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Structured Data

While search engines are highly advanced at parsing unstructured content (like paragraphs of text), they still rely on structured data to clarify meaning, reduce ambiguity, and enable rich search experiences. Structured data acts like a “labeling system” that explains exactly what’s on a page—whether it’s a product, recipe, article, event, FAQ, or organization.

For example, a regular paragraph might say:

Our store will host a Black Friday sale on November 29, 2025.

But with structured data, you can explicitly tag that sentence as an Event with properties like name, startDate, location, and offers. This allows search engines and AI tools to categorize, contextualize, and present that information in more useful ways.

Common structured data formats:

  • JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data): Recommended by Google; placed in <script> tags in the page header.
  • Microdata: Inline tagging added directly to HTML elements.
  • RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes): Similar to Microdata but more flexible, used mostly for complex relationships.

JSON-LD has become the dominant format because it’s clean, separate from content markup, and easier to maintain.

Common structured data types (schema.org):

  • Organization / LocalBusiness: Name, logo, contact info, social profiles.
  • Article / BlogPosting / NewsArticle: Headlines, authors, publication date, images.
  • Product / Offer / Review: Pricing, availability, ratings, SKUs.
  • BreadcrumbList: Navigational hierarchy.
  • FAQPage & HowTo: Enables collapsible FAQ and step-by-step rich results in SERPs.
  • Event: Dates, locations, performers, ticket info.
  • VideoObject / ImageObject: Media metadata for improved indexing and display.

Example: A recipe website adds JSON-LD structured data to a lasagna recipe, specifying prep time, cook time, ingredients, calories, and user ratings. When users search for “easy lasagna recipe,” Google displays a rich result with an image, star rating, prep time, and direct links—making the listing more prominent and clickable.

Why structured data matters:

  • Improved Search Understanding: Helps search engines interpret page content more accurately and efficiently.
  • Eligibility for Rich Results: Structured data powers enhanced SERP features like knowledge panels, product carousels, FAQ dropdowns, and recipe cards.
  • Better Click-Through Rates (CTR): Rich results often stand out visually and provide key info up front, leading to higher engagement.
  • Voice & AI Compatibility: Structured data makes content more accessible to voice assistants and generative AI systems.
  • Content Disambiguation: Clarifies meaning for entities with similar names or concepts.
  • Future-Proofing: As AI-driven search evolves, structured data provides a machine-readable layer that supports GEO and AEO strategies.

Best practices for structured data:

  • Use JSON-LD whenever possible for cleaner implementation.
  • Follow schema.org vocabulary and Google’s specific structured data guidelines.
  • Validate your markup using Google’s Rich Results Test and Schema.org’s validator.
  • Only mark up content that’s actually visible to users—don’t “stuff” invisible structured data.
  • Keep your structured data up to date and consistent with on-page content.
  • Avoid conflicting or duplicate markup that could confuse crawlers.