How to Fix the Data-Vocabulary.Org Schema Deprecated Warning Error Message

In this post we're gonna talk about how to fix this breadcrumb issue as well as any other errors related to switching to Schema.org.

Updated in 1/28/2020 to add show that the Validation Fix is now showing "Passed" 😊 

So yesterday, a couple of bloggers and webmasters received 1-2 emails from Google: one regarding Adsense (if activated), and the other one warning us about this Breadcrumb issue called data-vocabulary.org schema deprecated.

Wait, whut?!

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. What Does This Error Mean and Why Should I Care? II. How to Fix This Data-Vocabulary.Org Schema Deprecated Error  A. Automatic Update - for Wordpress and Drupal  B. Manual Update - for Blogger and Squarespace III. Validating Fix for Breadcrumb Issue IV. Check if Breadcrumb Issue is Fixed

I. What Does This Error Mean and Why Should I Care?

Basically, all sites have a certain way on how their contents are structured (aka schema). If our websites follow the recommended schema of big search engines like Google and Yahoo (aka being search-engine optimized), it not only improves our sites' ranking in their search pages but also be chosen in the Q&A part for quick reference:

Or have its own featured snippet:

Currently Google now requires us to follow the ones in schema.org. If anything in your blog or website contains the data-vocabulary.org's way of structuring our content, you'll receive this email too:

For those managing multiple websites, if you didn't receive such email for your other sites and if you double-check Google Search Console there's no Breadcrumbs under 'Enhancements' (just below Mobile Usability) or there is but there's no warning, then they're fine.

We have around 2 months now until April 6, 2020 to make the necessary changes to transition to schema.org or else, any rich result features our websites currently enjoy will be gone.

I'm not sure if there's a risk of not appearing at all in the search pages (which may probably result in a manual action). Regardless, since losing eligibility for rich result features impacts our SEO, we need to fix this error as soon as we can.

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II. How to Fix This Data-Vocabulary.Org Schema Deprecated Error

The very first thing you need to do before making any changes is to backup your website, so do that now.

For illustrative purposes, I'll be using this blog as an example which follows the schema under BlogPosting. But if you're managing some other type of website, then refer to the right schema here instead.

A. Automatic Update

If you're using Wordpress.org and using Yoast SEO plugin, double-check if it's updated to the latest version and if not, follow the steps here. If you're using Yoast's free version on the other hand, follow the steps here.

Or consider switching to All-in-One SEO Pack.

Also double-check if there's a new update in your theme and apply the latest one. If there's none and it's been a long time since the last update, contact its creator and check the theme's description if it follows the schema.org structure). You may refer to the steps here.

Make sure all your other plugins are updated as well and not using the data-vocabulary.org schema. If you want to see for yourself and feel comfortable in tweaking some codes here and there on your own, you may proceed to section B below. If not, proceed to the 3rd step instead.

If you're using Drupal, you may try applying this patch.

If you're using some other content management system (CMS) like Squarespace and Blogger, sadly we need to DIY the SEO and should brace ourselves in doing the Manual Update 😓

B. Manual Update

After creating a backup, access and edit the HTML code of your blog's theme. For Blogger, go to 'Theme' in the control panel. After that, click the 3 dots on the right side of the Customize button, then go to 'Edit HTML'.

Don't press "Ctrl+F" to search right away. Click anywhere inside the HTML console first before "Ctrl+F" searching the following:

1. Search for any "data-vocabulary" in our blog's HTML code and replace that with "schema". (Click image to enlarge).

From this...

To this.

Make sure to apply the right property and not misrepresent any content (i.e. Product review but tagged as "Event" or 'http://schema.org/Event'), else you'll get a Manual Action. Since you're modifying your blog's Breadcrumbs, type in 'http://schema.org/Breadcrumb'.

Since my site is a personal blog, I use 'http://schema.org/BlogPosting' in the main content part or 'post hentry':

For the 'about the author' section, use 'http://schema.org/Person':

Optional: If you don't have an about the author section at every post's footer, you may ignore this.
But if you still want the possibility for author's name to be included in the rich result feature in search engines, you may add itemprop='creator' or itemprop='author' at the main span or div in that section, followed by itemprop='url' for its link, then itemprop='name' in the span right before the author's name code (in Blogger, it's <data:post.author/>), as shown above-- if there aren't any yet.

2. Next, search for "itemprop" and double-check if each property follows the right naming convention under BlogPosting (the words on the 1st column here). 

If not (meaning, the current property after itemprop can't be found in the BlogPosting schema), replace them with the correct property name accordingly.

For your blog's main content, double-check if it's tagged as itemprop='articlebody'.

For any labels or categories, make sure it's tagged as itemprop='keywords'.

For date submitted, it should be tagged as itemprop='datePublished', and so on and so forth.

If your blog posts use thumbnails, double-check if it's using itemprop='image_url' and replace that with itemprop='thumbnailUrl' instead.

3. If you find any itemprop='blogID' and itemprop='postID' like above, delete them since they're not a valid property under schema.org.

Save your theme. If ever you get an error and can't be saved, double-check the changes you made if they were typed and spelled correctly, like if itemprop='<property>' has space before it:

Ex. <span itemprop='keywords'> and not <spanitemprop='keywords'>

After saving your theme, time to validate the fix!

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III. Validating Fix for Breadcrumb Issue

Login Google Search console again, then go to 'Breadcrumbs' under Enhancements

Click the "Validate Fix" button. You'll then receive an email confirming that Google is in the process of checking your blog. 

They stated that this will take a few days though for it to be tagged as "Passed" so let's just wait and hope all the Breadcrumb warnings will be gone soon, or check it out ourselves by doing the steps in the next section.

Update as of 1/26/2020: They have validated the fix for most of my pages and only 1 more left pending validation. Also the message changed from "Validation started" to "Validation looking good" -- nice! 😸

Update as of 1/28/2020: It's now showing 'Passed'.

IV. Check if Breadcrumb Issue is Fixed

If you want to see if your blog is ok, check all these 3 one by one here in Google's Structured Data Testing Tool:

1.Your blog's home page
2. Another sample page like About page, and
3. A sample blog post 

If you still have a Breadcrumb issue, it's gonna look like this:

If you click that Warning sign, it will tell you that it has the Data-Vocabulary.org schema deprecated issue. But if your site doesn't have that warning anymore, it will look like this:

But again double-check different pages and a sample blog post or 2 since, depending on your site's layout or theme, it may look ok in your Home page, but if you check a blog post URL, that might be the only time the Breadcrumbs warning shows up.

Another thing is don't use this Rich Result test by the way. One, it's still in Beta, and two, if you have Google Adsense on, it will keep showing this no matter what:

Just ignore the cause of error which is mostly the google adsense being blocked by robot.txt file of adsense itself (no need to tweak your site's robot.txt file, it's fine). Adsense itself does it since it makes sense that the ads shouldn't be included in your site's rich results or snippets.

Featured image by Mariana of Pexels.