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Google removes 12 structured data fields from the help documents

Jason October 29, 2021 0 Comments

Google has removed 12 documented structured data fields from its help documents citing these were removed because they are “unused by Google Search and Rich Result Test doesn’t flag warnings for them.”

What was removed. Google removed 12 different structured data fields from within HowTo, QApage and SpecialAnnouncements rich results types. These include:

HowTo: description field.
QAPage: mainEntity.suggestedAnswer.author, mainEntity.dateCreated, mainEntity.suggestedAnswer.dateCreated, mainEntity.acceptedAnswer.author, mainEntity.acceptedAnswer.dateCreated, and mainEntity.author fields.
SpecialAnnouncement: provider, audience, serviceType, address, and category fields.

Google removed these 12 fields from the help documents to more accurately describe what Google Search and the Rich Results Test support.

Remove the code? Should you remove the code and fields from your structured data and code on your web pages? No, you do not have to. Google simply will not support them, but it doesn’t hurt you to keep the fields populated on your pages. Google simply won’t use them for Google Search.

Why we care. If you are using these fields, just be aware that these have been officially removed from Google’s Search help documentation. They do not work for rich results in Google Search and the testing tool won’t notify you if there are errors or warning with these field types.

Again, you do not need to remove the fields from your structured data, but Google will simply ignore them.

The post Google removes 12 structured data fields from the help documents appeared first on Search Engine Land.

AboutJason Richardson

Jason specializes in digital marketing strategies and founded a digital marketing agency Richardson Digital Media™. Richardson Digital Media™ has quickly become a preferred marketing provider for real estate companies and nationwide mortgage lenders. Jason has won 9 President’s Circle of Excellence Awards for loan production over his career and was most recently honored as one of National Mortgage Professional Magazine’s “40 Under 40: The 40 Most Influential Mortgage Professionals.”