SEO & Structured Data Maintenance Guide

ESSAY • JULY 16, 2025 • 1,000 WORDS

This guide explains how to maintain the structured data (JSON-LD) implementation that helps search engines understand your content better.

Quick Reference: What to Update and When

1. Personal/Professional Changes

When your professional information changes, update /src/site.config.ts:

// SEO and structured data fields
jobTitle: "Assistant Professor of Economics",  // Update when job title changes
organization: "University of Oxford",           // Update when changing institutions
profileImage: "/headshot.jpg",                  // Update if you change the filename
twitterHandle: "@straightedge",                 // Update if Twitter handle changes
orcid: "0000-0003-0884-8418",                  // Your ORCID ID (rarely changes)
socialProfiles: [                               // Add/remove social profiles
  "https://twitter.com/straightedge",
  "https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnathanlane/",
  "https://github.com/nathanlane",
  "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0884-8418"
],

2. Adding New Content Types

If you add new types of content beyond blog posts and research papers, you’ll need to update /src/components/StructuredData.astro.

Example: Adding structured data for project pages

case 'project':
  schema = {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "SoftwareSourceCode",  // or "CreativeWork" for non-code projects
    "@id": `${siteConfig.siteUrl}${data.url}#project`,
    "name": data.title,
    "description": data.description,
    "author": personSchema,
    "datePublished": data.publishDate,
    "programmingLanguage": data.technologies,  // ["Python", "R", etc.]
    "codeRepository": data.github
  };
  break;

3. Testing Your Structured Data

After making changes, always test your structured data:

  1. Google’s Rich Results Test: https://search.google.com/test/rich-results

    • Enter your URL or paste your HTML
    • Check for errors or warnings
    • Preview how your content might appear in search

  2. Schema.org Validator: https://validator.schema.org/

    • More technical validation
    • Shows the complete structured data tree

  3. Local Testing:

    # Build your site
pnpm build
 
# Preview locally
pnpm preview
 
# View page source and search for "application/ld+json"

Common Maintenance Tasks

Updating After Publishing New Content

No action needed! The structured data is automatically generated for:

  • New blog posts (using article schema)
  • New research papers (using article schema)
  • All pages (using website schema)

Adding Co-authors to Research Papers

Currently, the system only supports a single author (you). To add co-author support:

  1. Update the research schema in /src/content.config.ts to parse authors
  2. Modify the article schema in StructuredData.astro to handle multiple authors

Changing Image Paths

If you reorganize where images are stored:

  1. Update profileImage in site.config.ts
  2. Update any OG image generation logic if paths change

What Each Schema Does

Website Schema

  • Purpose: Tells Google about your site structure
  • Benefits: Can enable sitelinks search box in Google results
  • Maintenance: Rarely needs updates

Article Schema

  • Purpose: Rich snippets for blog posts and papers
  • Benefits: Shows publish date, author, reading time in search
  • Maintenance: Automatic for new content

Person Schema

  • Purpose: Establishes your identity as author
  • Benefits: Knowledge panel potential, author attribution
  • Maintenance: Update when professional info changes
  • Purpose: Shows page hierarchy
  • Benefits: Breadcrumb trail in search results
  • Maintenance: Automatic based on URL structure

Troubleshooting

Structured Data Not Appearing

  1. Check browser console for JavaScript errors
  2. View page source and search for application/ld+json
  3. Ensure the component is imported in the layout

Validation Errors

  1. Use Google’s Rich Results Test to identify issues
  2. Common issues:
    • Missing required fields
    • Invalid date formats (use ISO 8601)
    • Broken image URLs

Changes Not Reflected

  1. Clear your build cache: rm -rf .astro dist
  2. Rebuild: pnpm build
  3. Google can take days/weeks to update their index

Best Practices

  1. Keep it Simple: Don’t over-complicate schemas
  2. Be Accurate: Only include truthful, accurate information
  3. Stay Current: Update professional info promptly
  4. Test Changes: Always validate after updates
  5. Monitor Results: Use Google Search Console to track performance

Further Resources