(Note: a now deleted answer suggested the use of the meta element) Instead of the meta element, you should use the link element, because the content is a URI: When a string value is a URL, it is expressed using the a element and its href attribute, the img element and its src attribute, or … Read more
It’s perfectly fine not to provide these properties. Schema.org doesn’t require any property. If Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool says that certain properties are missing, what it really means is: “If you don’t provide these properties, we won’t show the corresponding Rich Snippet or Knowledge Graph feature in Google Search” There’s no need to get … Read more
This is strange. It’s definitely not conforming to the Microdata Note. Apart from Microdata’s itemref attribute, HTML5’s id attribute has no special meaning in Microdata. If Google wants to use the id value anyway, they should at least generate the URL with a fragment identifier, i.e., http://www.example.com/#foobar. My guess is that they are (probably unintentionally) … Read more
Yes, this is wrong. Neither Microdata nor HTML5 define a content attribute for the span element. Several people wanted to use it, see for example the code in these questions: Hide Microdata property value in ‘content’ attribute? Categories for Product in schema.org? Is the “content” attribute valid for the <span> tag > if so is … Read more
Your markup is valid HTML5+Microdata and you are using the Schema.org vocabulary appropriately. With “validator”, you probably refer to Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Note that errors shown in this tool don’t necessarily mean that your markup is wrong; they often mean that you won’t get a certain Google search result feature unless you provide … Read more
This answer is primarily about the WebPageElement types (like SiteNavigationElement). For WebPage, see my answer to the question Implicity of web page structure in Schema.org (tl;dr: it can be useful to provide WebPage, even for the current page). For WebSite, similar reasons from the answer above apply. HTML doesn’t allow you to state something about … Read more
About Google’s Microdata example Google’s Microdata example is invalid. If the meta element has the itemprop attribute, the content attribute is required (details). I described different ways how to specify mainEntityOfPage in Microdata, the most straigtforward one being a link element that creates a URL value (instead of another Microdata item): <link itemprop=”mainEntityOfPage” href=”http://example.com/article-1″ /> … Read more
The Microdata specification only differs between these types of values, which get derived from the HTML5 markup: item (if an element has an itemprop and an itemscope attribute) absolute URL (if the itemprop is specified on an URL property element like a, video etc.) datetime (if the itemprop is specified on a time element) string, … Read more
You can use every HTML5 element for Microdata … Microdata defines 5 new attributes for HTML5: itemid itemprop itemref itemscope itemtype Let’s see where they can be used. Section 5.2 says: Every HTML element may have an itemscope attribute specified. So every element can have itemscope. Further on it says: Elements with an itemscope attribute … Read more
So, to start with a couple of cliche’s and mangled metaphors – we’re talking apples and oranges a bit comparing OG and Schema.org, and when it comes to this metadata it’s horses for courses. The right answer depends on your intent, in adding metadata to your page. What is it that you’re hoping to gain? … Read more