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JSON-LD SEO Example: Review a Complete Article Record

Work through a fictional Article JSON-LD record, connect author and image URLs, preserve publication history, and test the rendered page.

By Uddhav Gopani, FounderPublished 27 September 2026Updated 29 September 2026

Begin with facts from one visible article

A useful JSON-LD SEO example starts from a real publishing record: headline, credited author, page URL, image and editorial dates. The fictional record below describes an article first published on 1 September 2025 and substantively revised on 8 September 2025. Those dates illustrate a distinction; they are not dates to copy onto your own content.

Use the Google Article documentation for current search-feature guidance and Schema.org Article for the vocabulary. The example deliberately avoids invented ratings or claims about the author's credentials.

Read the relationships in the object

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "@id": "https://example.com/guides/map-symbols/#article",
  "url": "https://example.com/guides/map-symbols/",
  "mainEntityOfPage": {
    "@type": "WebPage",
    "@id": "https://example.com/guides/map-symbols/"
  },
  "headline": "Understand the symbols on a local map",
  "image": ["https://example.com/images/map-symbols.png"],
  "datePublished": "2025-09-01T09:00:00+00:00",
  "dateModified": "2025-09-08T12:00:00+00:00",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "@id": "https://example.com/about#editor",
    "name": "Example Author",
    "url": "https://example.com/about#editor"
  }
}

The article's fragment identifier distinguishes the article entity from the page URL. mainEntityOfPage points to the page where that article is the main content. The author object refers to a separate person identity. These relationships are more useful than filling every possible property with guessed text.

The image must be the actual suitable article image at an accessible URL. A locally named screenshot on an editor's computer does not become a public image because its filename is placed in the data. Confirm the deployed URL returns the intended image and agrees with the page's visible subject.

Compare each value with the rendered page

Read the visible headline and author credit, then compare them with the structured data. Follow the author URL and verify that it identifies the credited person. A working link to an unrelated biography is still a factual mismatch.

Review the publication and modification labels. A spelling correction, template rebuild and substantive revision are different events; apply your editorial policy consistently rather than resetting the publication date to the current day. Preserve the original publication history when replacing an image or improving a guide.

Check canonical and internal page URLs for accidental staging domains, different slugs or inconsistent trailing paths. An example.com address in a production record is usually evidence that a template placeholder survived integration.

Inspect serialization and duplicate output

Serialize the object as JSON inside an application/ld+json script element. Do not add JavaScript assignments or comments. Use a serializer safe for the surrounding HTML context, including input containing a less-than character or a closing script sequence.

Inspect every structured-data block in the rendered page. A theme may already publish an Article object while a newly installed plugin adds another one. Duplicate objects with different dates or authors need reconciliation in the template or plugin configuration that owns those values.

Use a small set of explicit assertions

Parse the JSON and check that type is Article, headline is the intended string, the image list is nonempty, and the modification instant is not earlier than the first publication instant. Confirm the article and person identifiers are distinct. These checks catch common template mistakes without claiming to reproduce a search engine's entire interpretation.

Next use the applicable official search testing tool and review its messages in context. After deployment, inspect the public URL rather than assuming a local preview proves the server emitted the same markup. Eligibility checks and successful parsing do not guarantee a particular search appearance or traffic outcome.

The local JSON-LD Schema Generator for SEO supplies a basic starting object. Add applicable author, date and page relationships from your content system, then run the checks above. Do not treat the generator's output as a complete certification of every property required by a downstream consumer.

Begin with facts from one visible article

Read the relationships in the object

Compare each value with the rendered page

Inspect serialization and duplicate output

Use a small set of explicit assertions

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