Two new changes to the Google Search Console rich results report

March 23, 2021 0 comments

Google has updated the Google Search Console rich results report. The two changes are related to:

The job posting report, and
The FAQ and Q&A rich results report

Changes to the FAQ and Q&A report were made earlier this month, on March 2, 2021. However, changes to the job posting report are more recent; they were made on March 11, 2021.

Let’s see what the two changes are and how these changes may impact webmasters as well as SEO professionals managing other websites.

1. FAQ and Q&A report

Starting from March 2, 2021, Google has changed how it checks the validity of FAQ and Q&A structured data.

Before March 2, 2021, Google was checking the validity of the structured data at the root level. However, after the change, the FAQ and Q&A structured data will be checked for validity below the root entity level.

With this update in Google’s methodology, it is expected that webmasters will see more warnings regarding the validity of FAQ and Q&A items in the Google Search Console rich results reports.

According to Google, this change was made to “reflect an accurate count of root and nested entities that we found on your website.”

2. Job posting report

Starting on March 11, 2021, Google has also changed the requirements for the Education, Experience, and Experience in Place of Education properties of the job posting markup.

According to Google, you may see an increase in “warnings for Job Posting instances.”

Google also advised following the new requirements in this documentation if you notice new errors or notices in the Google Search Console rich results report.

Conclusion

With these changes, Google is able to detect and display new potential issues with your structured data. If you use structured data on your website (which you should), it is a good idea to do a quick audit and see if you can notice these errors in the Google Search Console rich results report.