Creating “HowTo” Schema Markup Using the Schema App Editor

To help you create HowTo schema markup, we've put together a training video of step-by-step instructions:

Create a HowTo Data Item

The first step is to create a HowTo data item. All individual steps in the how-to will be nested under this data item. In the Structured Data Editor, use the class tree to search for “How to”. Once selected, click “Create”.

Assign the data item a name and a URL. We recommend assigning a name that is descriptive and clearly identifies the item you are creating. In our example, the name for our “HowTo” is “How it Works”. Enter the URL of the page where this how-to content exists. 

? Copy the URL from the address bar to avoid any typos or missing trailing slashes.

Once created, the page will refresh with this data item in Edit mode. You are required to have How To Step data items for each step in the process, as the Editor shows.

Create a HowToStep Data Item

Type the name of the first step in the input field, and click “Convert to Data Item”.

You will be prompted to indicate the URL of this new data item, as well as its type. You will want to use the URL of the page where the How To process resides, but append an anchor tag at the end to differentiate it from other content on the page. We recommend using a naming convention of #HowToStep1, #HowToStep2, etc. to give each step a unique URL. Change the type to “How to step” and click “Create”.

Click on “Open Full Data Item” and then “Go To Data Item”.

Click on the orange Edit button to fill in the required and recommended properties.

Fill in the Properties

1. In the “Text” field, enter the textual instructions related to the step.
2. If you have an image associated with this step, either paste the image URL or create a new “Image Object” data item for the image.
3. Populate the URL of the page where the step resides.
4. Click the green Done button.

You will now have a data item overview that looks like this:

Repeat this process for all other steps in the how-to. 

Check Your Work

You have the opportunity to check your work in the Editor as you create each data item. As you save each data item, our tool will alert you to any missing required or recommended fields. This could prompt you to either go back in and fill them out, or add content to the web page so that you can mark it up.

? You can only mark up content that is visible on a web page.

Once done, you can generate the JSON-LD and test with Google to ensure you have captured all relevant information.

In our example, the JSON-LD looks like this:

When testing with the Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT), the result is error-free. The warnings that exist are safe to ignore, as those fields do not exist in the content.