When it comes to getting your web content discovered and clicked on in search results, structured data can give you the boost you need. This is one of the reasons why you have to make sure that your structured data tool is always updated to ensure that your markup code has been implemented properly. In case you haven’t heard already, Google has recently released several updates to its structured data testing tool to make it more useful.
According to the tech giant’s Webmaster Central Blog, the new Structured Data Testing tool “better reflects how Google interprets a web page’s structured data markup.” With the latest updates, it can now provide:
- Validation for all Google features powered by structured data.
- Support for markup in the JSON-LD syntax, including in dynamic HTML pages.
- Clean display of the structured data items on your page.
- Syntax highlighting of markup problems right in your HTML source code.
The tech giant has also improved its documentation policy guidelines for Google features powered by structured data on the web. The new documentation explains the markup you need to add to enable different search features for your content. With the improved documentation, it will be much easier for webmasters to determine what kind of working is supported in structured data.
According to Google, they have also simplified their policies on using structured data. If you think another site is abusing Google’s rich snippets quality guidelines, you can lodge a complaint by simply using the rich snippets spam report form.
An update extending the support for Google’s schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD syntax has also been released by the tech giant. This will enable webmasters to utilise the syntax to the following new use cases: company logs and contacts; social profile links; events in the Knowledge Graph; the sitelinks search box; and event rich snippets. The tech giant said it is working on expanding support for additional markup-powered features in the future to provide more convenience for webmasters.
Meanwhile, Google has taken it upon itself to warn webmasters with websites that are not mobile-friendly. According to reports, if the tech giant found out that your site is not functioning or being displayed properly on mobile, it will send you an email warning telling you that your site may not rank as well in mobile search results. To ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, Google is encouraging all webmasters to use the mobile-friendly site testing tool.
