Does Google require Article markup for Top stories?

Definition: Google does not document Article markup as a requirement for eligibility for Google News features such as Top stories. Google documents Article structured data as optional information that can help it understand an article page and its title, author, images, and dates.

Key facts

• Google's Article documentation says there is no markup requirement for eligibility for Google News features like Top stories.
• The same documentation says Article markup can help Google understand news, blog, and sports article pages and show better title text, images, and date information in Google Search and other properties.
• The Article guide says there are no required properties for its Article structured data. It asks publishers to add the recommended properties that apply to their content.
• Google's general structured data guidelines require structured data to represent the page content accurately and to be placed on the page it describes.

What does Google document about Top stories?

Google's Article page makes a direct distinction between an optional markup description and eligibility for Google News features: “While there's no markup requirement to be eligible for Google News features like Top stories,” Article markup can tell Google more explicitly that a page is a news article and identify its author or title. The page also says that Article structured data can help Google understand news, blog, and sports article pages and show better title text, images, and date information in Search and other properties, including Google News.

The Article guide addresses markup and implementation; it leaves individual Top stories selection outside its scope.

What does Article markup describe?

Article markup is structured data using Article, NewsArticle, or BlogPosting. The guide's example uses NewsArticle and includes a headline, images, publication and modification dates, and authors. A compact version of that documented pattern is:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "NewsArticle",
  "headline": "Title of a News Article"
}
</script>

Google says to add the recommended properties that apply to the page. It lists no required properties for this Article data, so a missing Article object is separate from a missing property inside an Article object. The general guidelines add that the most specific applicable Schema.org type and property names should be used.

What should a website check?

If a site uses Article markup, Google's general guidelines say the data must be a true representation of the page content. The markup belongs on the page it describes. For duplicate pages that carry the same content, Google recommends placing the same structured data on each duplicate page, unless the documentation says otherwise.

Image properties have a technical condition: every image URL in structured data must be crawlable and indexable, or Google Search cannot find and display the image in search results. Google's Article guide also asks site owners to validate code with the Rich Results Test and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. It says the page should be accessible to Google and free from a robots.txt block, a noindex tag, or login requirements.

Related terms

• Structured data
• JSON-LD
• Article structured data
• NewsArticle structured data

FAQ

Should a news publisher add Article markup?

Google's Article documentation documents Article markup as optional for eligibility for Google News features such as Top stories. A publisher can add it to describe the article, author, title, images, and dates to Google.

Does Article markup make a page eligible for Top stories?

The Article documentation describes Article markup as optional for eligibility for Google News features such as Top stories. It presents markup as descriptive information and gives implementation guidance for its use.

Are any Article properties required?

Google's Article guide says there are no required properties. It recommends adding the properties that apply to the content and following the general structured data guidelines.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Article (Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting) structured data", 8 September 2026
2. Google Search Central, "General structured data guidelines", 10 July 2026

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