[Google Search Console] Error: Missing field "item"

[ruzicic]

Since I started using where-is-my-bread, Google Search Console started reporting these errors:

One of many URLs that they report has this error is this one: https://studenti.rs/skripte/sociologija/umetnost/

Here is the HTML output from Where Is My Bread for this page (removed class to improve readability):

<ol itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/BreadcrumbList">
    <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
        <a itemprop="item" href="">
        <span itemprop="name">Skripte</span>
        </a>
        <meta itemprop="position" content="1">
    </li>
    <svg width="3" height="6" aria-hidden="true" >
        <path d="M0 0L3 3L0 6" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round"></path>
    </svg>
    <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
        <a itemprop="item" href="">
        <span itemprop="name">Sociologija</span>
        </a>
        <meta itemprop="position" content="2">
    </li>
    <svg width="3" height="6" aria-hidden="true" >
        <path d="M0 0L3 3L0 6" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round"></path>
    </svg>
    <li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem">
        <a itemprop="item" href="">
        <span itemprop="name">Umetnost</span>
        </a>
        <meta itemprop="position" content="3">
    </li>
</ol>

When I use validator.schema.org, which is the tool that Google suggested for debugging, to test this URL - no errors were found. But, there is an obvious error - missing field.

Any ideas if this is specific for my website or a bug/missing feature of the plugin?

[amarinediary]

@ruzicic Very interesting.

When I developed it, I used also the Google Search Console Validation Tool which didn't returned any errors at that time.

I've just tested it on both tools (the Schema and Google one) and I'm now getting inconsistent results.

That might be due to a more recent update on the Google Search Console Validation Tool.

I'm taking an interest in the issue and will try to come up with a fix over the upcoming week.

[ruzicic]

Thanks for taking an interest in this one! Note: I suggest using only the provided code snippet for testing, as on the latest version of my website I actually did many customizations, to resolve reported issues.

But I can not argue if it was indeed coming from my side - you may be right. However, when I used it, it was the latest version without any changes made from my side.

[amarinediary]

Your output is passing both verification without any issue.

I'm not able to reproduce tho I found a related post talking about that issue and discrepancies in between Validation tools and the Google Search console.

• see @ How To Resolve Misattributed Errors In The New Google Search Console

Additionally note that apparently some errors fade after additional check from the Google Bot.

[...] Our team has investigated a couple of instances where this search verifies that the markup is there, despite the disagreement with Search Console and has found a solution, where the errors decline steadily over the course of a few days, as seen here. [...]

[...] Additionally, in our experience, it will not necessarily resolve all of the errors on the first validation, thus you may need to rerun the validation to resolve the remaining issues. [...]

You can also take a look at Discrepancies in Google Search Console: Enhancement Reports vs. Performance Reports.

I will also add a "Know Issues" section in the README.md.

If you're able to fix the issue I'm definitely interested in the answer and will update the source code according to your answer.

[amarinediary]

I've written a new section in regards to that issue with additional information:

• see @ Discrepancies between Google Schema Validation tools and the Google Search Console Enhancement Reports and Performance Reports.