Glossary
What is Structured data (Schema.org)?
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Structured data is machine-readable markup in a page’s HTML, usually JSON-LD following the schema.org vocabulary, that states explicitly what a piece of content is: an article, a product, an organisation, an FAQ.
Without markup a crawler must guess from the layout what a text is; with markup it is settled. Google builds rich results from it, such as prices and, on desktop, breadcrumbs; according to Search Central, Google has not shown FAQ expansions since 7 May 2026. Language models use the same statements to attribute claims to their originator.
Consistency is decisive: the schema must repeat what the page visibly says. Asserting in schema what the page does not show risks devaluation rather than reward.
Why it matters for the mid-market
Structured data is the cheapest visibility lever there is: built in cleanly once, it works on every page with no running cost. It helps decide whether Google shows your page as a rich result and whether an AI attributes your statement to you.