A search engine reading a web page has to work out what it is looking at. Is this a product, an article, a company, a list of questions? Structured data removes the guesswork. It is a block of information, added to the page in a standard format, that states the facts directly: this is an article, published on this date, written by this organisation.
What it does and does not do
Structured data helps search engines understand a page, and it makes the page eligible for richer display in results, such as a breadcrumb trail in place of a raw address, or price and availability under a product.
It is not a ranking shortcut. Adding markup to a weak page does not lift it above stronger ones. And eligibility is not a guarantee: the search engine decides whether to show the richer format. Think of it as removing ambiguity, not as a trick.
The format
The recommended format is JSON-LD, a script block in the page that visitors do not see. The vocabulary comes from schema.org, which defines the types and their properties. Because it sits apart from the visible HTML, it can be generated from the same data the page is built from, which keeps the two consistent.
Types worth adding first
- Organization. Name, logo, website and official profiles. It helps search engines connect your site with your presence elsewhere.
- BreadcrumbList. The position of a page within the site. Simple to add and widely shown in results.
- Article or BlogPosting. Headline, author, publication and modification dates, and image, for editorial content.
- Product. Name, image, price, availability and reviews, for anything sold online.
- LocalBusiness. Address, opening hours and phone number, for companies that serve customers at a location.
- Service. What you offer and who provides it, for service pages.
- FAQPage. Questions and answers that appear on the page.
Most business sites need four or five of these, not all of them.
Rules that matter
Mark up only what is visible. The structured data must describe content a visitor can actually see on that page. Marking up reviews, prices or answers that are not shown is against the guidelines and can lead to a manual action against the site.
Keep it accurate. A price in the markup that differs from the price on the page is worse than no markup.
Use the canonical address. URLs inside the structured data should match the canonical version of the site, including www or not, consistently.
Do not expect every type to be displayed. Search engines change which rich formats they show and for which sites. Question-and-answer results, for example, are now shown far less widely than they once were. The markup still helps understanding, so it is worth having, but do not build a plan around one particular display.
Validate before and after release
Test pages with the Rich Results Test and the schema.org validator before they go live. After release, the enhancement reports in search console list pages with errors or warnings. A common failure is markup that was valid at launch and broke quietly when a template changed, so check after each significant release.
Generate it, do not hand-write it
Structured data typed by hand into individual pages goes stale. Generate it in the template from the same fields that produce the visible content: the article title, the publication date, the product price. Then it cannot disagree with the page, and a new page gets correct markup automatically.
Structured data and AI search
Assistants and AI search features also read web pages to answer questions. Clear, explicit facts are easier for them to use correctly than facts implied by layout. Structured data is one way to state those facts. Plain, well-organised text on the page is the other, and the two work together.
Summary
Add Organization and BreadcrumbList everywhere, then the types that match your pages. Mark up only visible content, generate it from your data and validate after every release. Structured data is part of our SEO and digital marketing service. For a review of what your site has and what is missing, get in touch.