Is Customizr theme outputting the correct markup for Google structured data when the option to show the update date is enabled?

[ghost]

reported here : https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/818376242/216831/?folderId=607547

hentry Date of updated and published is the same When I checked a website with Google's structured data test tool, hentry's updated and published dates are the same.

The actual update date is March 21, 2019. Is Customizr theme outputting the correct markup when the option to show the update date is enabled?

[ghost]

This is how the most popular magazine handles it

<span class="td-post-date"><time class="entry-date updated td-module-date" datetime="2017-03-22T05:47:36+00:00">Mar 22, 2017</time></span>

https://demo.tagdiv.com/newspaper/the-most-anticipated-charter-flights-in-the-canary-islands/

[eri-trabiccolo]

In the screenshot the two dates are different BUT the published date (the one with the .published class, which makes is a structured data) has also the .updated class, which, I think creates the issue: two updated data, probably only the first is taken into account.

I think the updated class has been added to respond to address a common "issue" (request), back in the past (in the classical style), which had to do with the required structured data of an hentry, see http://microformats.org/wiki/hentry.

The difference with the classical style is that the "published" date element in the classical style has no published class, while it has an update class, this is still wrong as you can still have an updated data referring to a "wrong" data, and still have 2 .updated elements as well.

So we need to test what is really needed and make sure what is needed is always present despite the user visual choice, I think. I mean, if the user doesn't want to display the update date element we still need the .updated and it still has to be consistent, referring to the actual updated date.

[eri-trabiccolo]

https://demo.tagdiv.com/newspaper/the-most-anticipated-charter-flights-in-the-canary-islands/

I see what you mean, and probably having only one .updated, and no .published (which is not mandatory), it's enough for google, but still consider that in the link above, the date element with .updated says: "2017-03-22T05:47:36+00:00" while the actual update date of that article is "2018-06-15T13:12:25+00:00" (as you can see from the source, look for: <meta property=og:updated_time content="2018-06-15T13:12:25+00:00" />)   I think we have to decouple the structured data (we can always print and not display them) from what we refer to as post "metas" whose presence is more a visual thing than anything else.

[ghost]

thanks for the feedback. yes I remember the trick about adding updated.

To put it simple : the problem to solve is : what is the correctly written line of code that we have to print on the page so Google reads a correct update date info.

I have no real clue what Google uses on the page to determine the structured data. This needs research and test. We'll discuss it during our next chat.

[eri-trabiccolo]

Yeah that's what I tried to say :) We need to know what google wants, which means what's the correct structured data expected for an .hentry (see the link above). Hence we have to print this data anyways whether or not the user wants to display the update date meta (a similar thing with happen for the author, if the user doesn't display it).

[ghost]

yes !

[eri-trabiccolo]

Maybe if we don't print any "data" related stuff would be fine too, and suggest the Yoast SEO plugin it would be enough: https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-11-0/#utm_source=wordpress.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=release-11-19 that's their field :D

[ghost]

@eri-trabiccolo @emran : from now on, we recommend Yoast SEO to manage the Google structured data markup in the Customizr theme. Thanks