This factor is a yes/no check for the legacy entry-title MicroFormat class in a page’s body. RankGear returns 1 when it finds the exact attribute class="entry-title" and 0 when it does not. Presence marks hAtom-style entry markup; it says nothing about whether the title text is good, and it does not rank a page on its own.
| Factor ID | RG-SCF-006 |
|---|---|
| Family | Structured Data – MicroFormat |
| Measurement | Binary presence (0 / 1) |
| Measured zone | Body HTML without scripts |
What it measures
The factor detects the legacy entry-title MicroFormat class. This class comes from the hAtom microformat, an older convention for marking the title element of a content entry so machines could recognize it. RankGear reports only whether that specific class is present in the page body, not whether the surrounding markup forms a complete or valid microformat.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear performs a case-insensitive exact search for the string class="entry-title" within the script-free body HTML. Script blocks are stripped before the search, so the class must appear in the rendered document markup rather than inside JavaScript. The match is exact: the attribute value has to be precisely entry-title on its own, so a multi-class attribute does not count.
What RankGear looks for
<h1 class="entry-title">How RankGear Scores Structured Data</h1>
<!-- matched: class value is exactly entry-title -->
<!-- NOT matched: class="post-title entry-title" (multi-class) -->| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | The exact attribute class="entry-title" was found in the script-free body. |
| 0 | The attribute was absent, or the class was combined with others in a multi-class attribute. |
How to optimize it
Treat this as an observation, not a target to chase. Use entry-title only when a legacy hAtom-compatible publishing system actually expects it and the marked element is the genuine entry title. If nothing on your stack consumes hAtom, adding the class purely to flip this factor to 1 adds redundant legacy markup with no consumer, which is worth avoiding. Modern setups typically express the same intent through other conventions rather than hAtom.
Important considerations
- Multi-class attributes do not satisfy this detector — the class value must be exactly
entry-title, not combined with other class names. - Presence does not validate the title text; the factor confirms the class exists, not that the title is accurate, unique, or well written.
- Modern markup can use different conventions, so a legitimate, well-structured page may report 0 simply because it does not use hAtom.
- Avoid redundant legacy markup without a consumer — do not add the class unless a system on your site reads it.
- This is a correlation-based prioritization signal within a measured result set. A 1 does not make a page rank and guarantees nothing on its own.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.