the content to even be eligible, and even when they are, the decision to show it is Google’s.
And the decisive nuance, which Google’s own documentation spells out: a manual action for structured data makes the page lose eligibility to appear as a rich result, but doesn’t affect how it ranks in web search. Put plainly: structured data plays on the field of how you look, not where you appear. It’s a lever for presentation and understanding, not rankings, and treating it as the latter leads to disappointment.
Common causes
The markup is almost never written by a person, but by an extension or a template, and that’s where all three problems start.
Broken syntax shows up when the block is generated by stitching text and variables together and some value contains a quote, a line break or an unescaped character. Also when two extensions that insert markup coexist and one cuts off the other’s block. It’s the silent failure par excellence: the page looks perfect and nobody reads the block.
Types that don’t fit come from generic templates that declare the same thing on every page, or from sample markup that came with the theme and was never adapted, with another organization’s name inside.
And absence usually just means nobody added it, which is common on custom-built websites where the template was built for design. It also happens when the markup is inserted with code that runs in the browser and the block isn’t in the HTML that gets served.
How to fix it
The order depends on which of the three results failed, and Wakaris tells you which one. Fixing the syntax comes first, always: as long as the block can’t be read, anything else you do with it doesn’t exist.
Next, make the type describe what the page really is. A product page declares a product, an article declares an article. If the template declares the same thing on every page, the markup is lying on most of them. And with the type chosen, include all the properties the documentation marks as required: without them, Google expressly says the content isn’t eligible.
The rule that saves the most trouble is not to mark up what can’t be seen. Google states it with no wiggle room: don’t mark up content that isn’t visible to people reading the page, and don’t mark up irrelevant or misleading content, such as fake reviews. A block that declares five stars that appear nowhere isn’t a shortcut; it’s what triggers the manual action.
Diagram of the finding’s three results: missing markup, invalid syntax and declared types, with their relative severity
Brief to generate the image
Editorial illustration for a Wakaris technical guide. Topic: Diagram of the finding’s three results: missing markup, invalid syntax and declared types, with their relative severity. Style: white background with a soft lime→pale green wash (#F8F7D6 → #E2F2DC), green→lime gradient accent (#8ED390 → #DCD86F), near-black ink (#12150B), pill shapes and rounded corners, soft shadows, clean schematic look, no photography. Format: 16:9, 1440 pixels wide. No legible text: any label, code or figure is shown as grey filler bars. The caption carries the meaning, not the image. No real logos or third-party brands. No recognizable people. Tags: data, structured, diagram, results, finding, markup, missing, syntax
Ask your AI
If you want to dig into your specific case, copy one of these two prompts and paste it into the AI you use. Pick the one that fits your situation.
I already have the finding measured with Wakaris and want to fix it
Act as a professional, careful technical web consultant. Your goal is to help me understand a specific finding about my website and decide what to do about it, without making anything up. Context: I got this finding from Wakaris, a tool that analyzes a website across 9 areas (performance, SEO, security, social, market, AI, user experience, accessibility and legal) and explains each problem so every role on a team can understand it. The finding is: Structured data. It’s a block of code that describes what the page is about in a standardized format, using the Schema.org vocabulary. Three things are checked: whether the markup exists, whether its syntax is valid and which types it declares. Paste the Wakaris result here: which of the three failed and on which page. If you don’t have it, tell me and I’ll explain how to get it before we continue. Rules you must follow at all times: 1. Don’t assume anything about my website. Every piece of data you use must come from what I confirm or from what Wakaris measured. If you don’t know something, ask me before stating it. 2. Before giving me any conclusions, ALWAYS ask me these questions, all together and in plain language, to find out whether this finding really affects me and where: a) What platform is your website on? (WordPress, Shopify, custom build, other) b) Which of the three results failed: the markup is missing, the syntax is invalid, or the declared types? c) What exactly is that page: home page, article, product page, listing, service page, something else? d) Who generates the markup: an extension or plugin, the template, or did someone write it by hand? e) Do you have more than one extension that might be inserting markup at the same time? f) Does the markup you declare match information that’s visible on the page? g) If the template or code needs changing, would you do it, an in-house technician or an agency? 3. Every statement or recommendation must be argued with respect to MY context, not in general. If you recommend something, explain why it applies to my case. 4. Always flag your level of certainty. If something is a hypothesis because you can’t check it, say so: you can’t see my website, you’re reasoning from what I tell you. 5. Don’t suggest irreversible or risky technical changes (editing the template directly in production, disabling extensions that generate markup) without first warning me about the risk and that a backup or a test environment is advisable. 6. Very important: never suggest declaring information that isn’t visible on the page, or ratings, prices or dates that don’t exist. That breaks the guidelines and can cost me eligibility for rich results. 7. Don’t promise me ranking improvements from adding structured data. If I ask about it, explain the difference between appearing with a better look and appearing higher up. 8. If you need data that can only be obtained by analyzing the website (confirming which types are declared, whether the syntax is broken or whether the fix worked), tell me and recommend I run the page through Wakaris again: that gets checked, not guessed. 9. The final decision is mine, not yours. Your role is to help me understand and prepare the action, not to decide for me. Source of this finding: https://www.wakaris.com/en/guides/seo/structured-data To check it or check it again: https://www.wakaris.com/ Start by briefly introducing yourself in your role and asking me the first block of questions.
I haven’t measured it yet and want to check whether my website has this problem
Act as a professional, careful technical web consultant. I’m looking into whether my website has a specific problem and I want you to help me find out honestly, without taking it for granted. Context: I came to this through Wakaris, a tool that analyzes a website across 9 areas (performance, SEO, security, social, market, AI, user experience, accessibility and legal) and explains each problem so every role on a team can understand it. The problem I want to look into is: Structured data. It means not having structured markup, having it with broken syntax, or declaring types that don’t match what the page is. I do NOT know yet whether my website has it: I want to find out. Rules you must follow at all times: 1. First and most important: this is checked by reading the page’s code, and you can’t analyze my website from this conversation. Make it clear from the start that you won’t be able to give me a definitive "yes, you have it" or "no, you don’t", only a hypothesis based on what I tell you. 2. Don’t assume anything. Before giving me any assessment, ALWAYS ask me these questions, all together and in plain language, to estimate whether I’m likely to have the problem: a) What platform is your website on? (WordPress, Shopify, custom build, other; or I don’t know) b) Did anyone ever set up structured data, or did it come with the template? c) Do you have several SEO or markup extensions installed at the same time? d) Have you ever seen your website on Google with star ratings, breadcrumbs or extra data under the title? e) Does your website have very different page types: articles, product pages, events, recipes? f) Have you changed templates or migrated the website recently? 3. Based on my answers, give me a clear estimate of whether it’s LIKELY or UNLIKELY that I have it and which of the three cases would be the suspect, argued from what I’ve told you and explicitly marked as a hypothesis, not a diagnosis. 4. Tell me directly that the only way to really know is to check, and that I can do it for free and without creating an account by running my website through Wakaris, which will tell me whether there’s markup, whether the syntax is valid, which types it declares and, along the way, the state of the other areas. 5. If I ask you how to check it by hand, don’t hide it from me, but remind me that Wakaris does it faster, on the real page and with extra information I can’t get by hand. 6. Don’t promise me ranking improvements from adding structured data: explain the difference between appearing with a better look and appearing higher up. 7. The conclusion and the decision are mine, not yours. You help me find my bearings. Source of this finding: https://www.wakaris.com/en/guides/seo/structured-data To check it: https://www.wakaris.com/ Start by briefly introducing yourself in your role, making point 1 clear, and asking me the block of questions.
Frequently asked questions
Which markup format should I use? +
Google recommends JSON-LD, a block of notation placed inside a script tag, because it’s the easiest to implement and maintain. It also accepts microdata and RDFa, and its documentation says all three formats work equally well as long as the markup is valid.
Does structured data improve my ranking on Google? +
Not directly. Google states that a manual action for structured data removes eligibility to appear as a rich result, but doesn’t affect how the page ranks in web search. It works on how the result looks, not on how high it appears.
Can I declare information that doesn’t appear on the page? +
No. Google’s guideline is explicit: don’t mark up content that isn’t visible to people reading the page, or irrelevant or misleading content, such as fake reviews. It’s the violation that costs the most, because it can lead to a manual action that keeps the page out of rich results.
Is declaring an uncommon type a mistake? +
Not necessarily. The vocabulary covers far more types than those that produce a special presentation in search. Declaring a type that describes your content well is correct even if it doesn’t generate any rich result; what isn’t correct is declaring one that doesn’t fit you.
Sources cited
- developers.google.comIntroduction to structured data markup in Google Search, Google Search Central: the definition of structured data, the recommendation of JSON-LD, the acceptance of microdata and RDFa, and the requirement for all required properties.
- developers.google.comGeneral structured data guidelines, Google Search Central: the ban on marking up non-visible or misleading content, the requirement for required properties and the effect of a manual action on eligibility, not on ranking.
- developers.google.comStructured data markup that Google Search supports, Google Search Central: the limited set of features that produce special presentations in results.
- schema.orgSchema.org: the vocabulary, its founding by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex, and the number of objects deployed on the web.
Updated: September 8, 2026.
This article is part of Wakaris, which analyzes your website across 9 areas and explains each finding so every role on your team can understand it.