A poll conducted on Twitter aimed to determine the best form of structured data. The two popular forms of schema markup discussed were one that marks up HTML and another that utilizes a script (JSON-LD), which can be embedded like a meta tag or a JavaScript.
What is the Easiest Structured Data?
The most favored form of structured data is JSON-LD. Its popularity is largely due to how easily it can be scaled.
If you’re using a PHP-based content management system (CMS), PHP code fragments can be used to customize a JSON-LD structured data template. This makes it compatible with WordPress or any other PHP-based CMS.
A downside is that JSON-LD introduces a new language to learn. However, unlike many other computing and markup languages, the rules are not extensive. Understanding the basic rules and Google’s Structured Data Guidelines allows for great flexibility.
Despite these advantages, one Twitter user expressed the opinion that JSON-LD is difficult to scale and preferred marking up the HTML code using Schema microdata:
"My challenge with JSON-LD is that it’s hard to automate and hard to make sure there’s content parity between the JSON & the content on the page, so I’d rather just mark up the HTML, and use the semantics of the HTML to guide the semantics of the structured data."
Another person shared the opposite view, noting that adding markup to HTML is more challenging than inserting a JSON-LD script into a page:
"Well – i don’t like merging data and HTML because later changes are a pain. And when there are teams for each part this leads to endless ticket-making for someone who’s responsible (designers, devs, content writers, SEO, managers)."
John Henshaw observed that both methods had their benefits and drawbacks:
"The learning curve for microdata is easier because they’re HTML attributes, but it’s much more difficult to maintain. JSON-LD can seem intimidating at first, but is actually easier to implement and maintain once you figure out its structure. It’s also easier to automate on WordPress."
I agree with this assessment. Although JSON-LD might be somewhat more challenging to grasp than microdata, in my view, it’s easier to learn than HTML. Furthermore, JSON-LD is more scalable.
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