What Is Schema Markup?
Also known as Structured data, Schema.org markup, JSON-LD
Schema markup is structured data, written in the schema.org vocabulary, that you add to a web page to describe its content in a machine-readable way, such as an organization, product, article, event or review. Search engines use it to understand pages more precisely and to qualify them for rich results. Google recommends the JSON-LD format.
Schema Markup explained
A page about a software product contains a name, a price, a rating and a company behind it, but a crawler has to infer those facts from text. Schema markup states them explicitly. The schema.org vocabulary, maintained jointly by the major search engines, defines hundreds of types and properties, and you choose the ones that match your content.
There are three formats: JSON-LD, microdata and RDFa. Google recommends JSON-LD because it sits in a single script block and is easy to maintain without touching visible HTML. Rich results that use markup include review stars, product details, breadcrumbs, events, videos and job postings. Google has narrowed some features over time: FAQ rich results now show only for a small set of authoritative sites, and HowTo rich results were removed.
Markup does not directly boost rankings, but it helps search engines and AI systems connect your pages to clear entities: your organization, your products, your authors. For B2B sites, Organization, Product or SoftwareApplication, Article, BreadcrumbList and Person markup are common starting points. The markup must match what is visible on the page, or Google may ignore it or issue a manual action.
Schema Markup example
A B2B software company adds SoftwareApplication markup with name, category, operating system and an aggregate rating from on-page reviews to its product page, plus BreadcrumbList markup across the site. After validating with the Rich Results Test and waiting for recrawling, its product pages become eligible for review details in results, and breadcrumbs replace raw URLs in the listings, which makes the results easier to scan.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Acme Inc",
"url": "https://www.example.com/",
"logo": "https://www.example.com/logo.png",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/acme-inc",
"https://x.com/acmeinc"
]
}
</script>How to add schema markup to a website
Pick the right types
Match each template to a schema type: Organization for the homepage, Article for blog posts, Product or SoftwareApplication for product pages, BreadcrumbList sitewide.
Check Google's requirements
Read Google Search Central's documentation for each rich result type to see required and recommended properties.
Write JSON-LD
Create the markup in JSON-LD, using values that exactly match visible page content. Plugins like Yoast or Rank Math can generate common types on WordPress.
Add it to templates
Place the script in the page head or body through your CMS or tag templates so it scales across all pages of that type.
Validate and monitor
Test with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, then watch Search Console's enhancement reports for errors.
Common mistakes
- Marking up content that is not visible on the page, such as fake reviews or hidden prices.
- Expecting schema to directly raise rankings rather than improving understanding and rich result eligibility.
- Adding FAQ or HowTo markup expecting rich results that Google no longer shows for most sites.
- Shipping markup without validating it, so small syntax errors make the whole block useless.
- Letting markup drift out of date when prices, ratings or authors on the page change.
Schema Markup FAQ
Not directly. Google says structured data is not a general ranking factor. It helps search engines understand your content and makes pages eligible for rich results, which can improve click-through rates. Better understanding of entities can also help in AI-driven search features.
Structured data is the general concept of organizing information in a standard, machine-readable way. Schema markup usually refers to structured data written with the schema.org vocabulary, which is what Google and other search engines support. In SEO conversations, people use the two terms interchangeably.
Common choices are Organization on the homepage, WebSite, BreadcrumbList across pages, Article or BlogPosting on posts, Person for authors, Product or SoftwareApplication on product pages, Event for webinars and VideoObject for videos. Only add types that match real content on the page.
Use Google's Rich Results Test to check whether a page is eligible for rich results, and the Schema Markup Validator at schema.org to check general syntax. After deployment, Search Console's enhancement reports show errors and valid items across the whole site.