Structural data in google webmaster tools

[Enigma123]

Hey,

During the year I have done everything in my power to please Google with my website. Instead of building links towards the page I have focused on content, content and content. In addition I have worked with https and page speed. Today my site is faster than 98% of all tested sites in Pingdom tools and have 94/83 in Google insights.

Of course we have had to build some links as well, perhaps 50 links in 8 months. At the same time we have built 700 pages of text. The total amount of links build is 180 over 20 months.

On Thursday last week it looks like the site was penalized by Google. I still believe that we can do something about it and get the site back on track again. Hence we have been looking at technical things on the site, if there is anything Google don't like.

One thing that I have found is structural data. For some reason this has dropped from 875 a month ago to 3 today. I have no clue why. Does anyone know how structural data works and what can have caused this problem. Would it be possible that we in our attempt to optimize the site might have done something that may affect the structural data? http://imgur.com/a/vurB1

In that case, what affect might this drop in structural data mean for SEO. Could that be a reason for the total drop in ranking? (we have basically been wiped on all our keywords)

What I can see in Google webmaster tool about 975 pages are still indexed in Google which has been stable for a long time.

Does anyone know more about structural data and what I can do about this?
Thanks in advance!

/A

vurB1

[beaupedraza]

Hello,

First, I have some questions & unanswered needs-to-know which could help you figure this out:

• You mentioned that "it looks like the site was penalized by Google". Was your site issued a manual/link/partial penalty or is this based off of metrics? Was there a message via Search Console/WMT? In the previous paragraph you discuss building links but one shouldn't assume, even if it fails the smell test.
• Explain what type of structured data markup you were using for areas affected. Were you using review schema for areas where reviews/products aren't featured? Is there JSON-LD markup on your site AND does it reference the same content on page via HTML?
• What does your Structured Data Report section look like in GSC/WMT? Errors? Did you test in the Structured Data Testing Tool beforehand? What day did this happen? What did MozCast or SEO chatter via the web look like that day?

Here's an older article (2015) via Search Engine Land by Tony Edward covering structured data markup penalty recovery - Ask yourself the above questions (or respond), read the article, and also ask yourself:

• Were my intentions honest? Was my recipe markup for a recipe? Did I buy links via Fiverr? Is this drop in rankings and traffic even related to structured data markup or backlinks?
• If I was doing everything with the best of intentions, is this the work of a negative SEO campaign? What does your recent link profile look like?

Write back - let's figure this out!

Beau

[Enigma123]

Hey Beau

Thanks for your reply.

We never received anything from Google in Google Webmaster tools. One day the site was gone in the serp with no explanation. That was on 11 August. Since then we have done a lot of things in Google Webmaster tools to see if that would help. There were no major things, but we have done everything we can and no there are nothing left to do. Yesterday, the site as back on track in Google. I can't say why, but positive thinking (ability to look for solutions and not anybody to blame) I believe are the most important reasons why we are back.

We have not liberally used anything to mark up our site with structural data before. The only thing we could find that might have helped us with structural data was a plugin Author H review which I find very good. However my intention is so structure up the entire site with structural data now. 
I read the recommended article about structural data (thanks, it was really interesting). I'm no experted in it, nor is my web developer. Hence I have been thinking of contacting a Schema.org expert. What do you think, would that be a good idea? The more I read about schema.org the more it triggers my interest and the more I realize that it could be good to get some help.

In google webmaster tools we still have 4 errors regarding Structural data. However when we test it in their own tools everything works. IN the control panel we have added http: https: www.http www.https. For some reason Google shows different results regarding indexed pages and structural data and site maps depending which of the http versions you're looking at. The structural data is now back and we have managed to increase it.

Thanks a lot for your hel Beau. Your questions and answers helped us to start looking more at structural data. It was a great relief yesterday when we were back in the search results again. I hope it will stay that way.

Do you think it's worth spending time and resources to contact a schema.org consultant who can help us mark up the entire page with structural data?

Have a nice day!

Anders