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Schema

Schema is the best way to describes structured data for search engines. Based on the data provided, search engines can show the content in the search results page in a more appealing way.

Slim SEO outputs schema data via JSON-LD in a single <script> tag in the footer. The plugin also provides connections between schemas. Connections are important because it gives search engines a lot of information for not only the main content of the web page, but also related information, which help them understand it deeply.

For example, if you're on a single post, the plugin can tell search engines about the main entity of the page is an article, which has an author and belongs to a webpage of an organization. The webpage has a breadcrumb list, and belongs to a website, which has a search box. This way, search engines not only understand about the content of article, but also author, organization and the website structure.

Advanced Schema

The free version of Slim SEO has supports for basic schemas of your website. If you want to add custom schemas for your custom post types, please see Slim SEO Schema.

Supported Schema Types

Slim SEO adds various schemas depending on the context of the current page. The sections below describes the schemas, omitting the @type and @id properties since they're just technical terms.

Global Schemas

These are global schemas that are outputted for every page:

  • Website
    • Name
    • URL
    • Search box
  • Webpage
    • Name
    • Description
    • Language
    • URL
    • Date published (for singular pages)
    • Date modified (for singular pages)
    • Primary image of page (for singular pages)
    • Image (for singular pages)
  • Breadcrumbs

For specific page types, the following schemas are outputted:

Single Posts

For single posts, the plugin adds the following schema:

  • Article
    • Headline
    • URL
    • Date published
    • Date modified
    • Comment count
    • Word count
    • Keywords: list of post tags
    • Sections: list of categories
  • Author
    • Name
    • Given name (first name)
    • Family name (last name)
    • Description
    • Image: reference to user Gravatar

Archive Pages

For archive pages: category page, tag page, post type archive page, date archive page, the @type of Webpage becomes CollectionPage.

Search Result Pages

For search result pages, the @type of Webpage becomes SearchResultsPage.

Author Pages

For search result pages, the @type of Webpage becomes ProfilePage. And there is a new schema Person with the following data:

  • Name
  • Given name (first name)
  • Family name (last name)
  • Description
  • Image: reference to user Gravatar

Theme Compatibility

Some WordPress themes already output schema in their HTML markup. And that might cause duplication of schema markup and makes search engines confuse. To fix this problem, Slim SEO automatically disables schema for the following popular themes:

  • Beaver Theme
  • Genesis framework and all Genesis themes

For other themes, you might need to disable schema output from Slim SEO. See below for instruction.

AMP & Web Stories Support

The plugin supports for AMP and Web Stories from Google. It removes the default schema graph added by the AMP, Web Stories plugin and provides the more comprehensive schema graph.

You don't need to do anything to add support for AMP or Web Stories. The plugin automatically handle everything for you.

FAQ

How to disable schema output?

To disable the schema feature, please use the following code:

add_action( 'slim_seo_init', function( $plugin ) {
$plugin->disable( 'schema' );
} );

How to disable a specific schema?

Each schema can be disabled with a filter. For example, to disable schema for breadcrumbs, use the following code:

add_filter( 'slim_seo_schema_breadcrumbs_enable', '__return_false' );

In general, to disable a specific schema, use the following code:

add_filter( "slim_seo_schema_{$context}_enable", '__return_false' );

Where $context is the schema context, which can be referred below:

SchemaContext
Websitewebsite
Search actionsearchaction
Webpagewebpage
Organizationorganization
Logologo
Breadcrumbsbreadcrumbs
Articlearticle
Thumbnailthumbnail
Authorauthor
Author imageauthor_image

How to modify the schema output of a specific type?

To modify the output of a specific schema type, please use the following code:

add_filter( "slim_seo_schema_{$context}", function ( $schema ) {
// Add or modify a property.
$schema['some_property'] = 'Some value';

// Or remove a property.
unset( $schema['another_property'] );

return $schema;
} );

The $context is the same as the previous section.

How to change schema for posts from Article to BlogPost

Using the hook described above, you can switch the schema type for posts from Article (default) to BlogPost:

add_filter( "slim_seo_schema_article", function ( $schema ) {
$schema['@type'] = 'BlogPosting';
return $schema;
} );

How to add more schemas?

Sometimes, you want to add more schemas to provide more information about the page, such as a product page or about page. To do that, use the following code:

add_filter( 'slim_seo_schema_graph', function ( $graph ) {
if ( is_singular( 'movie' ) ) {
$graph[] = [
'@type' => 'Movie',
'name' => get_the_title(),
'director' => get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'director', true ),
];
}

return $graph;
} );