Do you put Schema Microdata meta tags in the html body?
I have searched for a long time across the internet and stackoverflow for an answer to this question, and I have found links that say that you should not put meta tags in the body:
while the schema.org website clearly shows the meta tags being nested directly in the body http://schema.org/AggregateRating
Just look at the example that is posted there
Customer reviews:
<div itemprop="reviews" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review">
<span itemprop="name">Not a happy camper</span> -
by <span itemprop="author">Ellie</span>,
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-04-01">April 1, 2011
<div itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating">
<meta itemprop="worstRating" content = "1">
<span itemprop="ratingValue">1</span>/
<span itemprop="bestRating">5</span>stars
</div>
<span itemprop="description">The lamp burned out and now I have to replace
it. </span>
</div>
<div itemprop="reviews" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review">
<span itemprop="name">Value purchase</span> -
by <span itemprop="author">Lucas</span>,
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-03-25">March 25, 2011
<div itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating">
<meta itemprop="worstRating" content = "1"/>
<span itemprop="ratingValue">4</span>/
<span itemprop="bestRating">5</span>stars
</div>
<span itemprop="description">Great microwave for the price. It is small and
fits in my apartment.</span>
</div>
If you were to keep the meta tags in the <head>, then how would you relate these two dates to their reviews?
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-04-01">
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-03-25">
This is causing confusion and I would like to know how to do it properly.
Answer
If a meta element
- has an
itempropattribute and acontentattribute, and - has no
nameattribute, nohttp-equivattribute, and nocharsetattribute,
then it’s valid to have this meta in the body. (If the value is a URL, you must use link instead.)
Why? Because the Microdata specification changes HTML5.
(Note that RDFa also changes HTML5 by allowing meta in the body in some cases.)
If you were to keep the
metatags in the<head>, then how would you relate these two dates to their reviews?
You could use the itemref attribute:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Using itemref for meta in the head</title>
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-03-25" id="date">
</head>
<body>
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review" itemref="date">
<span itemprop="name">…</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>
itemref takes a space-separated list of id values, so you can even reference two or more elements. Just add the id of all elements (containing itemprop attributes) that should be added to the item to its itemref attribute, e.g.: itemref="date author rating".