5

When using Google's Structured Data Testing Tool, I consistently get the error:

The URL could not be rendered. Some markup may be missing.

  • I have identified and fixed all of the structured data errors - I have 3 items, all of which have 0 errors, two of which have 0 warnings and one of which has 3 warnings.

  • I am using OpenGraph vocabulary (both og: and twitter:) in the first item and schema.org vocabulary in both subsequent items.

  • I am using <meta> elements in the <head> to structure the data in the first item and json-ld to structure the data in both subsequent items.

  • I have checked to see if the document markup validates on W3 Unicorn - it does.

Since the markup validates and the structured data is error-free, what does it mean when Google Structured Data Testing Tool consistently informs me:

The URL could not be rendered. Some markup may be missing.

The URL could not be rendered in what sense?

Update:

After further testing, I have established the following:

  1. The error is definitely being triggered by the markup inside the <body>...</body> of the document.
  2. There are multiple (as yet unknown) elements triggering the error.
  3. One of the errors is definitely the presence of a <footer>...</footer> element. A <body> which contains a <header> or a <main> (or both) will not trigger the error, but as soon as the <body> contains a <footer>, it will.
  4. One of the errors is an anchor which contains a class (eg. <a href="/my-page" class="link-to-my-page">My Page</a>) - when the class attribute is removed from the anchor, the anchor no longer triggers an error.
  5. One of the errors is the presence of one or more <article>...</article> elements. As soon as the <body> contains at least one <article>, it will trigger the error.
  6. One of the errors is any <img> element which references an SVG. If the src attribute points to a file which has an identical file-path but ends in .png, the error is not triggered.

Lightbulb Moment

  • The <img> element in 6. points to an SVG.
  • each <article> has a CSS background-image which is an SVG
  • The <a> which contains the class has a CSS background-image which is an SVG
  • The <footer> has a ::before and an ::after pseudo-element, each of which has a CSS background-image which is an SVG

Conclusion

Google Structured Data Testing Tool doesn't yet know how to process (or just ignore) references to SVG files.

Rounin
  • 2,385
  • 2
  • 17
  • 35

1 Answers1

5

After:

  • isolating error triggers
  • assessing what all the error triggers had in common (they all referred to external .svg files)

The answer is:

Google Structured Data Testing Tool doesn't yet know how to process (or just ignore) references to SVG files.

Rounin
  • 2,385
  • 2
  • 17
  • 35