Schema markup: tell Google exactly what your page is about

A person reads your contact page and understands it at once. A search engine sees a string of characters. It has to guess which part is the business name, which part is the street and which number is the phone line.

Schema markup removes the guessing. It is a piece of code that says, in a fixed vocabulary: this is a dental practice, this is its name, these are the opening hours, this is the address. Each fact gets a label.

The vocabulary comes from Schema.org, a shared project that Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex started in 2011. Because the big search engines agreed on one set of labels, you write the facts once and all of them can read it.

Your visitors see nothing of this code. It sits in the background of the page. Search engines read it, and in some cases reward you with a richer listing: stars, prices, event dates or a breadcrumb trail under your title.

You will see these terms used as if they mean the same thing. They are related, and each one names a different part of the chain. Knowing the difference helps you read Google's documentation and talk to a developer.

In short: structured data is the idea, Schema.org is the dictionary, JSON-LD is the handwriting and a rich result is the possible reward. The older phrase rich snippet means the same as rich result.

Google's Search Central documentation gives structured data two jobs. First, it helps Google understand the content of a page. Second, it makes the page eligible for special search features, the rich results.

A higher position by itself is outside that promise. Google employees have repeated for years that markup alone leaves your ranking where it is. Your content, your links and your page experience still decide where you appear.

The gain comes one step later. A listing with stars, a price or an event date takes more space and answers a question before the click. Google's documentation cites case studies in which pages with rich results earned clearly higher click rates.

There is a second gain that grows each year. Search engines and AI assistants build a picture of your company as an entity: a named thing with an address, a category and profiles elsewhere. Clear markup makes that picture accurate.

So treat schema as a clarity tool. It is cheap, it is a one-time job for most page types, and it removes doubt about who you are. Expect better presentation and fewer misunderstandings, and keep your ranking hopes tied to the other chapters.

Schema markup can be written in three formats: JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa. Google supports all three and recommends JSON-LD. The reason is practical: JSON-LD lives in one separate block, apart from the HTML that shapes your design.

Microdata and RDFa weave labels through the visible HTML. A redesign can then break your markup by accident. A JSON-LD block stays intact when a designer moves a heading or changes a button.

The block is a script element with the type application/ld+json. It may sit in the head or in the body of the page. Inside it, you write pairs: a property name, a colon and a value. The table shows the parts you will meet.

Read a JSON-LD block as a filled-in form. The type is the form you picked. The properties are the fields. A nested object is a sub-form, such as the address section. Once you see it that way, any example becomes readable.

Google also reads JSON-LD that a script adds after the page loads, according to its documentation. Markup that sits in the first HTML response is the safer choice, because every crawler and AI system receives it at once.

Google trims its search features regularly. The search gallery in Google's documentation, last updated on June 15, 2026, lists 25 supported structured data features. The table shows the ones that matter for a typical business website.

The remaining features in the gallery are specialist ones, among them Course list, Dataset, Discussion forum, Education Q&A, Employer aggregate rating, Image metadata, Math solver, Movie, Profile page, Q&A, Software app, Speakable, Subscription content and Vacation rental.

Eligible is the key word. Valid markup gives Google permission to show a rich result. Google then decides per search whether to show it, based on the query, the device and the quality of the page.

FAQ schema was the favorite trick of the last decade. You marked up a few questions and Google showed them as drop-downs under your listing. That era is over, and many guides online still describe it as current.

The timeline is simple. In August 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known government and health sites and began removing HowTo rich results. Google's FAQ documentation then announced that FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Search from May 7, 2026.

What does that mean for the FAQ schema already on your site? You can leave it. FAQPage remains a valid Schema.org type, and Google has said that unused structured data causes zero problems for Search. It simply produces zero visual extras in Google today.

Keep the visible questions and answers on the page. They help readers, they match the way people phrase searches and they give AI assistants short, quotable answers. The visible text does the work. The markup is optional housekeeping.

For new pages, spend your effort on the types that still earn something: LocalBusiness, Organization, Breadcrumb, Product, Article and Video. If a consultant promises FAQ drop-downs in Google in 2026, you now know the offer is out of date.

Local business schema describes one physical business or one service-area business. Place it on your homepage or contact page. If you have several branches, give each branch its own page with its own block.

Google's documentation names two required properties: name and address. Everything else is recommended, and the recommended fields are where the value sits. The table lists what to fill in and how.

A company that fits two types may list both as an array. Restaurants can add the properties menu and servesCuisine. A business with departments, such as a supermarket with a pharmacy, nests each department inside the main block with its own hours.

One rule matters more than any property: the facts must match everywhere. Name, address and phone in your markup should equal your footer, your contact page and your Google Business Profile, letter for letter. Chapter 9 on local SEO explains why.

Organization markup describes the company behind the website. Where LocalBusiness says here is a shop you can visit, Organization says here is the brand. Online-only companies use Organization. Local companies often use both, linked together.

Place it on your homepage. Useful properties are name, url, logo, description, address, telephone, email, contactPoint for customer service and sameAs for your official profiles. Many countries also allow a company registration or VAT number.

The sameAs list is the quiet workhorse. It tells search engines that the LinkedIn page, the Instagram account and the directory listing all belong to the same company. That connection helps Google and AI assistants merge scattered mentions into one profile.

Give your logo its own care. Use a file that looks good on a white background, at least 112 by 112 pixels according to Google's guidelines, on a URL that crawlers may fetch.

Breadcrumb markup describes the path to a page, for example Home, Services, Roof repair. It is a list in which every step has a position number, a name and a URL. Google can then show a readable path in desktop results.

Article markup fits blog posts and guides. Google lists every property as recommended and none as required. Fill in headline, image, datePublished, dateModified and author. Give the author a name and a URL to a profile page, which supports trust.

Video markup needs three things: name, thumbnailUrl and uploadDate. Add description, duration and the URL of the video file or player. Pages with one clear main video are the ones Google treats as video pages.

These three types share one advantage: you set them up once in your page templates. Every new blog post or service page then receives correct markup automatically, as long as your system fills in the fields from the page itself.

Product markup is the type with the most visible payoff. A product page needs a name plus at least one of three things: an offer, a review or an aggregate rating. The offer holds price, currency and availability.

Add brand, image, description, a product code such as a GTIN, shipping details and return policy where you can. Google uses these fields for the richer shopping-style listings. Chapter 11 on ecommerce SEO goes deeper.

Review stars tempt every business owner, and here Google is strict. Since 2019 Google ignores so-called self-serving reviews: ratings about your own company, marked up on your own site, under LocalBusiness or Organization. Stars for those types stay hidden.

Stars remain possible for specific things you offer, such as products, recipes, courses, events and software. The reviews must be real, written by customers and readable on the same page. Ratings copied from another platform into your markup break Google's guidelines.

You can add markup by hand, through a plugin or through your website builder. The steps are the same in each case. Work through them once for your main templates and you are done for years.

1. 1. List your page typesWrite down the kinds of pages you have: homepage, contact, service, product, blog post, location. Each kind gets one markup recipe.
2. 2. Pick the type per pageMatch each page type to a feature in Google's search gallery. Homepage: Organization or LocalBusiness. Blog: Article. Product page: Product. All deeper pages: Breadcrumb.
3. 3. Collect the factsGather exact name, address, phone, hours, logo URL, profile links and prices. Use the same spelling as on your site and your Google Business Profile.
4. 4. Write or generate the blockUse your platform's built-in schema fields, a trusted plugin or a schema generator. Start from the example on Google's documentation page for that type.
5. 5. Place it on the pagePut the JSON-LD block in the head or body of the matching page. Each page carries only the markup that describes that page.
6. 6. Test before and after publishingRun the code through the Rich Results Test, fix every error, publish and test the live URL again.
7. 7. Watch Search ConsoleAfter a few days, check the enhancement reports and request indexing for your most important pages through URL Inspection.

On WordPress, an SEO plugin usually writes Organization, Article and Breadcrumb markup for you. On Shopify, most themes include Product markup. Check what your system already outputs before you add anything, because duplicate blocks with conflicting facts confuse search engines.

Testing takes two minutes and saves weeks of waiting. Google and Schema.org each offer a free validator, and Search Console watches your whole site over time. Use each tool for the job it does best.

The Rich Results Test accepts a URL or pasted code. Errors, shown in red, block the rich result and need a fix. Warnings, shown in orange, point to recommended fields you left empty. Fix errors today and fill warnings where you have the facts.

A green test is a start. Google still needs to crawl the page again and judge its quality. Give it days to weeks, and look for the result with a search on your own brand or product name.

Google publishes general structured data guidelines. Break them and Google can issue a manual action. Your page then stays in the index and loses its rich results until you fix the problem and ask for a review.

1. Mark up only what visitors can seeEvery fact in the block must also appear on the page. A rating in the code with zero reviews on the page is a violation.
2. Describe the page itselfA product page carries Product markup for that product. Site-wide blocks about unrelated things mislead search engines.
3. Keep it currentOld prices, ended events and former opening hours in your markup damage trust. Let your system fill the fields from live data.
4. Choose the most specific typeDentist says more than LocalBusiness. A precise type helps matching with precise searches.
5. Fill required fields firstA block with a missing required property is ineligible. Recommended fields come second and raise quality.
6. Give crawlers accessPages blocked in robots.txt or set to noindex earn zero rich results, because Google has to read the page.
7. One truth per factTwo blocks with two different phone numbers leave Google to pick. Remove the duplicate.

Business owners now ask whether markup helps them appear in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. The honest state of knowledge in 2026: it supports the basics, and special AI markup is absent from Google's requirements.

Google's guidance on AI features says the same foundations apply as for regular Search: crawlable pages, helpful content, and structured data that matches the visible text. A separate AI schema type is absent from that list.

What markup does give AI systems is certainty about entities. A clear Organization block with consistent sameAs links makes it easier to connect your name, your address and your reviews on other platforms into one company.

Be skeptical of bigger claims. Studies that say schema multiplies AI citations usually compare strong sites with weak ones. Treat markup as one clean signal among many. Chapter 12 on AI search optimization covers the factors with more weight.

You can skip most of the 800-plus types in the Schema.org dictionary. Pick the starting set for your situation, set it up well and move on to content and links.

Review your markup once a year and after every redesign, move or rebrand. Changed hours, a new phone number or a new logo belong in the block on the same day you change the page.

At Delta Six, structured data is part of every website we build and of the monthly SEO that comes with it. If your current site has zero markup, the checklist below is a solid afternoon of work.

• List your page types and write down which Schema.org type fits each one.
• View the source of your homepage and search for ld+json to see what your site already outputs.
• Add LocalBusiness or Organization markup to your homepage with name, address, phone, URL and logo.
• Choose the most specific business type available, such as Dentist or Plumber.
• Add opening hours and coordinates with at least five decimal places.
• Add sameAs links to your Google Business Profile and official social profiles.
• Add Breadcrumb markup to every page below the homepage.
• Add Article markup with author and dates to blog posts and guides.
• Add Product markup with price, currency and availability to every product page.
• Compare name, address and phone in your markup with your footer and your Google Business Profile.
• Run each template through the Rich Results Test and fix every error.
• Check the enhancement reports in Search Console one week after publishing.
• Remove duplicate blocks and any rating markup about your own company.
• Plan a yearly markup review and a check after every redesign.