On May 19, 2020 Google introduced metadata for “Guided Recipes” as part of Google Search Console. This metadata is related to allowing Google Assistant to guide people through recipes, step by step.
As of WP Recipe Maker 6.0.4 the plugin is compatible and allows you to achieve “Valid” status for your recipes for the “Guided Recipes” section. This does require a lot of work as you need to have an image or video associated with every single instruction step.
Since this is a completely separate section and not part of the regular “Recipes” enhancement the impact on how your recipes display in the search results is presumably minimal. For that, you should still use the Recipe Metadata Checker just like before.
Some common errors and warnings
Here’s a list of the most common errors (you should fix these!) and warnings (recommended to fix if you want to have valid “Guided Recipes”) and why you’re getting them.
| Error or Warning | Reason |
| recipeIngredients must be defined at least 2 times | You need at least 2 ingredients for your recipe |
| recipeInstructions must be defined at least 2 times | You need at least 2 instructions for your recipe |
| Either “text” or “itemListElement” should be specified | You have an instruction step with only an image/video and no text |
| Invalid integer in property “recipeYield” | The “servings” field is not filled in or you haven’t updated to WPRM 6.0.4 |
| Either “image” or “video” should be specified | Every instruction should have an image or video |
| Missing field “name” | Make sure you’re updated to WPRM 6.0.4 |
| Invalid string length in field “recipeIngredient” | You have an ingredient that’s too long (more than 135 characters) |
| Missing field “url” | For videos Google wants a direct link to a specific timestamp of the video At the moment, we only support this for Youtube and Vimeo embeds |
Setting the “name” field for recipe instructions
On the WP Recipe Maker > Settings > Recipe Metadata page you have a few options on how to handle the “name” field for recipe instructions:
Unless you set this to “Hide and ignore” you will get an extra “Metadata” tab in the instruction section when editing a recipe. Go there to edit the name for that instruction step. This should be a (usually 1-word) summary of what that instruction step is about. Like this example:
