Do you worry about your WordPress site to get too many errors on Google Structured Data (Missing: title, author, updated)? Today we are sharing the solution for the google structured data errors. The reason this errors occur is that Google search engine robot can’t find the title, author, and updated information in a post page. In order to fix this issue, we need to put code that displays those information (title, author, updated) in the post page.
Let’s fix the errors
Step 01. Firstly, find the single.php so you can edit the post page. Where is the Single.php? Login in your wordpress > Appearance > Edit
Step 02. Once you select the Editor in the left menu, you could see a lot of .php files in your right side. Try to find Single.php file in the right side and click on it.
Step 03. Now we are going to edit or replace a code to get rid of the structured data errors.
For Missing: title
- Try to find if you have this code <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>. If you have this code? Try to replace it to <h1 class=”entry-title”><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
For Missing: author
- Try to find the following code <?php the_author(); ?> and replace this code to <div style=”display: none”>
<span class=”vcard author”><span class=”fn”><?php the_author(); ?></span></span></div> - If you couldn’t find the following code? <?php the_author(); ?>? Just insert this code <div style=”display: none”> <span class=”vcard author”><span class=”fn”><?php the_author(); ?></span></span></div> right below <h1 class=”entry-title”><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
For Missing: updated
- Try to find the following code <?php the_date(); ?> and replace it to <div style=”display: none”><span class=”date updated”><?php the_modified_date( ‘F j, Y @ g:iA’ ); ?></span></div>
- If you couldn’t find this code <div style=”display: none”>, Just insert this code <div style=”display: none”><span class=”date updated”><?php the_modified_date( ‘F j, Y @ g:iA’ ); ?></span></div> right below <h1 class=”entry-title”><?php the_title(); ?></h1>.
For Missing: title & Missing:author & Missing:updated
Basically most of single.php page have this code. <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>. If your single.php doesn’t include author code or updated code, you can just insert those code together right below the this code <h1 class=”entry-title”><?php the_title(); ?></h1>.
<h1 class=”entry-title”><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
<div style=”display: none”>
<span class=”vcard author”><span class=”fn”><?php the_author(); ?></span></span>
<span class=”date updated”><?php the_modified_date( ‘F j, Y @ g:iA’ ); ?></span>
</div>
How Do I know if it’s fixed?
Actually it takes few days to know if it’s corrected. But there is a way to check if it’s edited properly.
Step 01. Visit Google Search Console site > Search Appearance > Structured Data > Select hentry.
Step 02. Click on any page URL and the detail information window will pop up. Click on the Test list data at the bottom.
Step 03. Once you click the test live data, you will get the structured data testing tool. If you look at the right side, you will see title, updated, author information has been created in your post page. Also those google structured data errors will be disappeared within several days.
