Resolving BreadcrumbList error in Google Search Console

[andrewmurphy353]

Hi,

First off, thanks for a wonderful Hugo theme. It has saved me from a whole load of extra work documenting my app for which I'm eternally grateful.

To my issue...

I have checked Google Search Console to verify my site can be crawled and found a critical issue has been flagged up: 'Missing field "itemListElement"' 'type BreadcrumbList'.

Now my site is pretty much a vanilla implementation so includes breadcrumbs in the top bar. I've had a look at the breadcrumbs.html in partials, and whilst I have no clue how to read the code, can see there is a reference to itemListElement which makes me think I might have a problem with my configuration... perhaps?

As an interim measure, and because I have no clue what the source of the Google issue is, I've disabled every breadcrumb setting in hugo.toml, e.g:
[params]
disableBreadcrumb = true
disableRootBreadcrumb = true
disableTermBreadcrumbs = true

Google is happy for the moment, but I'd like to fix this but don't know enough about Hugo to do so. Would someone please give me some troubleshooting pointers.

Thank you

[McShelby]

Thanks for the praise. I am happy, this project is useful for you.

I do not have used Google Search Console yet, but the schema.org validator for https://validator.schema.org/#url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcshelby.github.io%2Fhugo-theme-relearn%2FexampleSite%2Flog%2Ffirst-day%2Findex.html does not show any errors.

As I just set up Google Search Console to test your issues, it does not contain much data until tomorrow. Can you show me (in a screenshot) the menu topic to reach this error message? I'll try to replicate this with the docs page.

[andrewmurphy353]

Thank you Sören for the prompt reply.

I have attached two browser screenshots, one with the error message, the other after I turned off the breadcrumb settings, uploaded the changes and performed a live test on the updated site (I'm new to Google Search Console too, so although there are green ticks on the live test, I'm guessing there is still a chance it may fail when the crawler comes around again - have to wait and see).

If it helps you I can provide access to the GitHub repo.

Thanks.

[McShelby]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Although I don't think I will need access to your repo, it could speed up things in case I'll unexpectedly need it and you're not around. So, yes, access to your repo is appreciated.

Let's wait a day until Google Search Console has prepared my files for further inspection.

[McShelby]

I haven't verified my assumption, but for me it seems that the complaint is only for the home page and not any of the sub pages.

This is most likely because the theme announces a breadcrumblist but doesn't fill it.

[andrewmurphy353]

That could well be the issue and seems entirely plausible as the crawler stops at the home page. I'll await your further investigations and will happily test/try out the fix in my setup.

[McShelby]

I've pushed a fix to the main branch of this repo.

From my interpretation, it looks promising but I guess due to caching, the home page is still reported broken in the overview of the Search Console. If I initiate a manual scan of the URL from the topmost input (with the magnifier glass), it seems to be okay.

Let's wait a day or week or whatever the update intervall of Google is.

[McShelby]

I've made an issue for this -> #1026

[andrewmurphy353]

Thank you for the quick fix. I'll sit tight to see it works out OK before I update the theme.

…

-------- Original Message --------

On 16/02/2025 20:53, Sören Weber wrote: I've made an issue for this -> [#1026](#1026) — Reply to this email directly, [view it on GitHub](#1024 (reply in thread)), or [unsubscribe](https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AEBEF7HQOPSQQDY6VDJ4W6L2QD3ELAVCNFSM6AAAAABXG2ZSAWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTEMRRG43DCMI). You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[McShelby]

Looks good to me. Could you confirm?

[andrewmurphy353]

I've downloaded and replaced my theme from the latest channel, and re-enabled breadcrumbs as below...
[params]
disableBreadcrumb = false
disableRootBreadcrumb = false
disableTermBreadcrumbs = false

The site renders OK however Google Search Console is back to reporting the same error when I perform an 'URL inspection > LIVE TEST'.

I may need you to have a look at my site as I've just stumbled across another issue which may be related. If I perform an 'URL inspection > LIVE TEST' on a page where the parent (Blog Posts) has frontmatter content [_build] render = 'never', I get this error.

[andrewmurphy353]

I've added you as a repo collaborator should you want to look at my code.

[McShelby]

The theme can only generate breadcrumbs for pages that contain a title. In your case, your home page does not have a title and so it will be missing from the breadcrumbs.

In general it is seldomly a good idea to leave out the title.

If you don't want the root breadcrumb to be displayed in the header of your site, set disableRootBreadcrumb=true in your hugo.toml but give your home page a title, so the the generated schema.org spec is generated correctly.

[andrewmurphy353]

Thank you for getting to the bottom of this... and for your time. I'll go through all my pages to ensure a title is defined.

It is usually the simple things like this that trip us up as developers, which can be very frustrating at times!

Edit update: Google Search Console happy with the breadcrumbs!

[McShelby]

I just revised my thoughts. Although I still think every page that should be displayed should also have a title, I've opened #1027. It was always meant to fallback to the site title for the home page if the front matter does not contain a title.

This should fix your issue without any further reconfiguration on your side.