How to Select the Best Article Schema Type

Select from a few Article structure data types to best explain your web page and extended it with schema.org types and properties.

Article schema data points help build a knowledge rich environment in your Web of Data. Correctly deployed extensible markup for maximum impact also helps your content pieces emerge for related queries. It supports a structured approach to conceptual search by providing data that communicates the information provided in the article. While the general article schema may suffice most of the time, there are advantages to using article types for finer-grained distinctions.

Through better structured data you are helping feed Google information to enhance your brand’s knowledge graph.

How to Select the Best Article Schema Type
What is an Article schema?
Possible Article Schema Formalizations
Call for Finer-Grained Distinctions Around NewsArticle
Google’s Instructions for Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) Structured Data
Article Schema Type Can Establish Overall Context
Nesting JSON-LD Markup Enhances the Knowledge Representation of your Article
Does Article Schema Markup Help Content Rank Better?
- How does making an article more accessible assist machine readable markup?
- Can using NewsArticle schema help get into Google Discover?
CONCLUSION: Optimize Your Article Structured Data for Semantic SEO

Making the best structure data markup selection always starts with a basic understanding of that schema type and its properties.

What is an Article schema?

A true answer explains the breadth of schema and what Article schemes are available

It gives modern search engines a clearer understanding of your web pages. This assists their ability to recognize the most relevant content for users’ specific queries. Adding schema markup to your posts and pages with Article Schema helps search engines better understand the correct headline, published date, and your article’s featured image, and supports usage in search engine result pages (SERPs).

Article schema markup is part of the structured data vocabulary that enables search engines to serve better results. This is foundational schema markup code that explains what your site or a specific page is about in very simple data terms. It is a language that search engines universally understand.

For coders, it helps first to understand the syntax of the generic class Article and its core purpose. It is unique from specific classifications to other schemas, controlled vocabularies, and ontologies. From there, I suggest reading the notes under “New” subtypes for NewsArticle to gain a broader scope.

Alternative Article schema types are also a type of creative work and formally inherit the general Article schema attributes while providing the opportunity to be more specific than the Article schema itself. Each article type can link to Organization and People Profile Pages.

IPTC rNews properties

This class accommodates subsidiaries of IPTC rNews properties. rNews is a data model of publishing metadata with serializations currently useful for RDFa and HTML5 Microdata. More information about the IPTC and rNews is available at rnews.org. ^[1]

Basically, when implementing article markup, use the most specific applicable type and property names defined by schema.org for your structured data.

Google’s Instructions for Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) Structured Data

“Adding Article structured data to your news, blog, and sports article pages can help Google understand more about the web page and show better title text, images, and date information for the article in search results on Google Search and other properties (for example, Google News and the Google Assistant). While there’s no markup requirement to be eligible for Google News features like Top Stories, you can add Article to more explicitly tell Google what your content is about (for example, that it’s a news article, who the author is, or what the title of the article is).” – Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) structured data

How to add article metadata and entities to web pages?

Most sites today rely on an App or plugin to manage schema selections. In this case, you may want an expert in structured data updates to help you select your schema vendor. Once your preferred way to add Article markup is established, each one has unique setup customizations that influence your Article structured data choices.

Whether your team opts for Rank Math, Wordlift, SEO Clarity’s Schema Optimizer, or another vendor, they have support pages and staff to explain how their tool works best.

For example, in Rank Math, if you’ve configured your post type to be included in the News Sitemap, the tool sets the Schema Type to NewsArticle for all the posts/pages you’ve marked as “news” by default, even if you try adjusting the type to Article or BlogPosting. In Yoast, users have the option of selecting the Page or Article type – located in your schema settings.

Follow the basic logic of Article schema types

The Article schema type is the parent type of NewsArticle and BlogPosting. Google has clarified this by stating:

“If your posts are news articles you should use NewsArticle schema.

Article schema (https://schema.org/Article) covers ‘NewsArticle’ too, so is acceptable. But if the page is definitely ‘news’ type content, then using NewsArticle (https://schema.org/NewsArticle) is preferred. If your content is neither a news article or article but a blog post, you should be using BlogPosting schema (https://schema.org/BlogPosting). – Which schema should I use news articles or blog post or article. What is the difference between them?

Adhere to Google’s Article markup technical guidelines

When you really want to extend your semantic schema markup and customize, technical challenges often surface. While schema.org’s and Google’s help forum are a great place to ask specific questions, Google’s documentation already provides some support here.

“For multi-part articles, make sure that the rel=canonical points at either each individual page or a “view-all” page (and not to page 1 of a multi-part series). Learn more about canonicalization.

If you offer subscription-based access to your website content, or if users must register for access, consider adding structured data for subscription and paywalled content.”

Adding Semantic SEO to Your Articles

We use structured data to help describe the article concepts that matter to people trying to find your answers and information. Let’s look specifically at some ways to customize your article schema formalizations to specify the semantic annotation of a particular content piece.

Possible Article Schema Formalizations
Article Type	Description & Use
Article	A basic content piece and the parent of all other article types
AdvertiserContentArticle	An Article that an external entity has paid to place or to produce to its specifications. Includes advertorials, sponsored content, native advertising, and other paid content.
AnalysisNewsArticle	An AnalysisNewsArticle is a NewsArticle that, while based on factual reporting, incorporates the expertise of the author/producer, offering interpretations and conclusions.
MedicalScholarlyArticle	A scholarly article in the medical domain; best if authored by medical topic expert
NewsArticle	A NewsArticle is an article whose content reports news or provides background context and supporting materials for understanding the news.
OpinionNewsArticle	An OpinionNewsArticle is a NewsArticle that primarily expresses opinions rather than journalistic reporting of news and events. For example, a NewsArticle consisting of a column or Blog/BlogPosting entry in the Opinions section of a news publication.
ReportageNewsArticle	The ReportageNewsArticle type is based on a stricter ideal for “news” as a work of journalism, with articles based on factual information either observed or verified by the author, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. This often includes perspectives from multiple viewpoints on a particular issue (distinguishing news reports from public relations or propaganda).
ReviewNewsArticle	A NewsArticle and CriticReview providing a professional critic’s assessment of a service, product, performance, or artistic or literary work.
SatiricalArticle	An Article whose content is primarily [satirical] in nature, i.e. unlikely to be literally true. A satirical article is sometimes but not necessarily also a NewsArticle. ScholarlyArticles are also sometimes satirized.
ScholarlyArticle	Scholarly or peer-reviewed articles are typically written by experts in academic or professional fields. They are meant to advance a study are written by scholarly sources/experts.
SocialMediaPosting	While many may not think of this as an article, it is; a post to a social media platform, including blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.
TechArticle	A technical article – Example: How-to (task) topics, step-by-step, procedural troubleshooting, specifications, etc. It is used to inform, instruct, or direct a specific audience on how to do something. This includes detailed reports, such as white papers and instructional protocols. (It doesn’t have to relate specifically to the technology industry; it may be science or healthcare related.)
PublicationIssue	A part of a successively published publication such as a periodical or publication volume, often numbered, usually containing a grouping of works such as articles. The W3C Schema Bib Extend group led the work for bibliographic information, including terms for periodicals, articles and multi-volume works. Daily newspapers, monthly magazines and journals, and annual newsletters are all periodicals, and the articles inside them are periodical articles. Also has a sub class, `ComicIssue`

Call for Finer-Grained Distinctions Around NewsArticle

There has been a call across schemaorg support and on the github.com community to supply finer-grained distinctions around NewsArticle. There is also interest in add new Article schema types to may help distinguish Opinion from news articles.

It is important to distinguish between Google-supported Article properties and those supported (as well as pending) on schema.org.

Article schema types fully adopted on schema.org:

AdvertiserContentArticle
MedicalScholarlyArticle
NewsArticle
Report
SatiricalArticle
ScholaryArticle
SocialMediaPosting
TechArticle

On either mine or various client sites, I’ve used TechArticle, MedicalScholarlyArticle, and NewsArticle types. It is one more way to give search engines more information that helps algorithms quickly identify and catalog the article’s niche or intent.

Article schema types currently in pending status on schema.org:

AnalysisNewsArticle
BackgroundNewsArticle
NewsMediaOrganization
OpinionNewsArticle
ReportageNewsArticle
ReviewNewsArticle
PublicationIssue
ComicIssue

You can already represent your niche using more granular information with additionalType or genre, rather than, or while waiting for, the formal introduction of new article types in schema.

However, some schema coders are seeking to add vocabulary value for a term like “Report,” “Analysis,” or “Opinion” to differentiate within the news genre. The logic is that the second part, “NewsArticle” identifies the primary type, yet they would like to distinguish the content piece further. ^[2]

We will update this page if/when these types are fully adopted and removed from pending status.

Genre extensible schema is used on the following property types:

BroadcastChannel
CreativeWork
MusicGroup

Genres can be organized in strategic ways; the term “schematic structures” is applied to identify unique stages and phases in those genres. The schematic structures of narrative text refer to functional components that layout the text in phases and stages.

Is article HTML semantic code the same as schema.org’s article markup?

Semantic HTML refers to syntax within the HTML, like article and section. The <article> semantic tag represents a part of a page which is self-contained.

Both article schema markup language and semantic HTML syntax help make your content more comprehensible to search engines. An expert Semantic SEO professional makes web pages more informative and adaptable by the best method possible.

When asked, “Does Article HTML Element Have an Impact on Google?”, we gained an answer that helps us keep these SEO tactics in balance.

“The <article> HTML element does not have any particular effect in Google Search. This is similar to lots of other kinds of HTML tags.

There’s so much more to using HTML than just Google Search, though!

Sometimes there are accessibility or semantic reasons to use a specific kind of markup, so don’t only focus on SEO.” – Google’s John Mueller

Example of JSON-LD article markup

Article Schema Type Can Establish Overall Context

Start by grounding yourself in the big-picture so you can easily identify your type of content piece. When choosing your type of article, the goal is to help bring additional clarity around the content’s context.

It is all about being user-centric. Content that is better structured allows browsers and search engines to interpret content better – so that the searcher can find and consume it.

Where we implement customized schema markup within a site, we consistently monitor to see what schema is recognized by SERPs.

Nesting JSON-LD Markup Enhances the Knowledge Representation of your Article

Schema nesting is a powerful semantic SEO tactic which is based on defining the nature of the relationship between entities. Entities that are uniquely identifiable entities can enrich the data understanding of your larger article entity by being “nested”. If you are using microdata instead of JSON markup, you’ll be implementing itemprop attributes to label properties.

Favorite `Article` attributes and properties:

Author:

We find that specifying the author of the article is important. Why? “To help Google best understand authors across various features, we recommend following the author markup best practices”, according to Google. Author schema markup can ensure the reader trusts the article’s content.

Structured data elements not only convey the meaning or purpose of the content piece or a statement within the article, they can also help establish an author’s expertise online. Read more about the advantages of implementing structured data.

Publisher:

We like to provide the data that communicates the publisher’s details related to each article in the form of structured data. The publisher can be either an individual with their proper name or an organization with a brand name and a logo.

While you may want to use Organization structured data or LocalBusiness markup on your about page or elsewhere, you can specify the organization to specify on whose domain your article is being published. Here is an example of how I nest this in my Article markup:

“publisher”: {
“@type”: “Organization”,
“name”: “Hill Web Creations”,
“logo”: {
“@type”: “ImageObject”,
“url”: “https://www.hillwebcreations.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/hill-web-marketing-minneapolis-mn-415×56.jpg”,
“width”: 415,
“height”: 56

Also add the Publisher ID. For each entity, article, and publisher, a permanent ID is a unique identifier which is foundational in the context of the article’s Linked Data. It provided valuable connections between data on the web.

Article mainEntity

When using a sub-property such as mainEntity, questions have been asked about using multiple mainEntity for a particular CreativeWork content piece. It is recommended to use mainEntity for the “main-est” thing. See mentions below.

You can also learn propler usage of the about property to use data to further indicating that the webpage has related subtopics.

Published and Modified dates:

For many topics both readers and search engines will be looking for a current article to satisfy their query intent. For example, if your article is news orientated about a specific Google algorithm update, since they occur frequently enough, this helps to identify that you’re talking about the current update.

"datePublished": "2021-08-25T19:07:00+09:00", "dateModified": "2023-08-30T12:40:00+11:00",

The sameAs property:

It is important that the sameAs property matches the main subject in your article. It allows synonymous relationships to be deﬁned between resources that are otherwise independent to each other. Each of your articles and you as publisher can be connected to additional data, for example, Wikipedia or WikiData, by using the “same as” property and each of them can also be decoded with a JSON-LD data representation.

The sameAs property helps to establish your web wide organization’s presence and identity. This helps assure Google and other search engines of your brand, social media profiles, and relevant external signals. This entity mapping type can evaluate your Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) factor.

SameAs is unique from articleSection which can establish a genre or service, or other entity type. Your vocabulary (article metadata and entities) are published as linked data.

The speakable property:

SpeakableSpecification indicates one or multiple sections withing the article that are particularly ‘speakable’. Meaning, that section can be highlighted as uniquely appropriate for text-to-speech conversion. The ‘speakable’ property indicates which parts are most likely to be generally useful for speech.

"sameAs":["http:www.wikidata.org/entity/associated-to-main-entity-of-page","http:dbpedia.org/resource/associated-to-main-entity-of-page","https://blog.google/associated-to-main-entity-of-page","https://directorsblog.nih.gov/associated-to-main-entity-of-page"]

Featured image:

Qualifying Article schema markups for rich results requires you to provide correct specifications about their entities, such as pictures. Gaining an article image thumbnail rich result is a powerful way to visually attract clicks to your page. You can also specify thumbnailUrl

However, it means meeting specific image requirements and size specifications. You can inform search engines as to which picture is your article’s featured image. As SERPs are becoming more and more visual, this is beneficial data for the semantic web.

“image”:{“@id”:”https://website/blog/article-url/#primaryimage”},”thumbnailUrl”:”https://website.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/image-for-my-article.jpg”,

Language specification:

For international SEO, adding inLanguage within your article markup is helpful. Using semantic markup using this very clear, standardized code means you’ll save time in the long run. It can reinforce the language specification used in your XHTML Web documents.

By nesting meta tag “mentions” to say which entities are mentioned, you’ll have a hierarchy or entities where the main one defines the article itself and the other ones are recognized as mentioned on it. This is better than trying to have multiple mainEntity elements for your article schema markup.

Once defined, entities can be linked to a knowledge graph that may new include your articles more easily.

Does Article Schema Markup Help Content Rank Better?

It makes ranking web pages easier when search engines have a better understanding of which entities appear on the page and what they’re about. So simply using schema markup doesn’t give you a ranking boost.

Nor does Google ever promise someone a rich result even if all the schema guidelines are strictly adhered to. However, it is shortsighted to only focus on gaining SERP rich results. It does consistently make your markup publications more accessible to machines.

Rephrasing the question to “Does article schema help make my web page more findable?” is better. Then the answer is “Yes!” I appreciate Mueller encouraging us to take the approach that not everything we do is associated with a ranking value. He stated that, “Sometimes there are accessibility or semantic reasons to use a specific kind of markup, so don’t only focus on SEO.” ^[4]

How does making an article more accessible assist machine readable markup?

Semantic markup makes content readable and understandable by machines and software that leverage assistive technologies for content to be accessible. A blind query searcher can use a screen reader to navigate articles created with properly formed HTML elements.

As mentioned above nested speakable markup can assist individuals that are hard of hearing or deaf. Jarno Van Driel states this best.

“And 99/100 times, well written, substance containing, accessible content is extremely easy to parse for both people and NLPs (Natural Language Processing) alike, as well as being easy to translate into machine readable markup (by both people and machines alike).

In my view writing for accessibility only entails WINS while also being the easiest of all methods for directly influencing results without involving lots of other people and large amounts of resources!” – A Dialogue with Jarno van Driel About Semantic Search, Content and Triples

Here is another Jarno quote that I save some time ago (Today, I don’t know a URL where it came from.)

“What I did is that I created an extension of schema.org of sorts. Meaning I took everything needed from schema.org and extended it with types and properties all branches of that business needed for their own purposes.” – ^[5]

Can using NewsArticle schema help get into Google Discover?

While using NewsArticle schema does not ensure that your article will show up in the Google Search Console (GSC) < Performance < Discover, it is still a good idea. When using the GSC tools, I’ve had a pop up asking me if this is news content. It does send a helpful signal that you’ve written your content from a newsworthy perspective.

You can use Article schema for something you write that is newsworthy; however, you should not use NewsArticle for non-news types of articles. This practical step of first identifying your writing intent will help determine which article object is best. If the content to be published is clearly new “news”, then using the NewsArticle type is more explicit.

By building precise, information-rich data, search engines can easily understand your articles’ content. This benefits you because they will be more visible across SERPs in areas that can be reached without paid advertising. Whether or not this means showing up in Google Discover, a key to reaching this goal is structured data.

Some wonder how long Google will rely as much on semantic markup. We know that Article structured data will evolve; however, today it remains very useful – especially if you know all the best practices and how to extend your markup. I like the following statement that Marianne Sweeny made on Twitter.

“I believe with my heart and soul that structured data is key to Next SEO along with a deep understanding of how ML and neural IR. Once the SEO community tires of poking fun at SGE, your work will be runway lights for how to optimize for it. Marianne Sweeny ^[6]

CONCLUSION: Optimize Your Article Structured Data for Semantic SEO

This article talks about how to implement Article semantic SEO with enriched structured data, but often the real workhorses are the genius writers. I find it very rewarding to take great content and translate it into structured data using the best article schema type, triples, and other advanced customizations.

Call 651-206-2410 to partner and gain your personal Professional Schema Markup Audit

Resources:

[1] https://iptc.org/standards/rnews/

[2]https://github.com/schemaorg/schemaorg/issues/1525

[3] https://blog.marketmuse.com/structured-data-for-seo/

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdR1_g-gPEY&t=411s

[5] https://twitter.com/jarnovandriel

[6] https://x.com/msweeny/status/1694787032667815937