Users ozkn, jimsalterjrs, and piffy report a critical Google Search Console error indicating a +1,000% increase in missing “author” fields in structured data, affecting site indexing. The issue is linked to the new SEO single-page post crawler view in Discourse. jimsalterjrs shares a screenshot and a URL example from their site, while piffy notes the issue occurs on pages not pointing to the first post of a topic. Falco investigates and confirms the problem is related to the crawler view, referencing a test result. david provides a fix via a GitHub pull request here.
I’m getting this error after the last update. I would be happy if this error is corrected.
Error message:
Search Console has detected a recent significant increase in the number of items on your site affected by the following critical Discussion forum structured data issues:
“author” field missing: (+1,000% increase)
This change may significantly impact your site’s performance in Google Search. Visit Search Console for more data to help you optimize your search traffic.
Me-too-ing this one. I got an email from Google Search Console about the same thing: unstructured forum data, author field missing, critical error that means your content cannot be indexed.
@ozkn and @jimsalterjrs can you share a URL where this issue happens? Are you running latest Discourse? Meta appears unnafected per https://search.google.com/test/rich-results/result?id=6onjJwZEQ9W9xHZChAFN9g
This is kinda boomery, attaching a screenshot from my Google Search Console, but it seems like the best quick overview to give you an idea of what you might want to know more about:
Clickable URL to the page that Google Search Console offered as an example of the issue: Pull backup from a TrueNAS system to Synology - #2 by mercenary_sysadmin - TrueNAS - Practical ZFS
I have some too
But I think 100% of the pages here don’t point to the first post of a topic, ex
example.com/t/1000/12 or example.com/t/1000?page=3
Here is a modified version of the url provided by @Falco
https://meta.discourse.org/t/discussion-forum-schema-improvements/287347/3
@david this is caused by the new SEO single page post crawler view, see https://search.google.com/test/rich-results/result?id=OhMiTptWFYsjunlEGW5bTg
Thanks everyone! Here’s a fix:
