Google’s New Flexibility: Mixing Structured Data Formats Now Allowed
Google has recently announced a significant update to its handling of structured data, which is set to impact SEO practices and offer more flexibility for webmasters. This change allows the merging of different formats of structured data, specifically JSON-LD and Microdata.
What Is Structured Data?
Structured data is a standardized format used to provide information about a webpage’s content, enabling search engines to better understand and interpret the data. By implementing structured data, website owners can enhance their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and potentially qualify for rich snippets and other enriched search features.
The Announcement: Merging Schema.org Structured Data Formats
Previously, website owners had to choose between JSON-LD or Microdata formats when marking up their content. However, Google has now given the green light to merge these two formats, offering more flexibility and options for webmasters. This change is not mandatory, and website owners can continue to use their existing JSON-LD structured data if it meets their needs.
Difference Between JSON-LD and Microdata Structured Data
JSON-LD, or JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, is a script that can be placed in the head section or anywhere within the body of an HTML page. One of the primary advantages of JSON-LD is its ease of maintenance and readability. It allows for separate, clean, and concise structured data, independent of the HTML markup. This makes it easier to troubleshoot and manage.
On the other hand, Microdata is markup that integrates with HTML as attributes of elements. It involves adding specific attributes to HTML elements to provide structured data. For example, a heading element (H1, H2, etc.) can contain a Microdata attribute to describe the name of a movie. Microdata offers a low-code solution for incorporating structured data directly into the HTML markup.
Use Cases for Mixing JSON-LD and Microdata
The ability to merge JSON-LD and Microdata opens up new possibilities and use cases for website owners. One common use case is to communicate the main content of a webpage to Google without bloating the JSON-LD structured data and HTML size. Now you can communicate to Google what the main content is (when using the Article structured data) with Microdata format of structured data without having to create a duplicate of all the content inside of the JSON-LD structured data.
Key Takeaways
This update from Google provides webmasters with more flexibility when implementing structured data on their websites. While it’s not mandatory to merge these two formats, it does offer potential benefits in specific use cases. As always, it’s important for website owners to stay updated with these changes to optimize their SEO practices.
