Schema validators: which one actually predicts eligibility

Schema validators: which one actually predicts eligibility
This week on the radar — three validators, three different verdicts on the same markup.

🔗 [Schema.org Validator] — checks syntax against the full vocabulary; permissive, won't tell you what Google honors.
🔗 [Google Rich Results Test] — only flags what's eligible for Google features; stricter and the one that matters for SERP rendering.
🔗 [GSC Enhancement reports] — post-deploy reality: what Google actually parsed and whether it errored at scale.

The tradeoff: Schema.org validator passing means 'valid'; Rich Results Test passing means 'Google might show it.' These are not the same, and people ship 'valid' markup that earns zero features. Validate syntax once, then live by the Rich Results Test and GSC.

One to bookmark: GSC Enhancement reports — they catch the 2% of templated pages where one bad field broke eligibility silently.