In Google Webmaster Tools, under "Structured Data", I get errors.

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Articles for Small Business: I wonder if anyone can help me with this. In Google Webmaster Tools, under "Structured Data", I get the errors below. I was not educated in web development and know almost nothing about HTML.
  
  Missing: author
  Missing: entry-title
  Missing: updated
  
  I have posted in Google Forums, but I got the sites where I already looked at, whose fix did not work. I looked at Wordpress forums, but it is much the same thing.
  
  They all seem to say it is a theme error and I should go to the theme editor and enter a particular code to a specific place. The problem there is, the specific place does not exist in my theme editor. If it does, it is not the exact menu item or HTML code. I even tried several themes, including the Wordpress default, "Twenty Fourteen". No dice.
  
  By watching videos, I thought the problem might be that the Google computers simply are not sure who the author, entry-title or when it is updated. So, I tried Google Webmaster Tools Data Highlighter. Someone from the Google Forum told me that it must touch the HTML or it won't work. Sure enough, it didn't.
  
  I tried a similar tool from Google Webmaster Tools, the "Structured Data Markup Helper". ; It took a while for me to figure out, but I believe I was successful in at least figuring out how that tool worked. Google put a line item under the errors menu item. But no, the errors are still there. In effect, Google says I don't know these things in one menu item, and yes, they are here in another item.
  
  Some people from the forum say that Structured Data doesn't affect my rankings, but I don't know if I believe that. There are things I do and wonder if Google Search engines might frown upon and probably does, but they never tell me about "errors". This they do.
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  Scott Harris: The Wordpress editor interface should always require that these three questions be answered during the creation of every page and if they are, your theme should automatically pick them up and deposit them for display (in your source code) during the rendering of your html.tpl.php file (at least that's what most modern WP themes are calling it). If you didn't fill in those particular text-area boxes, that's on you. If you did and your theme does not display them correctly, it's on the theme. Either way, it's fixable and once fixed, your site should appear better in the SERPs. It also helps once you have authorship established but insertion of that code is available in any of the major SEO plugins - but like WP itself, I've always found most WP plugins too buggy and offering too little functionality for many real uses.
  
  Structured Data: This is one of those things Google hasn't fully implemented yet. However, others have (Pinterest in particular but others, too). Since schema.org was first launched, Google  ;has been talking out of both sides of their mouth about their implementation of yet-another-markup-language that they themselves cobbled together out of some of the other major schema standards, some of which were established even before Google emerged from stealth. The LocalBusiness tagging is something you need to look into:
  
  <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness">
  <span itemprop="name">Local Business</span>
  <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
  <span itemprop="streetAddress">street address</span>, <span itemprop="addressLocality">City or town</span>, <span itemprop="addressRegion">State or province</span> <span itemprop="postalCode">Zip or postal code</span>
  <span itemprop="telephone">phone number</span></div></div>
  
  If you copy and paste that string of code into the source code of your footer.tpl.php file and fill in the gaps with your own data you'll be a hint further ahead of most when Google picks it up. I didn't add formatting to that but once you go back into your visual editor, you should be able to do that easily without corrupting the source. Should you use Google's structured data tool you'll be able to see what they'll pick up immediately.
  
  To go further, there are schema.org tag systems for GPS, business hours, special events, etc. The GPS and business hours can be added to the snippet above and never be lost. Should you use their Data Highlighter tool, it will help to inform of your particular event but that "boost" will end on the sunset date you have to enter.
  
  I hope this is helpful for you.
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  Articles for Small Business: Thanks for your attempt, Scott. ; Date, title and author are automatic in Wordpress, aren't they? I find it difficult to understand how I could not enter them. They were there to begin with, I used Google Webmaster Tools, the "Structured Data Markup Helper" and "Structured Data Markup Helper" on a few test articles. I didn't help. The errors are still there.
  
  Thanks for telling us about Structured Data. There are YouTube videos on how to do things. No wonder It is difficult for me to figure things out. Particularly, once Google tells you the changes your HTML need to make to markup. Changing HTML of ; a page is another subject, I am sure.
  
  Thanks for your codes. I don't see where to enter the the errors.
  
  Missing: author
  Missing: entry-title
  Missing: updated
  
  Ben
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  Scott Harris: The joy of this, Ben, is that WP is a mix of php, js, html and css. If you can't get around in those you perhaps need to find a theme that will do it for you as it sounds like the theme you are using can't. Or perhaps it's a conflict between your theme and any SEO plugin you've added to the site. Personally, I build my own themes and use a very short list of plugins. When it comes to all the schema.org markup needed for small/local businesses I wrote my own plugin. Did I submit that plugin to the general WP marketplace? Nope, it's kind of an ace up my sleeve when competing against other WP developers - which I do very little any more as these days I work mostly in Drupal or in perl/php/NoDB systems (and these are fast, fast, fast). When it comes to things like this I tend to hard code as much as possible to reduce database lookup times and deliver pages faster - a fellow needs to get a leg up on everything possible on today's web. Wish I could help but on your side, troubleshooting the WP backend requires a certain level of knowledge and experience: a misplaced or forgotten semi-colon or bracket or parentheses can give you a WSOD... and then what do you do?
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  Articles for Small Business: No, I can't get around php, js, html and css. I have used several themes throughout the years. Granted, I have not always looked, but I have always had this problem as I remember.
  
  I would consider changing themes if I knew one that will definitely fix the problem. Right now, I am using one that uses the featured image as a menu item to give the reader a preview. I put that image again on the article. Other themes featured images go on top of the article. ; Changing themes would put two identical images on the article. If I change themes, I would have to delete all the featured images on each article - nearly 100 of them. ; I like this theme and if it doesn't work, I would have to ; put the images back. ; I already did that once on a smaller scale.
  
  Right now, it sounds like I would have to live with it until I decide to hire a programmer. How much will this affect my SERP?
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  Scott Harris: Won't affect your SERP. WP is an excellent program for SEO purposes, even with its occasional burps and glitches. Just make sure you lock it down correctly: nothing worse for SERPs than the presence of malware and WP does have a significant problem with that.
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  Articles for Small Business: Thanks for all your help, Scott. At least I understand it more, some.
  
  I have had problems with malware or spammers, in spite of my plugin, Akismet. It came with registration for comments. I have them contained, for now.
  
  For that reason, I also have a minimum amount of plugins. You remind me. Perhaps I should look them over to see which I really need. ; I did install a few for speed. I believe they worked, as I tested them with Google Webmaster Tools speed checker.
  
  Plugins is probably one I have not looked much into about these errors. I have tried a couple. I see a few about Structured Data that I haven't tried.