Good news for those who love Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT)! Back in December 2020, Google announced that it would be moving the tool to the Schema.org domain, and it has now done so. The tool has been rebranded as the Schema.org markup validator.

The strength of Google’s SDTT lays in it being simple to use, designed with a tech-savvy audience (SEOs and/or developers) in mind, and its straightforward functionality, only doing what it was intended to do.

At a glance, the Schema validator resembles the Google SDTT and presents the structured data analysis in the same layout. However, there are some variations when viewing results.

As you can see in the examples above, the Schema validator is not showing the warnings or the snippet preview that the SDTT does.

It’s possible that the Schema.org validator will only test the common rules that apply to structured data with a search engine neutral approach. In other words, the SDTT warnings are Google-specific, informing users about missing pieces of information recommended by Google for a richer snippet, and therefore not seen as relevant in the Schema tool. The preview highlighted in the SDTT is also a Google feature, therefore the new validator will not show it.

The main use of the tool will be testing new code that is search engine neutral, ie. code that will work in all the search engines participating in the Schema.org project – Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. This will be especially important for the Schema.org markup that’s not yet supported by search engines, but that could start at any time as search engines expand their structured data integration.

The bottom line is that the rebranded tool is a great one to keep in your arsenal, but you shouldn’t ignore the Rich Results Tool as that’s the one Google will support and develop in the future. Moreover, the Rich Results Tool already has all the functionality that the old SDTT had.