Should HTML be included in the structured data (schema) markup for the main body content?

[RosemaryB]

Lately we have been applying structured data to the main content body of our client's websites.  Our lead developer had a good question about HTML however.

In JSON-LD, what is the proper way to embed content from a data field that has html markup (i.e. p, ul, li, br, tags) into mainContentOfPage. Should the HTML be stripped our or escaped somehow?

I know that apply schema to the main body content is helpful for the Googlebot.  However should we keep the HTML?  Any recommendations or best practices would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Everett]

As long as you're using the same Schema in both places I don't think it would hurt to have them both - JSON-LD in the HTML header and as structured data markup in the HTML where that entity exists on the page.

You can play around with JSON-LD here to see what it would look like:
http://json-ld.org/playground/

[RobertFisher]

Rosemary,

People have a hard time with these questions because there can be more than one answer.

--The answer is rough but I hope it makes sense.--

I'd say it should be removed, although the best way to use that markup might be to mark up the actual html that is displayed rather than duplicating all of the "main content" inside of a JSON schema tag.

Does it make sense for the JSON to look like below when you have the content already present on the page and could mark it up in the traditional tag format?

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<scripttype="application ld+json"=""></scripttype="application>

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{

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"@context": "http://schema.org",

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"@type": "WebSite",

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"url": "https://www.example.com/",

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"name" : "Example Group",

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"alternateName" : "Example Enviro Group",

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"potentialAction": {

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"@type": "SearchAction",

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"target": "https://www.example.com/?s={search_term_string}",

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"query-input": "required name=search_term_string"

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}

"mainContentOfPage":"

Lorem ipsum metus ullamcorper viverra. Aliquam

Curabitur at lacus et quam scelerisque consequat. Vestibulum semper et ex quis commodo. Vestibulum lacinia ultricies neque et facilisis. Pellentesque feugiat luctus diam, et mollis elit posuere posuere. Nulla mattis libero lectus, at consequat sapien semper non. Duis lacinia mollis eros, in pulvinar enim interdum ac."

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}

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Let me know if that helps... or not! Sorry for the layout issues, I think you will still get it.

Robert