Fixing the 'Error in Required Structured Data Element' in AMP

If you've found your way here, you're likely seeing a frustrating "Error in required structured data element" warning in Google Search Console for your AMP pages. This is a common issue reported by many website owners using the AMP plugin, often stemming from how structured data is generated and validated.

This guide will explain why this error occurs and walk you through the most effective troubleshooting steps to resolve it.

Why This Error Happens

Google requires specific structured data (Schema.org markup) on your pages to understand their content and to feature them in rich results like carousels or top stories. The AMP plugin typically works alongside other plugins, like SEO or schema plugins, to generate this data. The error appears when Google's crawler detects that a required property within this structured data is missing, malformed, or incorrect, even if everything looks fine on your end.

Based on common support threads, the root causes are often:

• Third-Party Plugin Conflicts: Your SEO or schema plugin (e.g., "Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP") might be outputting incomplete data that conflicts with what the AMP plugin expects.
• Missing Required Properties: A key piece of information, such as the publisher name or logo within the Article schema, is absent.
• Theme Compatibility Issues: Some themes are not fully AMP-compatible and can interfere with how structured data is presented.
• Cached or Stale Validation: Sometimes, Google Search Console reports old errors that have already been fixed.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix the Error

Follow these steps to identify and resolve the structured data error on your AMP pages.

Step 1: Test Your Page with Google's Rich Results Test

Before making any changes, get a current snapshot of the error. Don't rely solely on the Search Console report.

1. Copy the URL of your AMP page (e.g., https://yourwebsite.com/your-post/?amp).
2. Go to the Google Rich Results Test tool.
3. Paste the URL and run the test.
4. Examine the results. This tool will explicitly tell you which required property is missing or invalid. For example, a common message is "Missing field 'publisher'" or "Missing field 'logo'".

Step 2: Identify the Source of Your Structured Data

Your structured data is likely being generated by one of the following:

• Your SEO plugin (e.g., Yoast SEO, Rank Math, SEOPress).
• A dedicated schema plugin (e.g., Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP).
• Your theme.

You need to locate the plugin or theme that controls the schema and configure it correctly. A thread from the AMP support forums showed that a user's "Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP" plugin was missing the publisher name, which was the root cause of their error.

Step 3: Configure the Required Schema Properties

Once you know which tool generates your schema, ensure it is fully configured. The two most common missing properties in the Article schema are:

• Publisher: The schema must include a publisher object with a name and a logo.
• Logo: The logo must meet Google's requirements (e.g., a minimum size, correct aspect ratio, and a fully qualified URL like https://example.com/logo.jpg).

Navigate to the settings of your SEO or schema plugin and fill out all the required organization/publisher information fields completely.

Step 4: Re-Validate in Google Search Console

After updating your settings:

1. Clear any caching on your site (server, plugin, or CDN cache).
2. Go back to Google Search Console.
3. Find the error report for your AMP page.
4. Use the "Validate Fix" button to ask Google to re-crawl the page. It may take some time for the error status to update.

Step 5: Check for Theme and Plugin Conflicts (Advanced)

If the error persists, a conflict with your theme or another plugin might be altering the schema output. As noted in one thread, some page builders like Elementor are not fully AMP-compatible and can cause validation issues. To test for a conflict:

1. Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-One).
2. Clear your cache and run the Rich Results Test again. If the error is gone, your theme is the likely culprit.
3. If the error remains, disable other plugins one by one (except your SEO and AMP plugins), testing after each deactivation, to identify if one is causing the conflict.

By systematically working through these steps, you should be able to pinpoint the cause of the structured data error and get your AMP pages validated successfully by Google.