Article

The title of the article as it should appear in search results and rich snippets. This is a required property that must exactly match the visible page title or provide a more concise version for search engines. Google uses this to generate the clickable link in search results and as a primary signal for topical relevance.

• Must be a single text string, not HTML
• Should be between 50-70 characters for optimal display
• Differs from name which is the full title including subtitles

Defines the creator of the article content, typically linked to a Person or Organization entity. This property is critical for establishing E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) by connecting content to a verified author entity with its own structured data.

• Expects a Person or Organization type
• Should include author.name and author.url for disambiguation
• Multiple authors can be specified using an array
• Links content to author's knowledge graph entity

The original publication date of the article in ISO 8601 format. This temporal signal helps search engines determine content freshness and chronological relevance for time-sensitive queries. It is a required property for eligibility in the Top Stories carousel and other news-related rich results.

• Format: YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+TZD
• Must reflect the date the content first became publicly accessible
• Works in conjunction with dateModified to signal updates

Indicates the most recent date and time the article was substantively updated. Search engines use this property to distinguish between stale content and actively maintained resources, which can influence ranking for queries where freshness is a factor.

• Only set when meaningful editorial changes occur
• Do not update for minor typo fixes or ad changes
• Combined with datePublished, provides a complete temporal history
• Critical for content that requires ongoing accuracy like technical documentation

Defines the Organization responsible for publishing the article. This property connects the content to a verified publisher entity in the knowledge graph, consolidating authority signals at the organizational level. The publisher should be an Organization type with its own structured data including logo and official name.

• Typically references the site's parent organization
• Must include publisher.name and publisher.logo for Article rich results
• Distinct from author which is the individual creator
• Logo must be a valid ImageObject with specific dimension requirements

Explicitly identifies the canonical URL of the webpage that primarily contains this article. This property resolves ambiguity when an article entity is embedded in a page with multiple entities, telling search engines that this article is the primary subject of the page rather than supplementary content.

• Should contain the canonical URL as a single string or a WebPage object with @id
• Prevents entity confusion on pages with multiple structured data types
• Strengthens the association between the URL and the article entity