Twenty Eleven Schema.org Child Theme

The default WordPress Twenty Eleven theme is beautiful and functional. I wanted to make it even more functional by including added microdata in the theme by default. Google, along with several other large companies like Bing and Yahoo, introduced Schema.org, a collection of microdata formats that can be used as a common machine language to identify bits and pieces of web pages. This theme incorporates that language and embeds it directly into your site.

Example?

Sure. Here is a side-by-side of the author section of a blog post (slightly abbreviated from the real source). Note the elements that were added, and then how Google’s rich snippets tool pulls them out.

Without Schema.org embedded

<article>
  <header>
    <h1>A blog post</h1>
    <div>
      Posted on <time datetime="2012-01-19T12:59:46+00:00" pubdate>January 19, 2012</time>
    </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
  </header><!-- .entry-header -->
 
  <div> ... Entry goes here ... </div><!-- .entry-content -->
 
  <footer>
    Category: <span><a href="#" rel="category">Programming</a></span>
    Tagged: <span><a href="#" rel="tag">javascript</a></span>
    By: <a href="#" rel="author">Joshua</a>.
  </footer><!-- .entry-meta -->
</article>

With Schema.org embedded

<article itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">
  <header>
    <h1 itemprop="headline">A blog post</h1>
    <div>
      Posted on <time datetime="2012-01-19T12:59:46+00:00" pubdate itemprop="datePublished">January 19, 2012</time>
    </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
  </header><!-- .entry-header -->
 
  <div itemprop="articleBody"> ... Entry goes here ... </div><!-- .entry-content -->
 
  <footer>
    Category: <span itemprop="articleSection"><a href="#" rel="category">Programming</a></span>
    Tagged: <span itemprop="keywords"><a href="#" rel="tag">javascript</a></span>
    By: <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
      <span itemprop="name">
        <a href="#" rel="author" itemprop="url">Joshua</a>
      </span>
    </span>.
  </footer><!-- .entry-meta -->
</article>

Google’s Rich Snippets Extract

Item
    Type: http://schema.org/blogposting
    headline = A blog post
    datepublished = 2012-01-19T12:59:46+00:00
    articlebody = ... Post content here ...
    articlesection = Programming
    keywords = javascript
    author = Item (1)

Item 1
    Type: http://schema.org/person
    name = Joshua
    url
        text = Joshua
        href = #

Download

Download the theme: TwentyEleven Schema.org Child Theme – v1.4 (Updated 11/6/2012 to v1.4)

I would appreciate any feedback you have or any bugs you notice, and you can get in touch with me here.

9 Comments

Ahmad Awais

Nice work , let me view it !!

# February 22, 2012 Reply
- Joshua
  
  You’re viewing it! I use it as the default theme on my site. It is not any visually different, but adds the Schema.org data in. You can download a copy at http://www.joshualyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/twentyeleven-schema-child.zip or at the link above.
  
  # February 22, 2012 Reply
David Seymour

Good work – Seems like you cracked most of it. I managed to put it onto a blog in French too (it did mean however a bit of additional coding was necessary). The only thing which does not seem to mark-up is the sidebar and main navigation. Not sure why as yet.

# February 26, 2012 Reply
David Seymour

Seems like the itemscope=”name” and itemscope=”description” is missing in the WPHeader. If they are included the rich snippets test finds the WP header.

To do the authors using schema.org on all pages it is necessary to add them in a few places. If you want a copy of what I have done thne email me and you can do the diff on the themes.

Just trying to workout why the sidebar and SiteNavigationElement is not showingin the snippets tester.

# February 26, 2012 Reply
David Seymour

Thanks for that great base on which to build a quick site – I solved the problems of siteNavigation, WPHeader not showing. Some small adjustments were needed in my case with the all in one SEO module and category-template.php file – http://www.lechatterbox.com

# February 27, 2012 Reply
Chris Countey

Just what I needed to test out Schema.org for SEO. Thanks man!

# March 5, 2012 Reply
Joe Levi

Thank you! Looks very good! I changed the homepage to show the_excerpt rather than the_post, and included my Google ads code on the post page, but other than that, it’s just like you wrote it. Good work!

# March 6, 2012 Reply
sagbee

Any further improvement ? I want to test it, but just need confirmation by joshua if he updated his theme ? 🙂

# November 5, 2012 Reply
- Joshua
  
  Nothing has changed except for I did just bring it up to parity with the official T11 1.4 release.
  
  # November 6, 2012 Reply