Structured data helps search engines understand your content and can make pages eligible for Rich Results in Google Search. Lumar validates structured data against Google's Rich Results requirements, helping you identify issues that could prevent your pages from appearing with enhanced search features.
Why this matters
Rich Results help your pages stand out in Google SERPs. Instead of showing just a title and description, Google may display star ratings, prices, product availability, FAQ accordions, and other details directly in results.
This extra information helps you compete for attention. Users can see whether a product is in stock, read review scores, or check prices before they click, which means the traffic you get is better qualified and more likely to convert. For e-commerce sites especially, these listings act as a shop window in search, showing potential customers the value of your products before they visit your site.
Not all structured data types produce visible enhancements. Some help Google better understand your content without changing how it appears in search.
Why we validate against Google's requirements
An official Schema.org specification exists, but Google's Rich Results requirements differ from this standard. Google accepts some markup that Schema.org would consider invalid, and requires specific properties beyond the Schema.org minimum.
Validating against Schema.org alone would produce misleading results, flagging markup that Google accepts while missing issues that actually prevent Rich Results. Lumar validates against Google's documented requirements to give you actionable insights about real Rich Results eligibility.
How Lumar validates structured data
Google provides a Rich Results Test for checking individual pages, but doesn't publish the validation rules or offer a bulk testing API. Our validation engine mirrors Google's behaviour by testing against each structured data type and error scenario. This approach lets you validate structured data across your entire site, not just one page at a time.
Errors and warnings
Lumar distinguishes between two types of validation issues, you can configure reports to surface only errors, or errors and warnings in crawl settings.
- Errors indicate problems with required properties that prevent Rich Results eligibility. Pages with errors won't appear with enhanced search features until the issues are fixed.
- Warnings indicate missing recommended properties. Pages with warnings may still qualify for Rich Results, but adding these properties could improve how your content appears.
Extracted JSON-LD for debugging
Each validation report includes the extracted JSON-LD block for affected pages. This shows you exactly what structured data Lumar found, making it easier to locate and fix issues in your markup.
We regularly test our validator against Google's Rich Results Test and refine validation rules as requirements change. If you find pages that pass Google's test but show errors in Lumar, contact support@lumar.io with the page URL and a screenshot of Google's result. This feedback helps us improve validation accuracy for all customers.