How to Implement JSON-LD

[AL123al]

Hi,

I was implementing JSON-LD via Google Tag Manager but have since read that it is better to place directly on the web page.

My questions are:

1. Where exactly do you add the JSON-LD - I mean physically?  This article by Moz says the head or body. Does it matter where in the head? At the end?

2. If you do not have development access- is there an easy way to insert?

3. Can you view the added JSON-LD directly on the web page after you have added it or is it not visible in the source once you have added it this way ? If you cannot see it, how do you view? Or it it just OK to use the Google Structured Testing tool as evidence that it is being seen by Google?

Thanks

[AL123al]

Thank you.

[seoelevated]

For Wordpress, it depends if you have it set to filter out script tags from content. So, if you toggle content editing mode to html, and put in a script tag, whether it allows this or not. That is a setting in Wordpress. If it is filtering out your script tags, and if you don't want to (or can't) disable the script tag filtering, then using a plugin to administer the schema markup would be your best bet. There are generic plugins to insert script tags. And there are more specific plugins for schema markup, like Yoast (and others).

If you are inserting the scripts through GTM, then you may not see them when you simply "view source".  With tag managers, you will see their container in the source code, but not the injected scripts. But if you instead use Chrome Developer Tools (right click and choose "inspect"), on the elements tab you will most likely find the injected scripts.

[AL123al]

Thanks for the great response.

For question 2)

If your CMS is Wordpress and you don't have development access, how do you add the script? I'm assuming that the page is a static page. You basically just paste it into the page?

For question 3)

Could you explain why you can't see the asynchronous script in the source code. I'm not overly sure about this part and I'd like to understand it a bit better. When I used Google Tag Manager I couldn't see the script and I don't understand why not. Are you able to explain technically what happens with injecting it via GTM versus on the page itself?

Thank you

[seoelevated]

In answer to your questions:

1. You can place the JSON-LD in either location. If you are making use of data which may not be available at the beginning of the page load, then you might prefer to place at the very bottom of your body tag. But both locations work if you are simply inserting static content.

2. If you are using a CMS, you can simply insert the script as static content (as long as your CMS allows you to insert a script). This is assuming your page is a static page, not one which dynamically changes based on some server-side application. So, for example, if you have an article page on your site, and you want to insert schema to mark up that article, then this would be straightforward to do by simply inserting a script. But if your site is an e-commerce site and you are wanting to mark up all of your product details pages with product information, then this might be better done as part of the application. For static markup, if you search for "json ld generator" you will find some handy tools to simplify creating static scripts. Just be careful that you do not use static markup on a dynamic page where the page content might change based on application data, then causing inconsistency between your markup and the actual page content.

3. If you insert through your CMS, then yes you should see your script in the source code. If you use an ansynchronous script to inject your JSON-LD, then you might not see it in your source code, but could still see it by using dev tools inspect, after the page finishes loading. Either way, then use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool on the live URL to confirm that Google is able to parse the markup properly, with no errors. When you do that, look at its results to make sure the hierarchy of the data looks appropriate to you based on the data you know is on the page.