Is Google Search Console Webmaster Tools Structured Data showing errors for missing author missing entry title missing updated? If so, here’s the insights you can use to fix these errors for your WordPress CMS site.
Keep in mind that these items with errors are to do with: Structured Data > hentry (markup: microformats.org)
As they are the hAtom schema errors that Google Webmaster Tools picks up for most WordPress Content Management Systems.
Missing Author Missing Entry-Title and Missing Updated can all be fixed by simply locating the HTML element that generates those details. NOTE: because of the diversity of how WordPress Themes are structured, locating the HTML blocks that generate these class elements may be complex for some readers.
Perhaps just removing it altogether is wiser because WordPress Pages aren’t blog posts, thus usually do NOT require these tags.
You can add the below code to your WordPress functions.php file. This will then remove hentry classes from all pages apart from single posts (this may at times fix the errors because WordPress pages don’t usually contain author and datePublished details)
/* Remove Hentry for all pages that are not single blog posts */
function remove_hentry( $classes ) {
if( !is_single() ) {
$classes = array_diff($classes, array('hentry'));
return $classes;
} else {
return $classes;
}
}
add_filter( 'post_class', 'remove_hentry' );
To fix Errors for Missing Author Details
Missing Author: basically means that Google Webmaster Tools can’t pick up the author details. You need to find where the author details are blurted out in your WordPress Theme and make sure that class attributes contain <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn">Author Name</span></span>That is for personal blogs
Add these details to your WordPress theme files to fix Missing Author Details for Business related Sites
<span class="author vcard"><span class="fn org">Business Name</span></span>That is for business related websites
To fix Missing Entry Title Errors
Usually most WordPress themes generate <h1 tags where you can add a class element with entry-title (if you are using schema.org vocabulary, you can also add itemprop headline) <h1 itemprop="headline" class="entry-title">Usually Headings are Titles</h1>
To fix Missing updated issues
This is another tricky part to locate because older themes generate this code from different template files. For example: WordPress Twenty Twenty-One Theme uses /inc/template-tags.php file to generate time based information for your blog posts.
As shown in the example below. Basically wherever the updated information is being generated from, you have to add a class element updated to that element.
$time_string = '<time itemprop="datePublished" class="entry-date published" datetime="%1$s">%2$s</time><time itemprop="dateModified" class="updated" datetime="%3$s">%4$s</time>';
//add hatom data
function add_hatom_data($content) {
$t = get_the_modified_time('F jS, Y');
$author = get_the_author();
$title = get_the_title();
//Notes: you can use is_page(), or, is_single(), or other conditional tags according to your setup. To learn more visit: https://codex.wordpress.org/Conditional_Tags
if (is_home() || is_singular() || is_archive() ) {
$content .= '<div class="hatom-extra" style="display:none;visibility:hidden;"><span class="entry-title">'.$title.'</span> was last modified: <span class="updated"> '.$t.'</span> by <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn">'.$author.'</span></span></div>';
}
return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content', 'add_hatom_data');
Although not recommended for most WordPress setups, above code adds an invisible span elements to the content portion of pages. You can tweak it according to your own setup.
At the end of the day, to be able to tell Google that these Structured Data elements for Microformats aren’t missing, you can follow many different approaches to fix them depending on the WordPress Theme you are using. To add full schema.org markup to your WordPress site manually.
hi im error Missing field “author” in google webmaster tools .. im eror for comments .
That would more than likely require you edit the Theme code (or even consider changing the Theme). Because if Google Search Console is complaining about Author https://schema.org/author for comments (as is the case for most sites with poor coding practices, or Theme developers trying to trick web site owners by saying “hey our Theme adds Structured Data”) that surely also means that you’ll need to markup a ‘Person’ https://schema.org/Person who left the comment.
One way is to fix this would be identify which parts of the site is generating the Author Markup, and then ensure that the required fields are also coded. For example: identify where the NAME of that Person is generated, and then make sure you have class=”fn”
Is author information in the same place on all wordpress site?
Hey thanks for the plugin, I installed it.. can you day how many days it will take google webmaster for confirm yhe fix??
I have 108+ hatom error, after this plugin now no new errors checked with structured tool..
This will depend on the site in question (as in how often does Google crawl it) but if the Structured Data Report is NOT showing any errors, that means my plugin has fixed it. If Google has crawled (I’d give it couple of weeks at least for your site) and you still see errors, then the plugin has not fixed the issue. That then means you need to modify the Template files that generate these hentry schema markup.
Very useful and effective way to fix problems for the WordPress blog. As I.m using Blogspot platform and getting
Markup: microformats..org Author/update error only for pagers.(/p/abc-def.html). How can I fix these problems?
One way or another, this markup author/update etc. is what Google is asking for, that means, you will need to code these to your theme (read help section) or other sites as I am not familiar with blogspot (which you shouldn’t’ be really using it)
please do see my other comment thanks
I installed the plugin yesterday. However, the issues for missing author and updates are still there. Can I RankYa study my website and give advise?
Thanks.
Hello Adam, its best that you be patient and let Google update its database, simply make sure that the Google Structured Data report (see date time) is recent before concluding IF RankYa plugin fixed the issues with missing Author Missing Entry Title, then, let’s see what we can do
I installed this plugin today. When I test the page, articles with structured data testing tool all seems to be fine now. Thank you!
That’s great to hear that you now fixed this annoying problem with WordPress and Google Search Console Structured data report errors
Sir this app doesn’t work or me ..
Still, i have 182 errors.
If I change my theme then all error will automatically solve??
Please help me because these errors are a headache for me .please help sir please …
Yes, these Google Structured Data errors are to do with your Website theme, so change it if you are worried because fixing these issues can be difficult
i started getting errors in my search console about the in search appearance : getting hentry and update errors. then i found out that any new blog post i make, when i search it in gooogle instead of me to see my post i will e seeing my home page, please if any one have similar issue and know how to fix it should help me
Fixing missing update issues for WordPress can be tricky due to the way WordPress Themes work, you can try to eliminate this by using my plugin (install it, let Google re-crawl and update its database (double check Search Console Structured Data reports (compare date of install of the plugin, then, see if Google still shows errors) if it does, come back here at #RankYa blog and comment and let’s find a solution
I am using the OnePress theme (free version) for a simple STATIC PAGE WordPress site (no blog… no posts no comments page at this time) with all pages-including home page. I have these errors on all pages on this site link. playkardo
Google Structured Data > hatom (markup: microformats.org)
Missing: author
Missing: entry-title
Missing: updated
I have struggled to find a proper solution for MONTHS. I have tried other fixes in the past – nothing has worked so far. I’m looking for a proper fix to help with Google search rankings… not something that will just hide the errors.
Can anyone verify that this plugin will work with this theme before I install it? Unfortunately, I am not a code savvy individual, and messing up my site would take many, many hours to fix. I would like to be sure before installing it. Is this possible?
(Or as an alternative: Perhaps someone familiar with this theme may know EXACTLY where to place the proper code and what the CORRECT coding would be to properly fix the errors.)
I would just use the plugin if you have these errors on most pages on your WordPress site, then you’ll be able to troubleshoot the rest. First backup your site (your web server should give you this option) then backup database through phpmyadmin as well as backup WordPress content (Login to WordPress Dashboard > Tools > Export). Having said that, it is more than likely that this plugin may not fix ALL issues due to your particular setup. But not to worry, simply comment and I am sure we can get it fixed
I’ve installed the plugin but it’s still showing 30 blog errors that are all either datePublished , dateModified , or the attritube publisher.itemtype has an invalid value. Please help
This sounds like they are coming from category (or archives) sections of your site. If so, then, you can either ignore these errors (or, insert certain code in template files)) or hire someone to triple check everything.
removal of hentry schema from blog posts effects google organic search or not…?
Hello Micky, using schema Markup does not effect Google rankings, however, so you can remove it if you want. However, when schema markup is not used on a website, then, your website will not be able to take advantage of Google Rich Results https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/structured-data/search-gallery
what code for repair missing author in Blogspot platform?
I am not sure for blogspot, but if you can modify the HTML template, simply find the information where the author details are generated from, and then add a class=”author vcard” https://microformats.org/wiki/hcard
Hi Tolga I think you are doing a wonderful job. Am using the hatom plugin. Am only doing my site 12 months after failed seo for 3 years with experts. Had 200 errors down to 63 with 3 blogs and the rest catogories Which seem more than stuborn. Have installed about 2 months ago. Thanks for the plugin and any suggestions on these categories?
Hello Micheal, I am very glad to hear your feedback (especially for small business SEO, its best to remember and use RankYa SEO methods because its all within Google guidelines) as for hatom errors, this sounds like categories section not being able to bring out that updated, or author details etc. (because it is using excerpts of WordPress) and I remember working on valued client’s site who was using CherryFramework with the same issue. Bit tricky to accomplish this perhaps.
What needs to be done is,
1: you need to find a template file that is bringing out categories part of your website (usually called archive.php) and the particular section that needs the hentry details
2: then wherever the above detail is coming from on your site, you need to make sure that it blurts out the required details:
Sample codes can be found in Plugins > RankYa Fix Hatom > Edit (then copy the part and modify it as needed)
I am using the OnePress theme (free version) for a simple STATIC PAGE WordPress site (no blog… no posts… no comments page at this time) with 9 pages-including home page. I have these errors on all pages:
Google Structured Data > hatom (markup: microformats.org)
Missing: author
Missing: entry-title
Missing: updated
I have struggled to find a proper solution for MONTHS. I have tried other fixes in the past – nothing has worked so far. I’m looking for a proper fix to help with Google search rankings… not something that will just hide the errors.
Can anyone verify that this plugin will work with this theme before I install it? Unfortunately, I am not a code savvy individual, and messing up my site would take many, many hours to fix. I would like to be sure before installing it. Is this possible?
(Or as an alternative: Perhaps someone familiar with this theme may know EXACTLY where to place the proper code and what the CORRECT coding would be to properly fix the errors.)
Added: It should be noted that when I use the Structured Data Testing Tool to check live data for errors, and click ‘test live data’ button, I get this:
Detected 0 ERRORS 0 WARNINGS 3 ITEMS
Organization 0 ERRORS 0 WARNINGS 1 ITEM
WebSite 0 ERRORS 0 WARNINGS 1 ITEM
hatom 0 ERRORS 0 WARNINGS 1 ITEM
This result is on every page tested, despite the structured data errors I get mentioned above. This is confusing me as it suggests that nothing is wrong, yet something is clearly wrong.
Warning as usually optional properties, meaning they are not required for the markup to be valid. However, testing tool can be tricky to identify issues, its best that you double check the Search Console Structured Data option instead. Once again: 0 ERRORS means the markup is valid, WARNINGS 3 ITEMS: means that you could Add 3 ITEMS telling Google more information. I hope that clarifies
I would just install the plugin, its been tested on many different sites. Once again, install the plugin and if something goes wrong, comment back here or email us
Many thanks, this plugin is great and a big help for us. We lost our 1st page Google ranking due to hentry/hatom errors and could now solve this errors. Hopefully we will get our ranking position back 🙂
Simply give it couple of weeks for Google to update its database, if you still see these errors after Google re-crawls your site, simply comment back and will fix these hentry and hatom errors accordingly
Many Thanks this worked! >> Remove Hentry.
Great to hear that your website is now fixed its hentry errors
Thank You !!!! I have Solve My Error