Article Schema: Implementation for Blogs and News Sites

Which Type to Use

Google says Article objects “must be based on one of the following schema.org types: Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting.”

Choose the type that describes the content. Google’s Article documentation gives the same recommended properties for all three, so pick by accuracy, and use one type per article rather than marking the same content as two.

The Properties Google Recommends

Google lists these as recommended, not required:

Images: Google recommends “multiple high-resolution images (minimum of 50K pixels when multiplying width and height) with the following aspect ratios: 16×9, 4×3, and 1×1.” For example, a 1200 × 675 image (16×9) has 810,000 pixels, well above that minimum.

Dates: Google recommends timezone information; “otherwise, we will default to the timezone used by Googlebot.” Change dateModified only when the content changes; see publication dates and last-updated signals.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "headline": "How to Read a Property Tax Bill",
  "image": [
    "https://example.com/photos/16x9/tax-bill.jpg",
    "https://example.com/photos/4x3/tax-bill.jpg",
    "https://example.com/photos/1x1/tax-bill.jpg"
  ],
  "datePublished": "2026-03-04T09:00:00-05:00",
  "dateModified": "2026-09-10T14:30:00-04:00",
  "author": [{
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Example Author",
    "url": "https://example.com/authors/example-author/"
  }]
}
</script>

Other schema.org properties, such as publisher, description or wordCount, are valid vocabulary, but Google’s Article documentation doesn’t list them among the properties it supports for this feature.

Author Markup

Google’s author best practices, in the same documentation:

• Include every author shown on the page: “Make sure that all the authors that are presented as authors on the web page are also included in markup.”
• One author per field. List several authors as separate objects, never as one name string like “Willow Lane, Regula Felix”.
• Name only in author.name: no job title, honorific or introductory words such as “posted by”; use jobTitle, honorificPrefix or honorificSuffix for those.
• Use type and URL: “we strongly recommend using the type and url (or sameAs) properties.”

If the author URL points to a profile page on your site, Google recommends marking it up with profile page structured data. In examples, use placeholder profiles rather than real-looking user names, so copied code doesn’t point at someone else’s account. Author pages are covered in author pages and bylines, and organization identity in Organization and Person schema.

News Sites

• Markup isn’t required for News. Google’s statement applies: no markup is needed to be eligible for Google News features like Top stories. Google says Article markup on news pages “can help Google understand more about the web page”.
• News sitemaps help Google find new articles; see XML sitemaps.
• Paywalled content needs its own markup. Google’s paywalled content documentation says it “helps Google differentiate paywalled content from the practice of cloaking, which violates spam policies”:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsArticle",
  "headline": "City Council Approves New Budget",
  "isAccessibleForFree": false,
  "hasPart": {
    "@type": "WebPageElement",
    "isAccessibleForFree": false,
    "cssSelector": ".paywall"
  }
}
</script>

The cssSelector must match the class on the element that holds the paywalled text. Top Stories and news results are covered in Top Stories optimization.

Implementing at Scale

Put the markup in the article template, filled from the same fields that render the page: the title field feeds headline, the featured image feeds image, the byline feeds author. That keeps markup and visible content in sync and avoids drift such as a headline changed on the page but not in the markup, or a dateModified that updates on every page load.

Testing Article Markup

• Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator before release.
• URL Inspection to see the structured data Google found on a live page.
• Unparsable structured data report in Search Console for syntax errors. Search Console’s rich result reports don’t include an Article report, so don’t look for one.

Testing tools are compared in schema markup testing and validation tools.

Article Markup Errors to Avoid

• Treating recommended properties as required, or expecting a guaranteed feature.
• A headline that doesn’t match the visible title.
• Small or single-ratio images when Google recommends 16×9, 4×3 and 1×1 at 50K pixels or more.
• Several authors merged into one name.
• dateModified that changes without content changes.
• Article and NewsArticle on the same content.
• Paywall markup whose selector doesn’t match the page.

When the headline, image, dates or byline in the markup differ from what the page shows, fix the template field that fills them rather than the single page, or the same mismatch returns on the next article.