Guide : WebSite Schema

TL;DR — WebSite schema is a petit block of code vous ajouter to votre homepage que indique moteur de recherches “this domain is a website, and here’s its name and address.” It utilisé to power a search box que showed sous some brands in Google’s results — but Google turned que fonctionnalité off in November 2024. The schema itself isn’t dead, though: the name-and-URL partie remains an input pour Google’s site nom fonctionnalité. Vous don’t besoin to delete the old search-box code, but it ne … plus creates a Sitelinks Search Box in Google.

Ce que WebSite schema is

Quand vous land on a homepage, vous pouvez tell it’s “a website” with a nom — dire, Ahrefs — sans thinking à propos de it. A moteur de recherche sees plain text and has to fonctionner it out. WebSite schema spells it out in code, en utilisant the shared schema.org vocabulary: it tags votre site’s name, an optional short alternateName (comme an acronym), and votre homepage url.

It’s almost toujours written as JSON-LD — a petit script que sits in lune page sans modification how lune page semble — and it belongs on votre homepage seulement.

The fonctionnalité que went away

Pour à propos de ten années, WebSite schema pourrait carry an supplémentaire piece appelé a SearchAction. That’s ce que powered Google’s Sitelinks Search Box — a little search field que parfois appeared directement sous a brand’s result, letting personnes search dans que site straight from Google.

On November 21, 2024, Google supprimé que search box, saying usage had dropped. Two choses are worth being clair à propos de:

• Vous don’t besoin to supprimer the old code. Google dit leftover markup comme ce won’t causer errors in Search Console. It simplement sits là, unused.
• Ce didn’t hurt rankings or “sitelinks.” The regular sitelinks — the clickable subpage liens sous a result — are a différent chose and are unaffected.

Ce que WebSite schema encore fait

Here’s the partie la plupart outdated guides miss: WebSite schema n’est pas dead. The name-and-URL partie now feeds Google’s Site Noms fonctionnalité — the bolded site nom Google montre (au lieu de a plain web adresse) pour homepage-level results, mostly on mobile. To express a preference, vous give Google:

• nom — ce que votre site is appelé.
• url — votre homepage adresse.
• alternateName (optional) — a short formulaire or acronym.

Think of it as a suggestion, pas a command: Google aussi semble at votre title tag and autre signals and rend the final appel — the même façon Organization schema doesn’t guarantee a Knowledge Panel.

Vouloir the complet version — the deprecation timeline, the exact properties, the homepage-only rule, and how WebSite differs from Organization schema? Switch to the Avancé tab.

TL;DR — schema.org/WebSite markup (usually JSON-LD, homepage seulement) historically did two jobs pour Google: a potentialAction/SearchAction powered the Sitelinks Search Box, and name/url/alternateName express a Site Noms preference. Google discontinued le sitelinks Search Box starting Nov 21, 2024 (“usage has dropped”) — ce fait pas affecter rankings or ordinary sitelinks, and existing SearchAction markup doesn’t besoin to be supprimé (unsupported données structurées won’t trigger Search Console errors). The critical distinction: the fonctionnalité died, pas the type. Google explicitly kept a variation of WebSite données structurées alive pour Site Noms. Everything au-delà name/url/alternateName (publisher, copyright fields) is valid schema.org vocabulary but isn’t tied to a documented Recherche Google fonctionnalité.

Ce que WebSite schema is (and isn’t)

schema.org/WebSite sits at Thing > CreativeWork > WebSite, and schema.org defines it in un line — “A WebSite is a définir of connexe web pages and autre items typically served from a unique web domain and accessible viune URLs.” Parce que it’s a CreativeWork subtype, it inherits a big property surface (publisher, copyrightHolder, copyrightYear, isPartOf, mainEntityOfPage, inLanguage, and the historical potentialAction). But Google seulement ever formally specified a handful of ceux pour its two rich-result-adjacent fonctionnalités. Garder que framing straight and la plupart WebSite-schema confusion evaporates: the type is broad, Google’s documented utiliser of it is narrow.

A brief history: le sitelinks Search Box

Pour over a decade, the chose WebSite schema was meilleur connu pour was the Sitelinks Search Box — the in-SERP search field que occasionally showed sous a brand’s result. Vous enabled it with a potentialAction of type SearchAction on the WebSite type:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "potentialAction": {
    "@type": "SearchAction",
    "target": "https://query.example.com/search?q={search_term_string}",
    "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
  }
}

Two details worth remembering. Premier, Google utilisé its propre shorthand — "query-input": "required name=search_term_string" — plutôt que schema.org’s generic EntryPoint/urlTemplate pattern, so ce exact syntax is a Google-ism. Second, là utilisé to be an opt-out: a nositelinkssearchbox robots meta tag pour sites que didn’t vouloir the box. Quand the fonctionnalité was retired, Google archived que documentation aussi.

Le sitelinks Search Box deprecation (the news hook)

Google announced the fin in a Search Central blog post, Farewell, Sitelinks Search Box (Oct 21, 2024, posted by John Mueller), with removal starting November 21, 2024. The stated raison was que usage had dropped and Google wanted to simplify le résultats. The concrete effects:

• Rankings and ordinary sitelinks are untouched. Seulement the in-SERP search input box went away — pas the clickable subpage sitelinks, and nothing à propos de ranking.
• Vous don’t have to supprimer votre old markup. Google’s position is que removal is unnecessary and unsupported données structurées won’t trigger Search Console errors.
• Tooling modifié alongside it. Search Console’s Sitelinks Search Box rich-result report was supprimé, and the Résultats enrichis Tester stopped validating/highlighting the SearchAction markup pour ce fonctionnalité.

The announcement came via the official blog and the Recherche Google Central X/Twitter account — I couldn’t trouver an individual Office Hours soundbite from Mueller, Illyes, or Splitt specifically à propos de it, so I’m pas going to invent un.

Do vous devez supprimer votre old markup? Aucun.

Short réponse: leave it. It’s inert, it causes aucun errors, and ripping it out earns vous nothing. Si you’re doing a schema audit and it bugs vous to have dead code sitting là, vous peut supprimer the potentialAction/SearchAction block — but garder the surrounding WebSite object, parce que (voir ci-dessous) it encore has a live job.

Ce que WebSite schema encore fait today: Site Noms

Ce is the myth I la plupart vouloir to kill: “le sitelinks Search Box is gone, so WebSite schema is dead” is faux. In the very même announcement, Google was explicit que a variation of WebSite données structurées continues to be pris en charge — pour the Site Noms fonctionnalité. A site nom is Google’s étiquette pour le site une page comes from (distinct from the per-page title lien), affiché pour entire-site/homepage-level results, primarily on mobile.

Requis and recommended properties

Pour expressing a site-name preference, the surface is tiny:

That’s it. Aucun publisher, aucun copyright fields, aucun SearchAction — simplement name, url, and optionally alternateName.

Google’s propre guidance is explicit que alternateName isn’t simplement a backup étiquette: leur system may pick un of votre alternatives over votre principal preference, Par exemple quand two globally-recognized sites voudrait sinon collide on the même nom. Listing plus que un, in order of preference, donne the automated system options — it doesn’t hand vous contrôler over qui un obtient utilisé.

Placement: homepage / domain root seulement

Site Noms markup goes on the home page seulement, at the domain or subdomain root — e.g. https://example.com/ or https://news.example.com/. A subdirectory-level “homepage” comme https://example.com/news is pas pris en charge. Ce mirrors the même homepage-only placement rule the old SearchAction markup followed, so it’s a consistent pattern à travers WebSite markup généralement: it lives at the root, une fois.

Google’s technical guidelines ajouter a few scope details worth knowing avant vous implement:

• Un nom per site, où “site” signifie domain or subdomain. https://example.com, https://www.example.com, and https://m.example.com are tout treated as the même domain-level site (Google généralement considers www/m subdomains equivalent to the bare domain); https://news.example.com is its propre, separate subdomain-level site. https://example.com/news — a subdirectory — isn’t a pris en charge “site” pour ce fonctionnalité at tout.
• Duplicate homepages besoin consistent markup. Si votre homepage exists at plus que un URL pour the même content (HTTP vs. HTTPS, www vs. non-www), put the même WebSite données structurées on every duplicate — pas simplement the canonical un.
• Subdomains sans leur propre markup peut fall back to the domain-level nom. Si a subdomain’s home page has aucun WebSite données structurées of its propre, Google may utiliser the domain-level site nom pour it à la place.

How Google picks a site nom sans markup

Même with aucun markup, Google va pick a site nom automatically, drawing on homepage signals — og:site_name, the <title>, heading elements, and how autre sites référence vous. So WebSite markup ici is a preference signal, pas a directive — exactly the “signal not guarantee” pattern vous voir with Organization schema and Knowledge Panels. Autre documented limites: un site nom per domain, indisponible pour subdirectory-level sites, and it isn’t affiché or testé in the Résultats enrichis Tester.

Fonctionnalité boundaries: what’s connected to ce que

Entre the retired search box and the live Site Noms fonctionnalité, it’s facile to blur several separate SERP elements ensemble. Ils aren’t causally lié — supporting or removing un doesn’t affecter the others:

Don’t lire a relationship into ce table que isn’t là: WebSite schema doesn’t feed title liens or Knowledge Panels, and none of ces fonctionnalités guarantee afficher simplement parce que markup is présent and valid.

WebSite vs. Organization schema

Ces two obtenir co-deployed on homepages tout the temps, and it’s worth being precise à propos de the division of labor:

• WebSite describes the site-as-entity — the domain, its nom, its URL. It feeds Site Noms.
• Organization describes the business/publisher-as-entity — the company behind le site, its logo, social profiles, contact info. It feeds brand/Knowledge-Graph understanding.

The natural bridge entre les is WebSite’s inherited publisher property, qui peut point at the Organization. Si you’re implementing homepage schema, “add both” is the usual correct réponse — they’re complementary, pas competing. (The Organization schema article on ce site is the companion piece.)

Autre WebSite / CreativeWork properties

Au-delà name/url/alternateName (Site Noms) and the now-inert potentialAction (Sitelinks Search Box), the rest of the WebSite/CreativeWork property surface — publisher, copyrightHolder, copyrightYear, copyrightNotice, isPartOf, mainEntityOfPage, inLanguage — is valid schema.org vocabulary but isn’t tied to a specifically documented Recherche Google fonctionnalité the façon name/url are. Inclure les si ils aider general entity understanding or votre propre tooling; don’t ajouter les expecting a rich result. Aucun dedicated Recherche Google Central page ties WebSite’s copyright/publisher fields to a named fonctionnalité, so I won’t overstate leur search valeur.

Bing and autre engines

Bing supports the schema.org vocabulary broadly (JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa, Microformats) and validates typed données, but I trouvé aucun dedicated Bing documentation describing a Bing-specific Sitelinks-Search-Box equivalent or a Bing “Site Names” analog tied to WebSite markup. So schema.org/WebSite is valid, generically-supported markup on Bing — there’s simplement aucun bespoke Bing fonctionnalité to target with it. I’d appel que a genuine documentation gap plutôt que implying Bing quietly matched Google.

Où ce sits in the bigger picture

WebSite is un type in the wider données structurées / balisage de données structurées world, and on a homepage it’s a natural pair with Organization schema. Si you’re auditing legacy schema, the practical takeaway is simple: garder the WebSite object pour Site Noms, arrêter worrying à propos de the dead SearchAction, and don’t confuse “the search box is gone” with “the schema is gone.”

AI summary

A condensed prendre on the Avancé version:

• Ce que c’est: schema.org/WebSite markup (usually JSON-LD, homepage seulement) identifying votre domain as a website entity — name, url, optional alternateName. Type hierarchy: Thing > CreativeWork > WebSite.
• Historically did two jobs pour Google: (1) a potentialAction/SearchAction powered the Sitelinks Search Box; (2) name/url/alternateName express a Site Noms preference.
• The deprecation: Google discontinued the Sitelinks Search Box starting November 21, 2024 (announced Oct 21, 2024 by John Mueller), citing dropped usage. It fait pas affecter rankings or ordinary sitelinks.
• Old markup: doesn’t besoin to be supprimé — it’s inert, and Google dit unsupported données structurées won’t trigger Search Console errors. Search Console’s rich-result report and the Résultats enrichis Tester vérifier pour it were supprimé.
• The clé myth to kill: the fonctionnalité died, pas the type. Google explicitly kept a variation of WebSite données structurées alive pour Site Noms. Don’t conflate “SearchAction is dead” with “WebSite schema is dead.”
• Site Noms spec: name + url requis, alternateName recommended; homepage/ domain-root seulement (subdirectory “homepages” unsupported). It’s a preference signal, pas a guarantee — Google aussi uses og:site_name, <title>, headings, and external références, and picks a nom même sans markup. Multiple alternateName valeurs are allowed, in preference order — Google may pick un over votre principal si there’s a nom collision with un autre global site.
• Scope details: un site nom per domain/subdomain (www/m subdomains count as the même site as the bare domain); duplicate homepage URLs (HTTP/HTTPS, www/non-www) besoin identical markup; a subdomain with aucun markup of its propre peut fall back to the domain-level nom.
• Fonctionnalité boundaries: Sitelinks Search Box, Site Noms, ordinary sitelinks, title liens, and Knowledge Panels are five separate choses. Seulement Site Noms is tied to WebSite schema; none of the others are, and none are guaranteed by markup.
• WebSite vs Organization: WebSite = site-as-entity (feeds Site Noms); Organization = business-as-entity (feeds brand/Knowledge Graph). The publisher property bridges les; “add both” on the homepage is usual.
• Everything sinon (publisher, copyrightHolder, copyrightYear, isPartOf, inLanguage) is valid vocabulary but pas tied to a documented Recherche Google fonctionnalité.
• Bing: supports schema.org generically; aucun documented Site-Names or Sitelinks-Search- Box equivalent.

Documentation officielle

Primary-source documentation from Google, the spec, and Bing.

Google — the deprecation and the live fonctionnalité

• Farewell, Sitelinks Search Box (Search Central Blog, Oct 21, 2024) — the deprecation announcement: Nov 21, 2024 removal, “usage has dropped,” aucun ranking impact, aucun besoin to supprimer markup.
• Site Noms dans la recherche Google — the live utiliser cas pour WebSite schema: name/url/alternateName, the homepage-only rule, and how Google auto-selects a site nom.
• General Données structurées Guidelines — the spam-policy backbone and the “no guarantee of display” position.

Spec — schema.org

• schema.org/WebSite — the type definition, hierarchy (Thing > CreativeWork > WebSite), and complet property liste.
• schema.org/SearchAction — the historical potentialAction target utilisé pour le sitelinks Search Box (vérifier property noms avant reusing).

Bing / Microsoft

• Marking up votre site with données structurées — Bing’s general schema.org/JSON-LD prise en charge (aucun WebSite-specific fonctionnalité documented).

Quotes from the source

On-the-record statements from Google. Lire the caveat ci-dessous avant treating ces as pinpoint-verbatim — the underlying blog/docs pages resisted automated verification.

Recherche Google Central Blog — Farewell, Sitelinks Search Box

• “It’s been over ten years since we initially announced the sitelinks search box in Google Search, and over time, we’ve noticed that usage has dropped. With that, and to help simplify the search results, we’ll be removing this visual element starting on November 21, 2024.” Jump to quote
• “This change will apply globally across all search results, in all languages and countries. This doesn’t affect rankings or the other sitelinks visual element, and won’t be listed in the Search status dashboard.” Jump to quote
• On unsupported markup après removal: “Unsupported structured data like this won’t cause issues in Search, and won’t trigger errors in Search Console reports.” Jump to quote

Recherche Google Central — official X/Twitter account (même announcement, restated)

• “We’re saying bye to the sitelinks search box in Google Search results starting Nov 21, 2024, as usage has dropped. This doesn’t affect rankings or other sitelinks. The corresponding markup doesn’t need to be removed, but won’t be used by Google.” Lire the post

schema.org — the WebSite type (independently verified contre the live page)

• “A WebSite is a set of related web pages and other items typically served from a single web domain and accessible via URLs.” Jump to quote

Devrait I ajouter — or garder — WebSite / SearchAction markup?

The confusion après the November 2024 modifier splits into two clean questions: is the old search-box code worth ajout or keeping (aucun — que fonctionnalité is dead), and devrait vous ajouter WebSite schema pour Site Noms (yes, si vous vouloir the fonctionnalité). Fonctionner bas the tree.

WebSite schema cheat sheet

The two lifecycles En un coup d’œil

Site Noms — requis vs. recommended

Placement rule

• Homepage seulement, at the domain or subdomain root (https://example.com/, https://news.example.com/).
• Subdirectory “homepages” (https://example.com/news) are pas pris en charge.
• Un site nom per domain/subdomain — www and m subdomains count as the même domain-level site.
• Duplicate homepage URLs (HTTP/HTTPS, www/non-www) besoin matching markup on every copy.
• A subdomain with aucun markup of its propre peut fall back to the domain-level nom.

Fonctionnalité boundaries (pas causally lié)

• Sitelinks Search Box (retired) ≠ Site Noms (live) ≠ ordinary sitelinks (live, unaffected) ≠ title liens (per-page headline, unaffected) ≠ Knowledge Panel (separate entity signal).
• Seulement Site Noms is tied to WebSite schema.

Deprecation fast facts

• Announced Oct 21, 2024 (John Mueller, Search Central Blog); removal Nov 21, 2024.
• Raison: “usage has dropped.”
• Aucun effect on rankings or ordinary sitelinks.
• Old SearchAction markup: aucun besoin to supprimer; won’t trigger Search Console errors.
• Search Console rich-result report and Résultats enrichis Tester vérifier pour it were supprimé.
• The old nositelinkssearchbox opt-out meta tag is now moot (documentation archived).

Framing to garder straight

• name/url/alternateName = live (Site Noms).
• potentialAction/SearchAction = inert (dead fonctionnalité).
• publisher, copyright*, isPartOf, inLanguage = valid vocabulary, aucun documented Google fonctionnalité.
• Site nom markup is a signal, pas a directive.
• WebSite ≠ dead. Seulement the search box died.

WebSite JSON-LD — current vs. historical

Current: Site Noms markup (ce que to utiliser today)

Homepage seulement. name + url requis, alternateName recommended:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Example Analytics",
  "alternateName": "ExAn",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/"
}

Vous pouvez supply multiple alternate noms in order of preference:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "name": "Example Analytics",
  "alternateName": ["ExAn", "Example"],
  "url": "https://www.example.com/"
}

WebSite + Organization ensemble (the courant homepage pattern)

WebSite describes le site-as-entity; Organization describes the business behind it; the publisher property bridges les:

[
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "WebSite",
    "name": "Example Analytics",
    "alternateName": "ExAn",
    "url": "https://www.example.com/",
    "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.example.com/#org" }
  },
  {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@type": "Organization",
    "@id": "https://www.example.com/#org",
    "name": "Example Analytics, Inc.",
    "url": "https://www.example.com/",
    "logo": "https://www.example.com/logo.png"
  }
]

Historical: the old Sitelinks Search Box (ne … plus functional)

Ce is ce que a legacy SearchAction implementation looked comme. It ne … plus produces an in-SERP search box — Google discontinued the fonctionnalité on Nov 21, 2024. Affiché seulement so vous pouvez recognize it in existing markup; vous don’t besoin to supprimer it, and vous devezn’t ajouter it to a nouveau site expecting the search box:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "potentialAction": {
    "@type": "SearchAction",
    "target": "https://query.example.com/search?q={search_term_string}",
    "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
  }
}

Remarque the Google-specific shorthand "query-input": "required name=search_term_string" plutôt que schema.org’s generic EntryPoint/urlTemplate pattern — a Google-ism from quand the fonctionnalité was live.

Testez vos connaissances: WebSite Schema

Five rapide questions on schema.org/WebSite, le sitelinks Search Box deprecation, and le site Noms fonctionnalité. Pick an réponse pour chaque, alors vérifier.

Ressources utiles

My writing on ce topic

I haven’t publié a standalone WebSite schema guide of my propre, so plutôt que point vous at something que doesn’t exist, the honest déplacer is to send vous to the principal sources ci-dessous and to the connexe structured-data fonctionner on ce site. Pour the broader vocabulary and où WebSite fits, voir the Balisage de données structurées and Données structurées hubs; pour the natural homepage companion, the Organization schema article (site-as-entity vs. business-as-entity).

From autour the industry

• Farewell, Sitelinks Search Box (Recherche Google Central Blog) — the deprecation announcement: dates, “usage has dropped,” aucun ranking impact, aucun besoin to supprimer markup.
• Site Noms dans la recherche Google (Google) — the live WebSite-schema utiliser cas: nom/url/alternateName, homepage-only placement, and automated site-name selection.
• schema.org/WebSite — the spec: type definition, hierarchy, and the complet property liste.
• Recherche Google to drop Sitelinks Search Box (Moteur de recherche Land) — coverage confirming the Nov 21, 2024 date and no-ranking-impact framing.
• Google Removes Sitelinks Search Box Documentation (Moteur de recherche Journal) — notes the archived docs and the retired nositelinkssearchbox opt-out meta tag.
• Google Sitelinks Search Box Going Away November 21 (Moteur de recherche Roundtable) — corroborates the date, reasoning, and the Search Console / Résultats enrichis Tester tooling removals.
• Marking up votre site with données structurées (Bing Webmaster Outils) — Bing’s general schema.org/JSON-LD prise en charge (aucun WebSite-specific fonctionnalité).

Journal des modifications