Structured Data for Websites: What Actually Works
Machine-readable markup, usually JSON-LD, that tells search engines what a page is about in terms they already understand: an organization, an article, a product, an event.
Marcus Adeyemi
Where most projects go wrong
The usual mistakes:
- Marking up content that is not visible on the page
- Review or FAQ markup that does not reflect genuine content
- Hand-maintained markup that drifts from the page it describes
- Assuming valid markup entitles you to a rich result
What good looks like instead
- Mark up the types that match the page rather than everything available
- Keep the markup generated from the same data the page renders
- Validate before publishing and monitor the enhancement reports afterward
- Include the properties a rich result actually requires
- Use Organization and BreadcrumbList site-wide as a baseline
Why it matters
It is how a page becomes eligible for rich results, and it is one of the few SEO measures that is unambiguously specified rather than inferred from observation.
The specs that matter
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Recommended format | JSON-LD |
| Vocabulary | schema.org types and properties |
| Eligibility | valid markup makes a rich result possible, never guaranteed |
| Consistency requirement | the markup must describe what is visibly on the page |
| Validation | the Rich Results Test and Search Console enhancement reports |
Knowing when to hand it over
Tip: Bring in help when Search Console reports structured data errors at scale, when a rich result has been lost, or when a manual action has been applied for spammy markup.
Where this comes from
- Google Search Central — Structured data general guidelines
- Schema.org — Full vocabulary
- Bing Webmaster Tools — Markup guidance
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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