NewsArticle Schema

NewsArticle Schema

NewsArticle schema is used by publishers, news organizations, and websites that produce news content. By implementing this schema markup on their articles, they provide search engines with specific details about the article.

This type of structured data markup is used to provide additional context and information about news articles on a website. It helps search engines understand the content of news articles.

When using the NewsArticle schema for rich snippets in search engine results, there are several properties that are typically considered mandatory or strongly recommended to provide comprehensive information about the news article. While some properties are required, others are optional but highly beneficial for enhancing the rich snippet appearance. 

Here are the mandatory and recommended fields for a NewsArticle schema:

Mandatory Fields:

headline: The headline of the news article.

datePublished: The date when the article was first published. Should be in ISO 8601 format (e.g., “YYYY-MM-DD”).

articleBody: The main content of the news article.

Strongly Recommended Fields:

dateModified: The date when the article was last modified. Helps search engines understand the freshness of the content.

author: The author of the news article.

image: An image related to the news article. This can be a thumbnail or a larger image.

Additional Recommended Fields:

publisher: The organization that publishes the news article.

description: A brief description of the news article.

mainEntityOfPage: Indicates the main entity of the page. In the case of a news article, this would typically be the article itself.

keywords: Keywords or tags related to the news article.

Here is an example of NewsArticle schema looks:

How to access Newsarticle schema using Rich Snippets

Access it from METAs – Rich Snippet – Newsarticle

Clicking on the “+” symbol will open up a panel where you can start editing and customizing your Schema Template.

A pop-up will appear: 

Mandatory fields will have small red starlike symbol (*) added to them:

Select the Article type:

News Article/Article/ Blog post – depends on the content you have

Note: Google does not allow a person as a publisher, only an Organization. By attributing content to organizations rather than individuals, Google aims to ensure that published content can be associated with entities that have a measure of public accountability.

Thus, if you’re an individual content creator, consider setting up a legal entity that represents your publishing activities. This could be as simple as registering a business name under which all your content is published.

Headline –  Aim for a headline that is concise yet informative, typically between 50 to 70 characters
This field is imported automatically by Squirrly SEO, however you can manually set it as well. 

Description –  A good length for a description is approximately 150 to 160 characters, as this is the sweet spot for being informative while staying concise enough for quick reading.
This field is {{excerpt}} meaning that it will import a brief summary or snippet of the content on the page, and is added automatically, but it can also be manually inserted.

Author name – Including the author’s name is crucial for providing transparency and credibility to the content.
The {{name}} will be imported automatically, however as mentioned, it can also be manually adjusted. 

Recommendations:

Here’s a pattern you can use with the placeholder “{{title}}” for inserting a title: “{{title}}”

This field is automatically imported from your article, however you can also replace “{{title}}” with your desired title or text.

For the author name, if you have multiple authors, ensure that you create a name field for each one of your authors. It will look like this

Published date: should be in the format of “YYYY-MM-DD” – if you click on date a menu will open and you can manually select the date

Keywords – Involves strategically selecting and using specific words or phrases that summarize the core themes, topics, or subjects of your content. Separate them by commas. 

Image – Adding image URLs helps with visual appeal, clarity, increases click-through rates, improves user experience, and boosts SEO visibility. You can manually add the width and height for teh image, so it matches your needs.
You can manually insert the URL for the image that you need to add.

Make sure to Save:

Now, you have your Newsarticle schema setup. All there is left to do is check it up and see if it works as expected
This is easier than you imagine, and Squirrly will help with the steps.

Verify Markup

After saving your changes, you can verify that the Newsarticle schema markup has been added correctly by viewing the page or post source code. Look for the JSON-LD markup representing the Newsarticle schema.

1. Once saved click onJSON-LD Code – Validate jSON-LD

2. A new page / tab will open please, click on TEST CODE

3. A small pop-up appears, and you will have to wait a few moments for the data to be processed
4. Once data is processed, you will be able to see your work, test it, share it and use it to enhance your work.

For further details, we recommend referring to the following resources
NewsArticle
Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) structured data

The Squirrly SEO Patterns List