Schema.org's Article type (and its subtypes BlogPosting and NewsArticle) provides search engines with structured information about content articles. The data includes who wrote the article, when it was published, what it's about, and how it's related to other content.

For most WordPress blog posts, BlogPosting is the appropriate schema type. Article is the parent type that works as a fallback. NewsArticle is specific to news content. The choice between them matters less than getting the field details right.

The required fields

Google's documentation lists specific required fields for Article schema to be eligible for rich results:

headline: the article's headline. This is usually the same as the post title. Length should be 110 characters or less. Longer headlines might prevent rich result eligibility.

image: a high-resolution image associated with the article. At least 1200 pixels on the longest side. Multiple image objects with different aspect ratios (16:9, 4:3, 1:1) are recommended for best display.

datePublished: the date the article was first published. ISO 8601 format. The date should match what's visible on the page.

dateModified: the date the article was last meaningfully modified. ISO 8601 format. If the article hasn't been modified, this can equal datePublished.

author: an object with at least the author's name and ideally additional details (URL to author page, image, sameAs links to author profiles).

publisher: an object representing the website. Includes name, logo (image object with logo URL).

The optional fields that matter

description: the article's summary. Often matches the meta description. Helps search engines understand the article's topic.

articleBody: the full article content. This is rarely included because it duplicates the page content; Google can read the content directly. Including it sometimes helps for sites where the visible content is loaded via JavaScript.

articleSection: the category or section the article belongs to. Maps to WordPress categories.

keywords: comma-separated keywords. Provides additional topic signals.

wordCount: the article's word count. Some sites include this; the value is small but non-zero.

inLanguage: the article's language. For multilingual sites, this is important.

The author field details

The author field is more important than many sites treat it. Google's algorithms increasingly consider author identity, expertise, and reputation. A well-structured author field provides signal.

The minimum: name and URL (to an author page on your site).

The better: name, URL, image (author photo), sameAs (array of URLs to the author's professional profiles: LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, scholarly profiles if relevant).

The best for authority-driven content: all of the above plus jobTitle, knowsAbout (array of topic areas), worksFor (organization), affiliation (academic institution or company), credentials (educational background, certifications).

For most WordPress sites, the minimum is sufficient. For sites where author expertise affects content ranking (medical, financial, legal), investing in fuller author structured data is worthwhile.

The publisher field

The publisher represents the website itself. Required for Article schema. Should match the Organization or Person that the website represents.

Required sub-fields: name (website or organization name), logo (an ImageObject with the publisher's logo).

The logo should be: a real logo file at a reasonable resolution, accessible at a stable URL, in PNG or SVG format ideally. The logo appears in search result enhancements when applicable.

The implementation in WordPress

WordPress doesn't emit Article schema natively. The schema comes from SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math) or schema-specific plugins (Schema Pro, SEO Press).

For most sites, Yoast or Rank Math handles the schema correctly with default settings. The default emission includes the required fields and pulls data from the post (publish date, modified date, featured image, author).

For sites with non-standard authorship patterns (multiple authors per article, guest posts, byline differences from post author), the default emission might not match the actual authorship. Custom code or plugin configuration is needed.

The verification approach

Use Google's Rich Results Test to verify the schema. Enter a representative URL; the tool shows what schema Google detected and any errors.

Common issues:

Missing required field (often image or publisher logo)
Image too small (under 1200 pixels)
Logo missing or low resolution
Date format incorrect
Author field present but missing required sub-fields

Fix each issue at its source. If the image is too small, update the featured image. If the publisher logo is missing, configure it in the SEO plugin.

The case of news articles

NewsArticle schema has additional fields specific to news content: dateline (the location and date the article was filed), printSection (the section in a print equivalent if applicable), printEdition (the edition number).

For most blog content, BlogPosting is more appropriate than NewsArticle. NewsArticle implies journalistic context that blog content doesn't typically have.

The exception: if your site is a news publication with editorial workflow and journalistic content, NewsArticle is the right schema. Google has separate handling for news content (Google News, news SERP features) that requires NewsArticle properly implemented.

The honest framing

Article schema is one of the more important structured data types for blog content. The required fields are essential; the optional fields add incremental signal.

The implementation through SEO plugins handles most cases correctly with default settings. Verifying the schema is correct (via Rich Results Test) is a 5-minute task that should be done after any major site change.

The sites that get article schema wrong usually do so because they haven't verified the schema renders correctly. The schema-emitting plugin is installed but the actual output has problems (missing logo, wrong dates, incomplete author info). Verification catches these problems within minutes.

The sites that get article schema right gain incremental ranking signal across all their content. The investment is small; the cumulative effect over the site's lifetime is meaningful.

WordPress And The Schema.org Article Schema: The Specific Fields