Recently, Google announced its updated requirements for image structured data due to which you can now add additional information. The big search giant has included three properties that you can use with the ImageObject type for adding image creator, credit, and copyright information.
By extending this support, Google can now easily detect this extra information through the structured data. This is a useful upgrade to the former method depending on metadata of International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), a body responsible for releasing media standards. Prior to this Google update, credit and licensing details to images could be added only using IPTC metadata.
Google’s Announcements
The latest documentation updates at Google Search Console mentions, “Added support for image credits to the Image Metadata structured data documentation. Previously, you could only provide image credit information with IPTC photo metadata.”
This updated support is also now seen in the official Google search documentation for developers. It says, “When you specify image metadata, Google Images can show more details about the image, such as who the creator is, how people can use an image, and credit information.”
New Structured Data Properties with Examples
According to Scehma.org, the three new properties are as follows:
- creditText: Is used to provide credit to person(s) and/or institution(s) who have contributed to the published visual.
- creator: Is used to specify the author or creator of the visual and is equivalent to the Author property.
- copyrightNotice: Is used to specify a notice suitable for informing the copyright aspects of the visual, preferably indicating the copyright owner.
Following is a sample of how these properties are included in the structured data:
Existing sample:
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org/”,
“@type”: “ImageObject”,
“contentUrl”: “https:// parker2010.com/photos/2×2/imagebuddy.jpg”,
“license”: “https:// parker2010.com/license”,
“acquireLicensePage”: “https:// parker2010.com/using-pics”
}
</script>
Updated sample:
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org/”,
“@type”: “ImageObject”,
“contentUrl”: “ https:// parker2010.com/photos/2×2/imagebuddy.jpg”,
“license”: “https:// parker2010.com/license”,
“acquireLicensePage”: ” https:// parker2010.com/using-pics”,
“creditText”: “Perth Studio”,
“creator”: {
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “Tom Cummings”
},
“copyrightNotice”: “Steve George”
}
</script>
This update makes it a breeze for developers to add useful data. Using a plugin is likely to make it efficient to add these details across pages.
