12 Top Structured Data Testing Tools

When it comes to building error-free websites, structured data testing tools are an essential part of the web development process. 

Structured data designates specific elements on a web page, such as snippet boxes, company logos, job postings and videos. Schema markup is the coding language that allows search engines to read and understand this structured data, potentially boosting a website’s SEO performance and search engine rankings.

However, missing or incorrect structured data can prevent search engines from properly reading a web page and its components. This can lead to a drop in SEO rankings and site traffic. That’s why data scientists, web developers, technical SEO specialists and programmers use structured data testing tools to detect errors, debug code and optimize data before deploying web pages.  

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What Do Structured Data Testing Tools Do?

Structured data testing tools are designed to flag errors in organized data that’s arranged in repositories, like databases, and provide insight on how to resolve issues, as well as tweak the data to get the best performance out of it.

The benefit of structured data, versus semi-structured or unstructured data, is that it’s easier to manipulate and query since it’s organized or structured for a specific system or purpose. Often that purpose is to communicate information about a web page, such as a logo, contact information, rich snippets that contain additional information about website content on search page results, or other information that may come up in search results.

Structured data testing tools are especially useful when it comes to creating data, such as metadata, to create website page information discoverable by search engines. 

These tools can validate metadata formats supported by Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Structured data testing tools can also detect your permalink (or URL) setup and show information to search engines based on the structured data. Some can identify taxonomies and custom post types merely by evaluating their code.

How to Choose a Structured Data Testing Tool

There are a number of structured data testing tools to help you with your coding efforts, but some may be better suited than others, depending on your specific needs.

Different tools excel at compiling reports based on web metrics, cleaning up specific web pages and elements, reading various coding languages and accommodating both desktop and mobile formats. 

The makeup of your team may also play a factor in deciding which structured data testing tool to go with. If you have a team of programmers, for example, you may feel comfortable selecting a tool that is more code-heavy. On the other hand, non-technical personnel may prefer a tool that takes care of any coding-related tasks.

12 Structured Data Testing Tools to Know

Google Rich Results Test

Looking to optimize your website for Google search results? This structured data testing tool, Google Rich Results Test, will focus on your desktop and mobile web pages to ensure they are optimized for the special features on Google’s search engine results page, or SERP, which returns search results after keywords are entered into the search box. The information returned can include featured snippets, video carousels and image packs.

This test can handle URLs for full web pages or home in on certain snippets of code. As a result, software, web design and SEO teams can apply this tool to quickly review structured data on their web pages and locate minor errors that need to be fixed. 

Google Search Console Structured Data Report

The Google Search Console provides a suite of tools and services for optimizing web pages. Users can have Google crawl sitemaps and URLs, review data points like impressions and clicks and glean insights from URL Inspection tool. Besides tracking a website’s performance on desktop browsers, teams can also gauge how sites perform in mobile formats. 

SEO teams can leverage Google Search Console for improving web pages and monitoring their performance, making adjustments when needed.

JSON-LD Playground

JSON-LD Playground helps determine whether your structured data syntax fulfills Javascript Object Notation (JSON) standards. JSON-LD, which is a fairly new structured data format, helps convert structured data that’s linked to a form that can be easily shared or stored and returned to its original structure when recovered. 

Teams simply plug in a URL or their structured data, and JSON-LD Playground delivers a complete report. This tool also shares examples of code structures for elements like recipes to give teams ideas for designing web pages. Because this tool is code-heavy, programmers or other personnel comfortable with different programming languages may be best at navigating JSON-LD Playground. 

Merkle Schema Markup Generator

Want to generate accurate structured data for your website and specific web pages? That’s the aim of the Merkle Schema Markup Generator. This markup generator can develop markup for different content types like articles, products, recipes and videos. Teams can then click on different elements, tailoring their markup to their needs.

Because Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator handles the heavy-duty work of creating structured data code, this tool is used by website owners and SEO agencies looking to quickly build and optimize web pages. 

Microsoft Bing Markup Validator

This structured data testing tool, which is part of Bing Webmaster Tools URL inspection tool, is especially useful when perfecting your site for Microsoft’s Bing. With this tool, you’ll not only find markup errors in your structured data but also receive suggestions on how to improve the data’s organization. 

Diving into the finer details, this tool can also review backlinks, crawl web pages to pinpoint technical SEO errors and compile SEO reports listing errors found across an entire website. SEO teams may find this tool especially useful for efficiently checking web pages and sites for errors and determining solutions for enhancing sites’ SEO performance.   

Schema.org

The Schema.org testing tool checks the rules defining the way your structured data is put together to ensure it meets all possible schema markup requirements. Teams add a URL or code snippet, and Schema.org analyzes it and adds the appropriate structured data. This tool also pairs well with different formats like RDFa, Microdata and JSON-LD. 

Webmasters may benefit the most from Schema.org. In addition to HTML, they can leverage Schema.org to implement different structured data vocabularies into their web pages, making their sites more readable for search engines. 

SEO Site Checkup Structured Data Test

SEO Site Checkup dishes out a comprehensive testing tool that analyzes your structured data to verify it meets HTML microdata extension specifications and suggests a priority for fixing the data errors and provides guide links to help fix them. Teams copy and paste their URL, then the structured data test analyzes the site to determine the state of its structured data. 

This tool uses HTML5 Microdata, so search engines can present search results in a way that allows consumers to find relevant web pages, making it a crucial tool for SEO personnel, programmers and web designers.   

Structured Data Linter

The Structured Data Linter tool verifies the structured data on HTML pages, processing microdata, RDFa and JSON-LD formats. While delivering snippet visualizations for Schema.org, this tool also provides vocabulary validations for Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol, Data-Vocabulary.org and other sites. 

Webmasters and web developers can leverage the Linter to make their web pages more readable and aid search engines in enhancing search results pages. 

Yandex Webmaster Structured Data Validator

The Yandex structured data testing tool is designed to ensure search engines correctly identify your web page metadata. This tool can determine a range of errors and warnings, such as pages not loading, missing markups and incorrect field values. To get started, users need to sign up for an account and either a site URL or HTML code snippet for review. 

Programmers and web designers can find this tool helpful for automating the structured data validation process for large amounts of web pages. They can also use Yandex’s tool to collect structured data from other websites to use for their own projects.  

RDF Translator

RDF Translator can validate a website’s structured data in various formats, including XML, RDF, RDFa and Microdata.  Teams can submit a URL address or code snippet, and RDF Translator checks to see if the structured data on a site is set up correctly. This tool is free and includes a REST API, increasing its accessibility. 

Web developers will appreciate the convenience of RDF Translator since it can validate a range of structured data formats and be easily integrated into websites.   

Microdata Tool

Microdata Tool is an ideal alternative to Google’s Webmaster Tools, which requires users to republish a site after every change. With Microdata Tool, users can verify and debug HTML5 code by using a jQuery drop-in script. To make the process even smoother, users can include Microdata Tool on their websites. 

This tool can be a lifesaver for programmers and web developers alike since it doesn’t require an internet connection or web server to run. As a result, users can apply this tool to sharpen their HTML5 code, even if they’re not in the office or don’t have access to Wi-Fi. 

Structured Data Markup Helper

Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper adds structured data markup to web pages, so Google can more easily read and present websites in its search results. Users can select the type of page they’re using and enter a URL or raw HTML. Then they can highlight elements on pages they want tagged.

SEO and web design personnel can enjoy the results of Structured Data Markup Helper because it makes it easier for Google to understand websites. If Google can read newly highlighted elements, it may present this information as rich snippets and draw more traffic to a site.

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Why Structured Data Testing Tools Are Important

Structured data testing tools are a key component of an SEO strategy. 

One error in your structured data, such as missing or wrong code in your markup, can prevent search engines from finding your information and displaying it in its results.

That, in turn, could potentially cost your company customers. Structured data can contain such information about your company’s product pricing and features, or perhaps, its customer ratings, but errors in your structured data may prevent that information from surfacing when a potential customer does a search.

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