Missing or invalid structured data: what it is and how to fix it
What it is
No machine-readable description of the business or page.
Why it matters to a client
Structured data is what earns the extra detail in search results — opening hours, star ratings, prices. Without it the listing stays plain.
How to find it
Paste the URL into Google's Rich Results Test, or check the Structured data category of an AuditOpti scan.
How to fix it
Add LocalBusiness or Organization structured data on the homepage, plus Product or Service data on the pages that sell something. Test it in Google's Rich Results Test.
- 1In the SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math or SEOPress), open the page's SEO panel and correct the setting described above.
- 2If the problem repeats across a post type, change it once in the plugin's template settings rather than page by page.
- 3Clear any caching plugin afterwards, then re-check the live page in a private window.
How AuditOpti prioritizes it
AuditOpti scores this as low severity by default, then multiplies it by how many pages are affected — one page is not the same problem as a hundred. After that, the AI re-ranks it against everything else on the site by likely business impact, so a low-severity problem on a service page can outrank a critical one on a page nobody visits.
Check a site for this
Run a free audit and we'll tell you whether this issue is present — along with everything else worth fixing.