Article Schema: Complete Reference

By Amit Patel

Article schema describes editorial content — a news story, blog post, or guide — with its headline, author, publish and modified dates, and images, so Google can attribute and contextualize the page. It is one of the most widely used types and one of the most widely duplicated: because nearly every SEO plugin and CMS emits it automatically, hand-adding your own copy is the single most common structured-data mistake. The useful skill is knowing what it does and letting one source own it.

What Article Schema Does

It packages the metadata about a piece of content — headline, author, dates, publisher, image — into a machine-readable block, helping Google understand authorship, freshness, and eligibility for Top Stories and other article surfaces.

It links the content to a Person (author) and an Organization (publisher), completing the authorship graph. On its own it is not a visible rich result for most sites, but it feeds date display, Top Stories eligibility for news publishers, and general understanding.

Article, NewsArticle, or BlogPosting

Use the most specific fitting subtype: NewsArticle for journalism, BlogPosting for blog content, and plain Article when neither fits — but do not stack multiple Article types on one page.

The differences are mostly signaling; NewsArticle is what Top Stories draws on, while BlogPosting suits editorial blogs. Pick one. Your SEO plugin usually chooses automatically based on post type, which is another reason to let it own the output rather than second-guessing it by hand.

Key Properties

The important properties are headline, author, datePublished, dateModified, image, and publisher; keep the headline within Google’s length guidance and the dates accurate.

dateModified matters for freshness — but only update it when the content genuinely changes; faking modification dates is a trust risk. author should reference a real Person entity, and publisher your Organization. Accurate image references help article surfaces. Validate the required fields with the Rich Results Test.

The Duplicate-Schema Trap

The most common error is two Article blocks on one page — one from your SEO plugin, one hand-added — which Google may flag and which muddies authorship. Decide on one owner and remove the rest.

On this site the fix was structural: the platform owns Article schema, and the Article UX layer actively strips any embedded Article JSON-LD from content so only the canonical copy survives. That is the pattern to copy — let one system emit Article, and never paste a competing block into the body. If you need FAQ or HowTo on the same page, those are separate types you can add, unlike a second Article.

Example Markup

A representative Article block (shown as code — normally emitted by your platform, not pasted by hand):

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "headline": "Example Headline",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Doe" },
  "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Example Co" },
  "datePublished": "2026-07-17",
  "dateModified": "2026-07-17"
}
</script>

Confirm your plugin already outputs this before adding anything; see JSON-LD vs Microdata for the format.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to add Article schema manually?

Usually not — WordPress SEO plugins and most CMSs emit it automatically for posts. Adding your own copy on top creates duplicate Article entities. Confirm what your platform already outputs before touching it.

NewsArticle vs BlogPosting — which should I use?

Use NewsArticle for journalistic, time-sensitive reporting (it feeds Top Stories) and BlogPosting for editorial blog content. Use plain Article only when neither fits. Pick exactly one subtype per page.

Does Article schema create a rich result?

For most sites it does not produce a distinct visual rich result; it supports date display and general understanding. For eligible news publishers, NewsArticle contributes to Top Stories and other news surfaces.

Is it bad to have two Article blocks?

Yes — duplicate Article schema can be flagged as an error and confuses authorship signals. Keep a single canonical copy (usually from your SEO plugin) and remove or strip any hand-added block.

The Bottom Line

Article schema is essential but rarely something you should write yourself — the win is making sure exactly one clean copy exists, with a real author and publisher. Let your platform own it, keep dates honest, and add other page-specific types around it as needed, following the ownership rules in the schema cluster.