Structured Data & SEO

markata-go automatically generates comprehensive structured data for your posts to improve search engine visibility and social media sharing.

Features

• JSON-LD Schema.org - Structured data for Google Rich Results
• OpenGraph - Meta tags for Facebook, LinkedIn, and general social sharing
• Twitter Cards - Meta tags for Twitter/X sharing previews

Quick Start

Structured data is enabled by default. For basic usage, just ensure your posts have good frontmatter:

---
title: "My Post Title"
description: "A compelling description for SEO"
date: 2024-01-15
tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]
---

Configuration

Site-Level SEO Configuration

Configure SEO settings in your markata-go.toml:

[markata-go.seo]
# Twitter/X username (without @)
twitter_handle = "yourusername"

# Default image for posts without images
default_image = "/images/og-default.jpg"

# Site logo for Schema.org
logo_url = "/images/logo.png"

[markata-go.seo.structured_data]
# Enable/disable structured data (default: true)
enabled = true

# Publisher information
[markata-go.seo.structured_data.publisher]
type = "Organization"  # or "Person"
name = "Your Site Name"
url = "https://example.com"
logo = "/images/logo.png"

# Default author for posts without explicit author
[markata-go.seo.structured_data.default_author]
type = "Person"
name = "Author Name"
url = "https://example.com/about"

Frontmatter Fields

Override structured data per-post via frontmatter:

---
title: "Post Title"
description: "Post description for meta tags"
date: 2024-01-15

# Optional fields
author: "Author Name"          # Override default author
image: "/images/post.jpg"      # OG/Twitter image
social_image: "/images/og.jpg" # Specific OG image override
twitter: "authorhandle"        # Author's Twitter (without @)
modified: "2024-01-16"         # Last modified date
tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]
---

Generated Output

JSON-LD Schema

For each post, markata-go generates a BlogPosting schema:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BlogPosting",
  "headline": "Post Title",
  "description": "Post description",
  "datePublished": "2024-01-15T00:00:00Z",
  "dateModified": "2024-01-16T00:00:00Z",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Author Name",
    "url": "https://example.com/about"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Site Name",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://example.com/logo.png"
    }
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage": {
    "@type": "WebPage",
    "@id": "https://example.com/post-slug/"
  },
  "image": "https://example.com/images/post.jpg",
  "keywords": ["tag1", "tag2"]
}

OpenGraph Tags

Generated tags include:

Twitter Card Tags

Generated tags include:

Image Priority

Images are selected in this order:

1. social_image from frontmatter (OG-specific override)
2. image from frontmatter
3. default_image from SEO config

Author Priority

Authors are determined in this order:

1. author field from frontmatter
2. default_author from structured data config
3. author from site config

Disabling Structured Data

To disable structured data generation:

[markata-go.seo.structured_data]
enabled = false

Testing Your Structured Data

Use these tools to validate your structured data:

• Google Rich Results Test
• Facebook Sharing Debugger
• Twitter Card Validator
• Schema.org Validator

Best Practices

1. Always include descriptions - Good descriptions improve both SEO and social sharing
2. Use quality images - Social images should be at least 1200x630 pixels
3. Keep titles under 60 characters - Prevents truncation in search results
4. Set publication dates - Helps search engines understand content freshness
5. Use relevant tags - Tags become keywords in schema markup

Template Access

Structured data is available in templates via post.structured_data:

{# JSON-LD #}
{% if post.structured_data.jsonld %}
<script type="application/ld+json">
{{ post.structured_data.jsonld | safe }}
</script>
{% endif %}

{# OpenGraph #}
{% for meta in post.structured_data.opengraph %}
<meta property="{{ meta.property }}" content="{{ meta.content }}">
{% endfor %}

{# Twitter Cards #}
{% for meta in post.structured_data.twitter %}
<meta name="{{ meta.name }}" content="{{ meta.content }}">
{% endfor %}

See Also

• Configuration Reference
• Post Formats
• Themes