Updates to Structured Data for Search Engines

[julian]

Earlier this week, Google's announced changes to Search, regarding Structured Data and the new DiscussionForumPosting markup type:

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/11/discussion-and-profile-markup?hl=en

NodeBB has supported Structured Data for awhile now (years, probably?), and has marked our own topics with the DiscussionForumPosting type since February of this year.

It was discovered that while the data properly validates, there was potential for confusion based on how the MicroData embedded by NodeBB is parsed by search engines. That was recently fixed in the Harmony theme and NodeBB now correctly validates to Google's latest expectations.

In a broader context it is wonderful that Google has taken steps to support the DiscussionForumPosting type. They used to classify forum topics/posts by their own proprietary metrics and formulas, and it was always a gamble as to what Google would consider indexable. With these latest changes, site owners themselves are able to explicitly highlight which items are important for search engines to consume, in a standards-compliant way. !

Special thanks to NodeBB power user and contributor @oplik0 for single-handedly updating our implementation to better support Google Search's new requirements He also wrote some thoughts down about these changes in a related topic: Pushing forums in the AI SEO domination era — go check it out!

[crazycells]

thanks guys... this is a crucial update... @julian @oplik0 @baris

[brazzerstop]

Any, even small, corrections and adjustments in markup for SEO are an important part in the life of any community! I’m very glad that the development team is following current changes in this environment!

Thank you!