Structured Data dashboard: new markup error reports for easier debugging
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Thursday, December 12, 2013
Since we
launched the Structured Data dashboard
last year, it has quickly become one of the most popular features in Webmaster Tools. We've been
working to expand it and make it even easier to debug issues so that you can see how Google
understands the marked-up content on your site.
Starting today, you can see items with errors in the Structured Data dashboard. This new feature
is a result of a collaboration with webmasters, whom we invited in June to>register as early
testers of markup error reporting in Webmaster Tools. We've incorporated their feedback to improve
the functionality of the Structured Data dashboard.
An "item" here represents one top-level structured data element (nested items are not counted)
tagged in the HTML code. They are grouped by data type and ordered by number of errors:
We've added a separate scale for the errors on the right side of the graph in the dashboard, so
you can compare items and errors over time. This can be useful to spot connections between changes
you may have made on your site and markup errors that are appearing (or disappearing!).
Our data pipelines have also been updated for more comprehensive reporting, so you may initially
see fewer data points in the chronological graph.
How to debug markup implementation errors
To investigate an issue with a specific content type, click on it and we'll show you the markup
errors we've found for that type. You can see all of them at once, or filter by error type using
the tabs at the top:
Check to see if the markup meets the
implementation guidelines for each content type.
In our example case (events markup), some of the items are missing a startDate or
name property. We also surface missing properties for nested content types (for
example, a review item inside a product item)—in this case, this is the
lowprice property.
Click on URLs in the table to see details about what markup we've detected when we crawled the
page last and what's missing. You'll can also use the "Test live data" button to test your
markup in the
Structured Data Testing Tool.
Often when checking a bunch of URLs, you're likely to spot a common issue that you can solve
with a single change (for example, by adjusting a setting or template in your content management
system).
Fix the issues and test the new implementation in the
Structured Data Testing Tool.
After the pages are recrawled and reprocessed, the changes will be reflected in the Structured
Data dashboard.
We hope this new feature helps you manage the structured data markup on your site better. We will
continue to add more error types in the coming months. Meanwhile, we look forward to your comments
and questions here or in the dedicated Structured Data section of the
Webmaster Help forum.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe Structured Data dashboard in Webmaster Tools now displays items with markup errors, allowing webmasters to easily identify and debug issues.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eErrors are grouped by data type and ordered by the number of errors, with a timeline graph showcasing their occurrence over time.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters can investigate specific content types, filter errors, and utilize the Structured Data Testing Tool for debugging and validation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle will continue to enhance error reporting and encourages feedback from webmasters through the Webmaster Help Forum.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["The Structured Data dashboard in Webmaster Tools now displays items with markup errors, improving debugging capabilities. Users can view errors grouped by data type, compare item and error trends, and filter errors. To debug, users should click on content types to view errors, check implementation guidelines, and analyze specific URLs for missing properties. They can then use the Structured Data Testing Tool to fix and test their markup before it is re-crawled and reflected in the dashboard.\n"],null,["# Structured Data dashboard: new markup error reports for easier debugging\n\nThursday, December 12, 2013\n\n\nSince we\n[launched the Structured Data dashboard](/search/blog/2012/07/introducing-structured-data-dashboard)\nlast year, it has quickly become one of the most popular features in Webmaster Tools. We've been\nworking to expand it and make it even easier to debug issues so that you can see how Google\nunderstands the marked-up content on your site.\n\n\nStarting today, you can see items with errors in the Structured Data dashboard. This new feature\nis a result of a collaboration with webmasters, whom we invited in June to\\\u003eregister as early\ntesters of markup error reporting in Webmaster Tools. We've incorporated their feedback to improve\nthe functionality of the Structured Data dashboard.\n\n\nAn \"item\" here represents one top-level structured data element (nested items are not counted)\ntagged in the HTML code. They are grouped by data type and ordered by number of errors:\n\n\nWe've added a separate scale for the errors on the right side of the graph in the dashboard, so\nyou can compare items and errors over time. This can be useful to spot connections between changes\nyou may have made on your site and markup errors that are appearing (or disappearing!).\n\n\nOur data pipelines have also been updated for more comprehensive reporting, so you may initially\nsee fewer data points in the chronological graph.\n\nHow to debug markup implementation errors\n-----------------------------------------\n\n1. To investigate an issue with a specific content type, click on it and we'll show you the markup errors we've found for that type. You can see all of them at once, or filter by error type using the tabs at the top:\n2. Check to see if the markup meets the [implementation guidelines for each content type](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data). In our example case (events markup), some of the items are missing a `startDate` or `name` property. We also surface missing properties for nested content types (for example, a review item inside a product item)---in this case, this is the `lowprice` property.\n3. Click on URLs in the table to see details about what markup we've detected when we crawled the page last and what's missing. You'll can also use the \"Test live data\" button to test your markup in the [Structured Data Testing Tool](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets). Often when checking a bunch of URLs, you're likely to spot a common issue that you can solve with a single change (for example, by adjusting a setting or template in your content management system).\n4. Fix the issues and test the new implementation in the [Structured Data Testing Tool](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets). After the pages are recrawled and reprocessed, the changes will be reflected in the Structured Data dashboard.\n\n\nWe hope this new feature helps you manage the structured data markup on your site better. We will\ncontinue to add more error types in the coming months. Meanwhile, we look forward to your comments\nand questions here or in the dedicated Structured Data section of the\n[Webmaster Help forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/threads?hl=en&thread_filter=(category:structured_data)).\n\nPosted by\n[Mariya Moeva](https://plus.google.com/+MariyaMoeva/?rel=author),\nWebmaster Trends Analyst"]]
