Bing has introduced JSON-LD support as part of Bing Webmaster Tools.
Users can now validate their JSON-LD implementation by logging into Bing Webmaster Tools and using the Markup Validator tool, which can be found in the Diagnostics and Tools section.
Following the inclusions of JSON-LD, Bing’s Markup Validator now supports six markup languages:
- Schema
- HTML microdata
- Microformats
- Open Graph
- RDFa
- JSON-LD
From the official announcement:
“Bing works hard to understand the content of a page and one of the clues that Bing uses is structured data. JSON-LD, or JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, is an extension of JSON-based data format that can be used to implement structured data on your site so Bing and other search engines can better understand the content on your site.”
Bing emphasizes the benefits of using JSON-LD, explaining how it can be implemented without modifying the HTML content of pages.
JSON-LD can also be hidden in the header, body, or footer of a page.
“This effectively means that webmasters can go about designing their pages as they like without having to worry about arranging the information for markup implementations. JSON-LD makes defining links and relationships between data and entities between the data present on your pages easy because it supports nested data.”
The versatility of JSON-LD is exactly why webmasters should be proactive with respect to ensuring the markup is valid.
Lastly, Bing reminds site owners that putting spam data in JSON-LD markup can affect a page’s presence in search results.
JSON-LD markup may not be visible on a page, but it is still visible to search engines.
