Glossary
Structured data describes what a page says to machines; it cannot change what it says
Structured data, often called schema markup, is a machine-readable description of a page’s content. What it is, how it differs from schema.org and rich results, what it can and cannot do, and what this site marks up and deliberately leaves out.
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Structured data is a label on the page, written for machines, saying what the page is about: this is an article by this person, this is a product at this price, this is a question with this answer.
It is usually written in JSON-LD, a block of code in the page that the reader never sees, using the shared vocabulary published at schema.org. A search engine can then read the facts directly instead of inferring them from the layout.
Three things people mean when they say "schema"
The words get used interchangeably. They are three different things, owned by different people.
| Dimension | What it is | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Schema.org | A shared vocabulary of types and properties, such as Organization, Article, Product and Question. | A community project founded by the major search engines. It defines the words, not what any search engine does with them. |
| Structured data | The markup on your page that uses that vocabulary to describe the page’s content. | You. It is your code, and you are responsible for it being accurate. |
| Rich results | The enhanced search listings, such as review stars, product prices or breadcrumbs, that some markup makes a page eligible for. | Google. It decides which types qualify, whether to show one, and when to withdraw a feature. |
What structured data can and cannot do
It makes a page eligible, not entitled
Valid markup lets Google consider a page for a rich result. It still decides whether to show one, and often does not.
It has to match what the page shows
Google’s guidelines require markup to describe content visible to the reader. Marking up reviews, prices or questions the page does not show breaks its policies and can lead to a manual action.
The features it unlocks can disappear
In 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known government and health sites and stopped showing HowTo rich results. Markup kept its meaning; the search features built on it did not survive.
It is not a ranking lever
It helps a search engine understand a page. It does not make the page more relevant or more trusted than it already is.
What this site marks up, and what it leaves out on purpose
This site describes itself with Organization and WebSite markup, and adds breadcrumbs, articles, author information and question-and-answer pairs where each is visible on the page.
It leaves out LocalBusiness, because there is no staffed public address to mark up. It leaves out review ratings, because there are no verified reviews yet. It describes its free tools as web pages rather than software, because Google requires ratings on software markup and we have none.
Each of those omissions would be easy to fill with invented data, and each would be a false statement made in code. Leaving them out is the most practical lesson in structured data we can offer: mark up what is true and visible, and nothing else.
Adding structured data without creating errors
Choose the type that matches the page’s purpose
An article page is an Article; a product page is a Product. Do not stack every plausible type onto one page in the hope that one earns something.
Mark up only what the reader can see
Every property should correspond to something visible: the same headline, the same price, the same author. Leave a property out rather than fill it with something the page does not say.
Validate it twice
Use Google’s Rich Results Test for the features Google supports, and the Schema Markup Validator for everything else. They check different things.
Watch it after launch
Search Console’s enhancement reports show errors across the whole site. A template change can break markup on thousands of pages at once, so check again after any redesign.
Questions about structured data
Does structured data improve rankings?
Not directly. Google presents structured data as a way to understand a page and to make it eligible for rich results, not as a ranking boost.
A rich result can earn more clicks from the same position, which is a real benefit. It is a presentation effect, not a ranking one, and it is only available for the types Google currently supports.
Should I use JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa?
JSON-LD, in almost every case. Google recommends it, it sits in one block rather than being threaded through your HTML, and it is far harder to break when a designer changes the template.
Will schema markup get me cited in AI answers?
Nobody can promise that. Systems that fetch pages may read structured data, but none of the major assistants documents using it to choose sources, so treat any claim that schema gets you cited with caution.
What markup can do is state facts about your business unambiguously, which helps anything that reads the page. The content still has to be the best answer.
See whether your site uses structured data
The Free Growth Scan checks whether your pages carry any structured data and whether your business identity is marked up, and tells you what it could not check.
References
Sources
The primary documents and published research this page relies on. Platform rules change, so check the source before acting on a detail.
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal (responsible editor), on owner authorisation