Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool: What Replaced It and How to Test Schema Now

This guide is for site owners, developers and SEOs who searched for the Structured Data Testing Tool and found it gone, or who follow an old tutorial that still sends them there. By the end you will know exactly what replaced it, which tool to open for which job, how to read the results, and how to fix the errors I see most often when I audit schema on client sites.

What was Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool?

The Structured Data Testing Tool was a free Google page where you pasted a URL or a block of code and got back a list of every structured data item it found: JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa, each with its properties, plus errors and warnings. For most of the 2010s it was the first thing SEOs opened after adding schema markup to a page.

It had two jobs mixed together. It checked whether markup followed schema.org, and it hinted at whether Google could use it. That mix caused confusion, because a page could be “valid” in SDTT and still not qualify for any rich result in Google Search.

How it was retired (the real timeline)

Many articles give a single “deprecated in 2021” date. The actual sequence, from Google’s own announcements, is more useful because it explains why there are now two tools:

So the tool did not simply vanish. It was split in two: Google kept the “will this work in Google Search?” job in the Rich Results Test, and the “is this valid schema.org?” job moved to schema.org.

What replaced the Structured Data Testing Tool?

Rich Results Test (search.google.com/test/rich-results)

This is the tool to use when you care about how Google Search treats your markup. According to Google’s Rich Results Test help page, it accepts a URL or a code snippet, supports JSON-LD, RDFa and Microdata, crawls as Google-InspectionTool with a smartphone user agent by default, and reports which rich result types it found with any errors or suggestions. It only reports types Google supports in Search, so a perfectly valid ExercisePlan will show “No items detected”, which is expected.

Two details from Google’s documentation matter in practice. It tests the rendered page, so markup injected by JavaScript is picked up (useful if you rely on JavaScript SEO setups such as tag-manager schema). And it obeys robots.txt and noindex: if Google cannot crawl the page, it cannot test it.

Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org)

This is the direct descendant of SDTT, run for the schema.org community. It extracts every item and checks it against the full schema.org vocabulary, whatever search engine (or none) uses it. It is the better tool for spotting typos in property names, wrong nesting, and types Google does not use, such as ExercisePlan or most MedicalEntity subtypes. It does not tell you whether you will get a rich result.

Search Console rich result reports

The two testers check one page at a time. Search Console’s enhancement reports (under “Shopping” and “Enhancements”) show valid and invalid items across the whole site after Google crawls them, and URL Inspection shows what Google detected on a live, indexed URL. This is where you catch a template change that broke markup on 3,000 product pages. To see whether valid markup is actually earning clicks, filter by search appearance in the Search Console performance report.

For a bulk presence check across many URLs, the structured data checker lists the types on each page and flags missing required properties.

How to test structured data, step by step

This is the order I follow when I add or change schema on a site. It takes a few minutes per template and saves a lot of guessing later.

1. Write or generate the markup. I prefer JSON-LD because it sits in one block and does not tangle with the HTML. If you are starting from scratch, my free schema markup generator gives you a clean starting point.
2. Test the code before publishing. Open the Rich Results Test, switch to the Code tab, paste the full HTML or just the script block, and run it. Fix every error.
3. Check vocabulary in the Schema Markup Validator. Paste the same code. This catches misspelt properties (datepublished instead of datePublished) that Google may silently ignore.
4. Publish and test the live URL. Run the Rich Results Test on the real URL with the smartphone user agent. This confirms the markup survives your theme, caching, plugins and any rendering step.
5. Compare markup with the visible page. Prices, ratings, dates and names in the JSON-LD must match what a visitor sees.
6. Request indexing for important pages through URL Inspection in Search Console.
7. Watch the enhancement reports over the next few weeks, and again after every theme, plugin or template change.

Reading the results: errors, warnings and “no items”

Google’s own explanation is simple: errors disqualify the item from showing as a rich result, while warnings may limit how it looks but the page stays eligible. A missing image warning, for example, can mean a rich result without an image. Here is how I translate the messages I see most often:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "MedicalClinic",
  "name": "Example Clinic",
  "telephone": "0300-1234567",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "Block 13, Gulistan-e-Johar",
    "addressLocality": "Karachi",
    "addressCountry": "PK",
  }
}
</script>

Structured data testing checklist

Other structured data validators worth knowing

• Bing Webmaster Tools: URL Inspection shows the markup Bing found. Worth a check if Bing or Copilot traffic matters to you.
• Crawlers (Screaming Frog, Sitebulb): both can extract and validate structured data across a full crawl, which is the practical way to audit large sites.
• JSON-LD Playground (json-ld.org): useful for debugging complex nested graphs and @id references.
• Browser extensions: handy for a quick look, but always confirm in the official tools because extensions may not render the page like Google does.

For WordPress sites, the SEO plugin is usually the biggest source of schema. My WordPress technical SEO checklist covers how to stop a theme and a plugin from outputting competing blocks.

Common mistakes I find when auditing schema

• Treating “valid” as “will show”. Google says correct markup does not guarantee a rich result. Quality, relevance and the query decide.
• Chasing rich results Google has retired. HowTo rich results were dropped in September 2023, several types (such as Course Info and Estimated Salary) were phased out in 2025, and FAQ rich results stopped showing in May 2026. Unused markup does no harm, but it will not earn a visible result.
• Markup for content that is not on the page, such as review stars on a service page with no reviews. That is a quality problem, not a testing problem, and it can lead to a manual action.
• Testing only one URL. A template fix on one page does not prove the other 500 are fine; use Search Console.
• Location schema copied across every page. For multi-branch businesses each branch page should carry its own address, which I explain in my guide to schema for local SEO.

Structured data still matters beyond rich results. It helps search engines connect your pages to clear entities, which supports entity-based SEO and the way AI Overviews and similar features describe your business. Keep it accurate and tested, and drop the expectation that every type will produce stars or dropdowns.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Google Search Central Blog, “An update on Structured Data Testing Tool” (December 2020, updated May and August 2021).
• Google Search Central Blog, “The Rich Results Test is out of beta” (July 2020).
• Google Search Console Help, “Rich Results Test” (accessed 2026).
• Google Search Central, “Latest documentation updates” (accessed October 2026).
• HTTP Archive, “Web Almanac 2024: Structured Data” (2024).

If your schema passes the tests but rich results never appear, or Search Console shows errors across whole templates, my technical SEO services include a structured data review, or you can send me the URL and I will take a look.