Google Once Again Says Structured Data Does Not Impact Ranking

Jan 17, 2020 - 7:52 am 3 by

Google Highlighter

Google, once again, had to say structured data does not impact ranking in web search. But this time Google had to say it because their structured data warnings in Google Search Console were confusing to understand and came off like bad structured data can result in a ranking drop.

Again, this is nothing new, Google has said numerous times structured data is not a ranking factor and said even if you get penalized for structured data misuse, it won't result in a ranking drop but rather the removal of rich results in search.

So good structured data won't give you ranking boost and spammy structured data won't give you a ranking decline. We already know that.

I like to think of structured data as a highlighter for the search results. It makes parts of your content on your page stand out in the search results snippet via rich results.

But here it is again from Google:

Here is more on this:

Clearly written by Danny Sullivan...

He then explained why this is coming up - if you follow Danny on Twitter you would have seen him going back and forth with some publishers on this:

Here is where that thread started:

Hope this helps.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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