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 (FAQ expansions, breadcrumbs, prices), and 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 expands your FAQ and whether an AI attributes your statement to you.