How to Check Structured Data (Schema Markup) in 2026

Structured data is the code that tells search engines what a page is: a product with a price, an article with an author, a business with an address. When it works, Google can show richer results for your pages. When it breaks, nothing on the page looks different. The markup just stops working, quietly, until someone checks.

And it breaks more often than people think. A theme update rewrites the template, an SEO plugin changes its output, a developer edits the JSON by hand and leaves a stray comma. One invalid character and search engines ignore the whole block.

This guide shows how to check structured data on any page, which free tools to use for what, the errors that break schema most often, and what changed in Google's rich results in 2025 and 2026, because a lot of older advice is now out of date.

What structured data is, in one minute#

Structured data is a small block of code, usually JSON-LD, that describes a page using the shared vocabulary from schema.org. A product page might include something like this:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Trail Running Shoe",
  "image": "https://example.com/shoe.jpg",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "price": "89.00",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"
  }
}

There are three formats: JSON-LD (a separate script block, and the one Google recommends), Microdata and RDFa (attributes woven into the HTML). Most modern sites, themes and SEO plugins use JSON-LD.

Structured data doesn't directly raise rankings. What it does is make a page eligible for rich results (prices, availability, review stars, breadcrumbs and more) and help search engines understand exactly what the page is about. Eligibility is not a guarantee: Google decides whether to show a rich result.

What changed in 2025 and 2026#

If you're following an older guide, these changes matter:

• June 2025: Google retired seven structured data features from Search: Book Actions, Course Info, Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement and Vehicle Listing. Their Search Console reports and Rich Results Test support were removed in September 2025.
• May 2026: FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search. They had already been limited to authoritative government and health sites since 2023.
• 2023: HowTo rich results were removed.

None of this means you should rip out the markup. FAQPage and other schema.org markup is still valid, other search engines and AI tools can still read it, and it does no harm. It just won't produce those particular rich results in Google any more, so don't expect them and don't judge a page by their absence.

The rich results that still matter for most sites include Product (price, availability, shipping and returns), review snippets, Article, Breadcrumb, Organization (logo and brand details), Local business, Event, Recipe, Video and Job posting. Check Google's structured data gallery for the current list before investing in a new type.

4 ways to check structured data#

1. Google's Rich Results Test (does Google see a rich result?)#

The Rich Results Test answers one specific question: is this page eligible for a Google rich result, and if not, why?

Paste a URL or a code snippet and it shows every rich result type it detected, each with:

• Errors (red): something required is missing or invalid. The page is not eligible for that rich result until it's fixed.
• Warnings (orange): a recommended property is missing. The result can still appear, but with less detail.

It renders the page like Googlebot does, so it also catches markup that's added by JavaScript. Use it for any page type Google supports with a rich result. It only reports on types Google uses, so markup for other types won't show up here even when it's perfectly valid.

2. Schema Markup Validator (is the markup correct at all?)#

The Schema Markup Validator checks markup against the full schema.org vocabulary, not just the parts Google uses. It shows every item it finds, in any format, and flags syntax problems and unknown types or properties.

Use it when the Rich Results Test shows nothing (for a type Google doesn't use for rich results, such as many Organization or WebSite properties), or when you want to see the complete structure of everything on the page.

3. Google Search Console (what's broken across the whole site?)#

Testing pages one at a time won't tell you that 400 product pages lost their price yesterday. Search Console will.

• The rich result reports (such as Product snippets, Merchant listings, Breadcrumbs, Videos) list every page Google found with that markup, split into valid, valid with warnings, and invalid. Open an issue to see the affected URLs.
• URL Inspection shows the structured data Google detected on one specific page, as of its last crawl.

Search Console data lags by days, so it's for spotting site-wide problems, not for checking a fix you made five minutes ago. Use the Rich Results Test for that, then press Validate fix in the report.

4. A quick JSON-LD checker (what's actually on this page right now?)#

Sometimes you just want to see the raw markup: every JSON-LD block on the page, whether it parses, and what it says.

MyKavo's free Structured Data Checker lists every JSON-LD block on a page, catches invalid JSON and checks common schema.org properties. It's useful for comparing pages (why does this product have a price in search results and that one doesn't?), and for checking what a theme or plugin is actually printing.

The errors that break structured data most often#

Invalid JSON. The most common and the most damaging, because one syntax error makes search engines ignore the whole block. Watch for trailing commas after the last item, unescaped quotes inside text (a product name with " in it), and smart quotes pasted in from a word processor.

Missing required properties. Each rich result type has required fields. A Product without a name, or without any offer, review or rating, won't qualify. The Rich Results Test lists exactly which ones are missing.

Markup that doesn't match the page. Google's guidelines require structured data to describe content that's visible on the page. A price in the markup that differs from the price on the page, or reviews that don't exist, can lose you rich results and, in serious cases, lead to a manual action.

Wrong value formats. Dates should be in ISO 8601 (2026-10-12 or 2026-10-12T09:00:00+05:30), prices should be plain numbers without currency symbols ("89.00", with the currency in priceCurrency), and URLs should be absolute (https://..., not /images/shoe.jpg).

Duplicate or conflicting blocks. Two plugins both outputting Product or Organization markup, with different values, is common on WordPress. Pick one source of truth and switch the other off.

Markup that disappeared. A theme update, a page builder change or a plugin switch can remove structured data entirely. Nothing errors, so nothing reports it until the rich results fade from search.

How to fix structured data problems#

1. Find the source. On WordPress and Shopify, structured data usually comes from the theme or an SEO plugin or app, not from the page content. Fix it there, once, rather than page by page.
2. Fix the template, not the page. If one product is broken, they probably all are. A fix in the template repairs every page that uses it.
3. Re-test immediately with the Rich Results Test on a few affected URLs.
4. Tell Google by pressing Validate fix in the Search Console report. It re-checks the affected pages over the following days.

Keep it from breaking again#

Structured data fails silently, so the real risk is not knowing. A few habits help:

• Re-test your key templates after every theme, plugin or app update: one product page, one article, one category page. It takes two minutes.
• Check Search Console's rich result reports weekly. A sudden rise in invalid items is the earliest warning you'll get.
• Run a regular site audit. MyKavo's Site Audit flags pages with invalid JSON-LD and pages with no structured data at all, alongside 90+ other technical checks, sorted by severity.
• Monitor the pages that earn money. Updates that break schema often break other things at the same time: titles, canonicals, noindex tags, scripts. MyKavo watches those pages against an approved baseline and alerts you when they change, with the before and after.

The bottom line#

Structured data is easy to check and easy to break. Use the Rich Results Test to see what Google can use, the Schema Markup Validator to check everything else, and Search Console to catch site-wide problems. Fix errors in the template rather than page by page, and re-test after every update.

Start with your most important page in the free Structured Data Checker, then run a free site audit to find every page with broken or missing schema.