"Structured data issue" manual action: lost rich results and how to fix the markup
Some markup on your pages uses "techniques that are outside our structured data guidelines": marking up content visitors cannot see, marking up irrelevant or misleading content, or other manipulation. The consequence is narrower than most manual actions. Google's structured data policies say a structured data manual action means a page "loses eligibility for appearance as a rich result; it doesn't affect how the page ranks in Google web search."
So your blue links stay where they were, but stars, prices, job listings or recipe cards disappear. The fix is to correct or remove the offending markup on every affected page, then request review.
The specific labels you might see
When you expand the action, Google shows a more specific description. The current list includes, among others:
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Structured data does not match content | The markup describes something the page does not show |
| Structured data found on hidden content | Marked-up elements are not visible to users |
| Review written by the site or person providing the service | Self-written or paid reviews marked up as reviews |
| No mechanism for submitting a new review | Reviews shown with no way to add one or source shown |
| Company marked as product / Non-product labeled as product | Product type used for a business or a generic item |
| Event structured data is actually a promotion | A sale or coupon marked up as an event |
| Non-recipe marked as a recipe | Recipe markup without a real dish, ingredients and steps |
| JobPosting structured data on expired job | Old job without validThrough set in the past |
| Job application requires payment, Misleading job location, Job poster not hiring | JobPosting content problems |
| Structured data issues on list page | Several items aggregated into one element |
The label tells you which pages and which schema type to fix.
How WordPress plugins produce these
Most structured data actions on WordPress come from plugins doing what they were configured to do:
- Star rating plugins that add
aggregateRatingto every page, including the homepage and service pages, using testimonials the business collected itself. - Testimonial widgets marked up as
Reviewof your ownLocalBusinessorOrganization. Google's review snippet rules do not allow self-serving reviews of your own business. - Job board plugins that keep JobPosting markup on filled or expired roles, or on the jobs listing page.
- Recipe plugins used for craft projects or product roundups.
- Event calendars used for sales and coupon codes.
- Product schema on services or on a category page that lists many products as if it were one.
Markup inside a hidden tab is also a common one: an FAQ block marked up but collapsed in a way users cannot open.
Correcting the markup in Hydrogen SEO
In Hydrogen SEO, schema is chosen per post in the SEO Settings sheet and site-wide on the Schema screen. For each affected URL:
- Open the post and check which types are attached. Remove any that do not describe the visible content, such as Product on a service page or Recipe on a project post.
- Remove review and rating markup that comes from your own testimonials. Keep genuine third-party reviews visible on the page if you mark them up, with a clear source.
- Check the site-wide Schema rules. A rule that applies Product or Review to a whole post type can put the same problem on hundreds of pages.
- If another plugin also outputs JSON-LD, disable its schema module so you are not fixing one source while another still prints the bad markup.
Developers can suppress output for a post by returning an empty array from the hydrogen_seo_schema_markup filter. Test fixed pages in the JSON-LD validator and Google's Rich Results Test, and see validating rich results for the workflow.
The request and what comes back
Once every affected page is fixed, select Request Review. Name the plugin or setting that produced the markup and what you changed:
Our testimonial plugin added Review and AggregateRating markup for our
own business on all 120 pages. We removed that markup site-wide and
kept the testimonials as plain text. Product schema was removed from
14 service pages. Examples: /services/roof-repair/, /about/
The decision arrives by email, usually within several days or a few weeks. Once revoked, rich results can return as Google recrawls, but eligibility is not the same as display; Google chooses when to show them. Rankings were not affected by the action, so do not expect a traffic jump beyond whatever the rich results themselves brought in.
Common questions
Does a structured data manual action hurt my rankings?
Google says it does not. The page loses eligibility for rich results, but its position in web search is not affected by this action.
Can I mark up testimonials from my customers?
Not as reviews of your own business in LocalBusiness or Organization markup. Google's review snippet guidelines exclude self-serving reviews. You can still show the testimonials on the page as text.
Should I just remove all schema to be safe?
Removing only the violating markup is enough. Accurate Article, Breadcrumb or Organization markup on the same pages is fine and does not need to go.