Has RDFa is a boolean signal that returns 1 when the page body appears to contain RDFa markup and 0 when it does not. It is a lightweight presence check — it does not validate the RDFa syntax, confirm the vocabulary, or judge whether the structured data accurately describes the visible content.
| Factor ID | RG-SCH-001 |
|---|---|
| Family | Schema.org |
| Measurement | Binary presence (0 / 1) |
| Measured zone | Body HTML without scripts |
What it measures
Has RDFa reports whether the page body appears to carry RDFa markup — the attribute-based method of embedding structured data directly into HTML elements. It is a simple presence check across the measured body: either an RDFa signature is found, or it is not. RDFa is one of three common ways to express structured data; JSON-LD and microdata are separate mechanisms and are not counted here.
How RankGear measures it
RankGear performs a case-insensitive substring search of the script-free body HTML for typeof=. If that string is present anywhere in the measured body, the factor scores 1; if it is not found, the factor scores 0. Because the check keys on the literal typeof= string, spacing around the equals sign can affect whether the markup is detected.
What RankGear looks for
<div vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="Article">
<span property="headline">…</span>
</div>| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | The string typeof= was found in the script-free body — RDFa markup appears to be present. |
| 0 | No typeof= string was found — including cases where valid structured data exists but is expressed as JSON-LD or microdata, or where spacing around the equals sign prevents a match. |
How to optimize it
Use RDFa only as part of valid, complete structured data that accurately describes the visible content of the page. Do not add typeof= attributes merely to satisfy this detector: treat the factor as an observation about how the page expresses structured data, not a target to chase. If your structured data is already delivered cleanly as JSON-LD, adding RDFa on top serves no purpose and this factor reading 0 is not a defect.
Important considerations
- The detector does not validate RDFa syntax or vocabulary — a 1 confirms only that the
typeof=string is present, not that the markup is correct or meaningful. - Spacing around the
=can affect detection; unusual formatting may cause valid RDFa to read 0. - JSON-LD and microdata are separate mechanisms and are not detected by this factor, so a page with complete structured data can still score 0.
- Validate markup with an appropriate structured-data testing tool rather than relying on this presence check.
- This is a correlation-based prioritization signal within a measured result set, not a cause of ranking — the presence of RDFa does not make a page rank or guarantee position.
Related factors
Part of the Factors reference · how RankGear measures · glossary.