Which Site Audit report would you use to find issues with your site's structured data?
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 And outdated properties that Google has deprecated sometimes appear on pages that were marked up years ago and never updated.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 (the star ratings, FAQ boxes, 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.