Defined Term Structured Data

A Defined Term is a single entry of a glossary, dictionary or vocabulary. By marking up your glossary with structured data, you tell search engines that the page defines one term, what the term means, which other names it goes by, and which set of terms it belongs to. It is the right Content Type for glossary pages, encyclopedia entries, acronym lists and any page that explains one word or phrase. Let's see how you can assign the Defined Term Content Type to a page.

How to markup Joomla Pages with the Defined Term Schema

From the main menu choose Components → Google Structured Data. Click on Items from the left sidebar and then on the New button to create a new Structured Data Item.

On the next page, you will need to prepare the Structured Data Item. Enter a Title (it can be anything) and select the Defined Term Content Type from the respective dropdown.

Next, click to save the Structured Data Item. Once the page reloads, a new section called Defined Term appears below where you can map each property with page data.

To read more details on how the mapping works, visit the respective section in the How to Add Structured Data to Pages guide.

Defined Term Schema Properties

Here's a table of the properties you can define in the Defined Term Content Type.

The Title, Description and URL properties are required. The rest are optional.

The Term Set

A term rarely stands on its own. The Term Set section describes the glossary the term belongs to, so that search engines can group all your terms together instead of reading each page as an unrelated definition.

Map Term Set Name to the name of the glossary and Term Set URL to the page that lists its terms. On a Joomla article, that is usually the category title and the category page.

Publishing Rules

In this section you will be able to control the pages where your Defined Term Item will be applied. With the Joomla Content Integration selected, the following rules are available.

Every Integration comes with its own publishing rules. If your glossary lives in a third party component, select that Integration instead and the rules of that component appear here. See the Supported Integrations for the full list.

To learn more about the Publishing Rules section visit the How to Add Structured Data to Pages guide.

Validate your Defined Term markup

Google's Rich Results Test reports no eligible items for this schema type, because Google has no rich result for it. Use the Schema Markup Validator instead.

1. Visit the Schema Markup Validator.
2. Enter the URL of your term page and click RUN TEST.
3. Check that the DefinedTerm item is detected and that it has no errors.

Useful Links

• Schema.org DefinedTerm Documentation
• Schema.org DefinedTermSet Documentation
• Google Structured Data General Guidelines

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add the Defined Term Schema to a glossary component?

Yes. Select the matching Integration when you create the Structured Data Item and the markup is generated on every term page. See the SEO Glossary Integration for an example.

Do I need one Structured Data Item per term?

No. Map the properties to page data, such as the article title and the article text, and one Structured Data Item covers every term page that the Publishing Rules target.

What is the difference between the Defined Term and the Article Content Type?

The Article Content Type describes a page as a piece of writing, with an author, a publish date and a publisher. The Defined Term Content Type describes the page as one entry of a vocabulary. Pick Defined Term when the page exists to explain a single word or phrase.