How To: Confirm Schema App Markup is Deploying

Purpose: Confirming that your markup is deploying is a crucial first step when troubleshooting issues. Additionally, it is a critical step in the authoring process.

Goal: Confirm the markup generated by the Editor or Highlighter is present on the page and loads within an acceptable timeframe.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How To: Confirm Markup in the Rendered HTML
• How To: Confirm Markup with the Schema Markup Validator & Rich Results Test 

How To: Confirm Markup in the Rendered HTML

Step 1: Navigate to a page on a specific domain that is targeted by a specific template.

If you are not sure which URLs are targeted by a template, check the "Page Count" for that template in the Highlight section of Schema App. If you are deploying using Robots Only, you will need to view the page as Googlebot. This support document will explain that process.

Step 2: Inspect the page and search for "ld+json" to confirm there is markup present and identify its source.

You can open Dev Tools in Chrome or equivalent by using the following key combination: CTRL + Shift + "I" or by right clicking the page and selecting "Inspect Page".

On this example URL there are 2 sources of markup: The Editor (a linked data item) and the Highlighter

Note: There may be additional sources of schema markup, other than Schema App. One clue you can use to assess provenance is that Schema App typically includes a "data-source" attribute.

Step 3A: Confirm Schema App markup is deploying

If there is a match for this search term with the expected provenance, you have confirmed Schema App markup is deploying.

Step 3B: No matches are found, or provenance is missing: Schema App markup is not deploying

This suggests the template is not deploying to that URL. You will need to identify why the template is not deploying, resolve that issue, then begin this process again. Contact your CSM or [email protected] for help in this process.

Note: Deployment problems are often domain specific: just because a shared template is deploying on 1 domain does not automatically guarantee that it is deploying on the other domains.

How To Confirm Markup with the Schema Markup Validator & Rich Results Test 

You can test both a live URL and code with the Validator and Rich Results Tests.

• Schema Markup Validator
• Rich Results Test

If there is markup visible in the Elements tab of the live URL but either of the two tests shows "No Items Found", the page may be loading too slowly for Google to reliably find the markup. Further troubleshooting and changes may be required.

There may be additional markup that is not coming from Schema App. It may be written in JSON-LD, microdata, or hentry. If it conflicts with the markup we are deploying, we typically recommend removing it. 

Testing the rendered HTML of the live page may help save you some time. The Rich Results Test can take over a minute to complete and reviewing the rendered HTML can be a quick way to confirm markup is deploying. This is useful when you're reviewing many page and want to be effective with your time.