Which Site Audit Report Finds Structured Data Issues?

13 June 2026 · By John Carlsson

Structured data problems show up in the technical SEO part of a site audit, which flags missing required fields, invalid values and wrongly built JSON-LD. To check exactly what Google reads from a page, test it in Google's Rich Results Test.

To find structured data issues on your site, use the Technical SEO Audit report within a site audit tool. This examines behind-the-scenes elements influencing how search engines crawl and interpret content. Structured data (schema.org markup) helps search engines understand page context, and errors prevent rich results. A technical audit flags missing required fields, invalid markup, or incorrectly implemented JSON-LD.

What structured data issues look like in practice

The most common structured data issues flagged in technical audits fall into a few categories. Missing required fields are the most frequent: a Product schema that's missing the 'offers' property, or an Article schema with no 'datePublished'.

Invalid values cause failures too — a price formatted as '£19.99' when schema expects a number without the currency symbol, or a date formatted incorrectly. Schema type mismatches (marking up a page as a Recipe when it's actually a Product page) are less common but more damaging. And outdated properties that Google has deprecated sometimes appear on pages that were marked up years ago and never updated.

Validating structured data properly

The most reliable way to check whether structured data is working correctly is to test it with Google's Rich Results Test tool, which shows exactly what Google sees in your markup and flags any errors or warnings. Unlike general site audit tools, the Rich Results Test also tells you whether the page is eligible for rich results (such as star ratings, product details and other enhanced search appearances that structured data can unlock). Testing a page before deploying new schema is the single best way to avoid shipping broken structured data to live pages.

Prioritising which schema errors to fix first

Not all structured data errors carry equal weight. Errors on your highest-traffic or most commercially important pages should be fixed first. Errors that prevent rich results (like a missing 'ratingValue' that stops star ratings appearing) are worth fixing before warnings that don't block the feature but indicate incomplete data. Pages with no schema markup at all — particularly FAQ pages, product pages, and how-to guides — should be prioritised for initial implementation over fixing minor warnings on already-marked-up pages.

Key Takeaways

Technical SEO audit reports surface structured data errors: missing fields, invalid values, wrong types.
Always validate new schema with Google's Rich Results Test before deploying live.
Prioritise errors on high-traffic pages and errors blocking rich results over minor warnings.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common structured data issues?

Missing required fields are the most frequent, such as a Product schema without the offers property or an Article schema with no datePublished. Invalid values also cause failures, for example a price written with a currency symbol when schema expects a plain number, or an incorrectly formatted date. Schema type mismatches, such as marking up a product page as a Recipe, are less common but more damaging. Outdated properties that Google has deprecated also appear on pages that were marked up years ago and never updated, so older markup needs reviewing too.

How do I test if my structured data is working?

The most reliable method is Google's Rich Results Test, which shows exactly what Google sees in your markup and flags any errors or warnings. Unlike general site audit tools, it also tells you whether the page is eligible for rich results, such as star ratings, product details and other enhanced search appearances that structured data can unlock. Testing a page before deploying new schema is the single best way to avoid shipping broken structured data to live pages, so it is worth making this a standard step whenever markup is added or changed.

Which schema errors should I fix first?

Not all structured data errors carry equal weight. Fix errors on your highest-traffic or most commercially important pages first. Errors that stop rich results appearing, such as a missing ratingValue that prevents star ratings showing, should come before warnings that do not block the feature but point to incomplete data. Pages with no schema markup at all, particularly FAQ pages, product pages and how-to guides, should be prioritised for initial implementation ahead of fixing minor warnings on pages that already have markup. This order delivers the greatest benefit for the effort involved.