How to add schema markup to WordPress using the SEOPress plugin #2

Here’s the second article in our series dedicated to Schemas. If you haven’t already done so, we recommend you read the first article in the series: How to add schema to WordPress. In this second article, we will go through the actual exercise of adding structured data (schemas) on your site using SEOPress.

Download the Ebook: Master Google Structured Data Types (schemas)

Requirements

Please be sure that you are using the most recent version of SEOPress, free or PRO version.

You will need use the PRO version of SEOPress to implement structured data on your site.

You must be sure that search engines are not blocked from indexing pages containing structured data. Check your robots.txt file and robots meta tag.

In SEOPress, ensure that the Structured Data Types feature is enabled using the iOS-like, slider here: SEO > PRO > Structured Data Types (schema.org). On the same screen, check Enable Structured Data Types metabox for your posts, pages and custom post types.

Your logo can be used in a lot of schema, so upload it now under Upload your publisher logo. Note the requirements listed under the data entry field and be certain that you upload an image that respects them.

It is also recommended that you complete information in the SEO > Social Networks > Knowledge Graph section. Since SEOPress PRO 10.4, several schemas link to it (see How SEOPress links your schemas together below).

And don’t forget to Save changes as you go.

What’s the difference between Automatic and Manual schemas?

There are two types of schema in SEOPress:

• Manual: this type of schema is applied to pages, posts or other publication types using the Structured Data Types metabox. The structured data is applied individually to the page you are editing.
• Automatic: these Schema are created from the SEO > Schemas screen using the Add Schema button. They are applied globally by publication type (to all posts for example). Once they are defined, you will also see them in the Structured Data Types metaboxes of individual publications. See exercise #3 below.

Exercise #1: Add LocalBusiness Schema for a business address

Let’s start with a classic case. You own a restaurant and you have created a website to promote the restaurant online. The site details your menu and different dishes you serve.

You can add the LocalBusiness schema to your site in order to obtain a Knowledge Graph card in Google (see screen shot). This is shown when people search for your restaurant by name. This feature highlights essential information about your business such as opening hours, address, telephone number, photos, client reviews, etc.

If your company has just one business address, you can add your Schema using SEO > PRO > Local Business.

For our exercise, select “Restaurant” as Business type. For your own company, search for a suitable company type in the dropdown list. If you can’t find one, leave Local Business (default).

Fill in the rest of the fields as best you can, taking care to follow the formats shown in the examples. For example, “eg: +33559240138” indicates that you should enter your phone number in this international format, with a “+”, the country code and no spaces.

All of the fields are required by Google.

Save Changes and clear your cache if you have one.

About Opening hours

If your business is open all day, 7 days a week, set hours as 0:00 and 23:59 for each day of the week.

If your company closes for lunch, then you need to disable the Local business feature using the green, iOS-like slider at the top of the page and use a manual schema. The manual schema will give you more flexibility on what opening hours you display.

To enter a manual LocalBusiness Schema for your website, edit your homepage in WordPress and go to the Structured data types metabox, select LocalBusiness and continue from there. The Opening hours section allows you to enter opening and closing hours for both the morning and the afternoon.

What if you have more than one business address?

31/12/2020 Update: since version 4.2 of SEOPress PRO, you can now add unlimited manual schemas to your post including multiple Local Business schema.

One solution is to create a page for each address and add a different LocalBusiness schema to each page using the Structured data types metabox. You also need to disable the global Local Business feature here SEO > PRO > Local Business using the green, iOS-like slider.

Since SEOPress PRO 10.4, each manual Local Business schema gets its own identifier, so search engines do not mix up two businesses listed on the same page.

Exercise #2: Adding FAQ schema to your Frequently Asked Questions page

Giving answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to your site is an excellent way to attract visitors and improve conversions. Adding FAQ schema to your pages can help you obtain extra visibility for your pages in the search engine results. FAQ schema are quick and easy to set up in SEOPress and Google is currently keen to add this type of data to improve your search results. So, it would be a shame to miss out!

To add FAQ schema to a page, go to the Structured data types metabox and click on the Manual tab. Select the “FAQ” option and add the questions and answers that feature on the page, clicking on Add question for each new question.

Update your article and clear your cache.

Exercise #3: Adding a Product schema automatically for WooCommerce

Now that we’ve had a look at some manual schemas, let’s have a look at some automatic ones. If you have a big ecommerce site, adding Product schema manually, product by product, will take you a long time! That’s why we added automatic schema to SEOPress!

If you have WooCommerce installed you will be able to add Product schema automatically to each product page by following this guide:

From SEO > Schemas, click on Add schema.

Name your Schema, for example “Products” and select “Product” as your data type. Under Show this schema if is, chose “Product” (again!)

Then for each field you can select a predefined variable, “Manual text” or “Manual text on each post”. For example, for Product name, associate “Post Title / Product title.”

If you chose “manual text on each post” for a field, you’ll be able to enter its value when you edit the product in WordPress. You’ll find it in the Automatic tab of the Structured Data Types metabox (see the screenshot below).

SEOPress will add Product schema dynamically to every product page using JSON-LD markup without any technical intervention from you!

Remember to clear your cache after adding schema.

I’ve already got Product schema on my product pages! Where did that come from?

Since version 3, WooCommerce adds Product schema to all your product pages, also using the JSON-LD format. Unfortunately, these schemas are incomplete and will generate error messages in Google Search Console. We strongly recommend that you disable WooCommerce schemas and implement the Product schema using SEOPress.

How SEOPress links your schemas together

Every schema SEOPress prints carries an identifier (@id). Search engines use these identifiers to understand that two schemas describe the same thing, for example that the publisher of an article is the organization of your Knowledge Graph, even when the schemas sit in separate script tags.

Since SEOPress PRO 10.4:

• The Local Business set in SEO > PRO > Local Business shares the identifier of your Knowledge Graph organization: both describe the same business.
• The publisher of the automatic Article and Video schemas also shares this identifier. It keeps its name and your publisher logo.
• A manual Local Business or Service schema gets its own identifier, built from the page URL (#localbusiness, #service). When a page holds several schemas of the same type, they are numbered (-2, -3…) so they are never merged.
• The breadcrumbs schema has an identifier on every page, including category archives, author pages, the blog page and the shop page, and each crumb is identified by the URL of its page.

Print the WebSite and Knowledge Graph schemas in a single @graph

By default, each schema is printed in its own <script type="application/ld+json"> tag. Since SEOPress 10.4, you can merge the WebSite schema and the Knowledge Graph schema (Organization or Person) of your homepage into a single block, using @graph.

1. Go to SEO > Advanced, Advanced tab.
2. In the Structured data section, enable Single @graph output: Merge the WebSite and Knowledge Graph schemas into a single @graph.
3. Click Save changes and clear your cache.

The option is off by default. The two schemas are then printed in a single <script id="seopress-schema-graph" type="application/ld+json"> tag. Search engines read every JSON-LD block on a page and resolve references across them, so this changes the presentation of your structured data, not its meaning. Turn it on if you prefer a single block in your source code.

Your other schemas, such as Local Business, breadcrumbs, products, the FAQ block and the schemas you add to your posts, keep their own script tag.

For developers: filters and the single @graph

When the single @graph output is on:

• Filters that change the data of a schema, such as seopress_schemas_website and seopress_get_json_data_organization, work as before.
• seopress_schemas_website_html receives the whole <script> tag, which no longer exists once the blocks are merged. Returning an empty string still removes the WebSite schema, but any other change is ignored: it can no longer replace the markup.
• seopress_schemas_organization_html receives the JSON payload. Returning an empty string removes the Knowledge Graph; returning valid JSON with a @type replaces the node in the graph.
• To change the merged output, use seopress_schemas_graph (the array of nodes, before printing; returning an empty array prints nothing) or seopress_schemas_graph_html (the whole <script> tag, with the nodes as second argument).
• seopress_schemas_graph_enabled turns the single @graph output on or off for the current request, whatever the setting.

// Force the single @graph output, whatever the setting.
add_filter( 'seopress_schemas_graph_enabled', '__return_true' );

// Remove the WebSite node from the graph.
add_filter( 'seopress_schemas_graph', function( $nodes ) {
	return array_values( array_filter( $nodes, function( $node ) {
		return 'WebSite' !== $node['@type'];
	} ) );
} );

Custom schemas: variables without quotes

In an automatic Custom Schema created from SEO > Schemas, you can write a dynamic variable without quotes so that it outputs an array, an object or a number, for example "workLocation": %%_cf_clinician_locations%%. Since SEOPress PRO 10.4, the editor accepts this syntax and no longer reports the schema as invalid JSON. It shows: Valid JSON-LD (@type: …). Unquoted variables must output valid JSON on every page, such as [] when they have no value.

Test your schemas

A lot of themes and plugins add schema automatically to your pages. It can be a major problem, because schema may be duplicated, out of date, have empty values, etc.

The good news is that you can test the schema markup of your pages with two free tools:

• Google Rich Results Test only reports the schema types that Google supports for its rich results.
• Schema Markup Validator checks all schema.org markup, including types Google does not display, such as Service or your custom schemas.

When you edit a post, click Validate my schema under your schemas to open the Google test with the URL of this post, or Schema Markup Validator to open the Schema Markup Validator the same way. The post must be published: these tools can only test a live, public URL. Since SEOPress PRO 10.4, the Schema Markup Validator button is also in the Manual tab of the Structured Data Types metabox, next to Validate my schema.

A type missing from the Google test does not mean your markup is absent: check it with the Schema Markup Validator.

Enter a URL, run the test and wait a few seconds for results to show. The results list the Schemas detected on the page. Click on a Schema name to show the details of the test results, including any errors or warnings.

Validate your Schemas with Google Search Console

Google Search Console will tell you if Google has found and validated your structured data. Google has specific reports for Schema such as Product, FAQ, Breadcrumbs and Logo. If there are errors in your Schemas, you can see detailed reports to understand the fixes you need to apply. Once pages are fixed, you can ask for Google to validate all the pages again. Click on “Validate Fix”.

Be aware that the validation can take days, or weeks. The state of your validation is displayed in Search Console and you’ll receive notifications by mail informing you of progress.

In this screenshot, we see that Google has detected 290 Breadcrumb Schemas on the site. Google had indicated a Missing field ‘position’ error on one page, but we checked and the code was correct. We therefore sent a Validate Fix request to Google and, as the image shows, the Validation was “Passed”. Here’s the detail:

Conclusion

Test your Schema as often as you can. Check into Search Console regularly, to make sure that there are no errors or warnings. But when you request a fix to be validated, be patient for changes to appear. Don’t over do Schema on your pages either. Only add what is necessary.

To learn more, we recommend you read our different Guides on this subject:

• Enable Google Structured data types
• Create an automatic schema
• Create your custom schema in JSON-LD with SEOPress PRO
• How to markup your content with schemas
• Enable Google Knowledge Graph