Schema validation is important for SEO, as it confirms that structured data markup (or schema markup) can be read by search engine crawlers, so the content can be presented in rich results on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Lumar has therefore created several reports to help identify issues in structured data (you’ll find them in Rankability > Structured Data). However, there are some limitations to this reporting as it is a very complex area.

While an official schema does exist, Google does accept data that this schema would deem invalid. Reporting on whether structured data conforms to this schema wouldn’t be particularly useful as it would result in a lot of false negatives (i.e. not identifying issues that Google would flag) and very few false positives (i.e. flagging invalid schema that Google would actually accept).

We believe it is more useful to understand if Google sees the data as valid, as this will deliver more actionable insights to ensure content can be used in its rich results. Unfortunately, however, Google does not publish the schema it uses or a library that could be used by platforms like Lumar. Google does have a Rich Results Test Tool, but using this at scale would violate its usage policy.

So what does this mean for structured data reporting in Lumar?

To create the reports in Lumar, our engineers have run a number of tests and trials to identify the schema that Google takes when validating structured data. We now have a set of reports that we feel surfaces some useful data, but this will be an ongoing process to further refine our systems and bring us closer and closer to the schema Google uses. 

While this may result in a number of false positives in the reports, it will minimize false negatives. While not ideal, we feel this is the right approach to limit the risk of missing issues Google would flag and deliver more useful and actionable insights. Once identified, our team can then use these false positives to further understand Google’s approach so we continue to improve the insights provided in Lumar. 

Our team continues to run tests and trials to improve the reporting. If you do identify false positives within your reports, please notify our support team at support@lumar.io, as this will help us with this process.