Google Structured Data Testing Tool is Going Away

Google Structured Data Testing Tool

For any webmaster, structured data is a great format to markup page information to help search engine crawlers understand what your page is about. Structured data is just like Search Engine Optimization that optimizes your site content so that search engine crawlers can understand your website. Every webmaster is very concerned about structured data of their website so that Google and other search engines get to know what exactly your site is all about. And this is where a structured data testing tool works and is utilized by many webmasters.

But the shocking news for the webmaster is that recently Google has deprecated a structured data testing tool now. Are you aware of this update? If not, this article is only for you.

Let’s know about the whole update below.

Google announced that structured data tool is going away

Recently, the SEO world is in great chaos because they are greatly shocked by the update on structured data tool. A few days ago, Google made an announcement about the rich results test tool that it is out of beta. With this update, Google also announced that structured data testing tool is going to deprecate at some point in the future.

What’s the purpose of Google for upgrading the rich results test? Guys, Google is officially moving the rich results test out of beta. Now it will fully support all Google search rich results features. Therefore, Google is upgrading the rich results test to support all of the same rich results features supported by Google search.

According to Google, “The rich results test fully supports all Google search rich result features.” But the deal is SEOs are already missing the structured data testing tool before it is gone.”

SEO community is not happy with the rich results test tool – why?

The update about the structured data testing tool has already saddened the SEO community. Why SEOs are not happy? SEOs are not happy with the update because the structured data testing tool is soon going away and a new tool that is rich results test is coming in place of it. Some of the SEOs say that rich results testing tool does not validate and test all rich results types like structured data testing tool.

Below given are some of the reviews from SEOs

  • Barry Adams says, “This is awful. The SDTT is a tool that validates all schemas and helps make the web a semantically richer place. The RR test only supports a tiny narrow subset of Google-approved schemas. He says to Google that you are downgrading the web with this move and making the web worse.
  • Ian Lurie says, “The new tool is painfully slow. The old school showed a structured data result for the URL tested above. It provided useful feedback and supported industry-wide standardization. He further says that Google is replacing great structured data tool for an inferior Google-specific one.
  • Praveen Sharma says, “Structured testing tool allows us to test the schema code itself, without HTML page code, that’s not possible with rich results test.
  • Dan Brackett says, “Alerts inside the structured data testing tool too! I’m not a fan of this change, if you’re looking to validate schema read via code, and unsure of your syntax, etc. The SDTT is far, far superior than the rich results tool.

What Google recommends to SEO community?

There is no doubt that whatever Google does, does for a reason that has some significant purpose. Likewise, Google says structured data testing tool is still available for a short time. But Google recommends that you need to comfortable using the rich results testing tool sooner than later. Google emphasizes the benefits of using the rich results test over the structured data testing tool. Below are some of the benefits of rich results tool –

  • Rich results tool shows which search feature enhancements are valid for markup you are providing.
  • It provides results for both mobile and desktop versions.
  • It is fully line up with search console reports.
  • Rich result tools can handle dynamic loaded structured data markup more effectively and efficiently.
  • The tool also has the capability to test either a whole URL of a page or an isolated code snippet.

In a blog post, Google explains a few things about the rich results tool that more experienced SEOs are familiar with, “The test returns errors and warnings we detect on your page. Note that errors disqualify your page from showing up as a rich result. While warnings might limit the appearance, your page is still eligible for showing up as a rich result. For example, if there was a warning for a missing image property, that page could still appear as a rich result, just without an image.”

Let’s talk more about Google’s Rich Results Test

Now you know that Google structured testing tool is soon going to deprecate that’s why you need to know about rich results test.

Google introduced a rich results test in 2017. It introduced to test rich snippets, rich cards, and other types of ‘rich’ elements that can be displayed in search results. The rich results offer more reliable and more accurate information to display a page in search results. It also has the ability to test structured data within dynamically loaded content. Moreover, the tool is great for testing data sources such as JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.

The final bricks

Guys, the rich results is a great tool because it has the capability to support various types of structured data such as recipes, movies, jobs and courses. But Google’s structured testing tool supports any type of structured data but now Google is deprecating it. Therefore, Google recommends using rich results to test all types of markup that Google’s search results also support. To mark the transition easier, Google still offers the structured data testing tool for a limited time. So don’t get fret, just make yourself familiar with rich results in the time period offered by Google.

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