Structured data (Schema.org)
Structured data is machine-readable information in a website’s source code, usually in the Schema.org format, that tells search engines and AI systems unambiguously what a page describes — such as a company, a service, an article or frequently asked questions.
To people it is obvious that “Am Weinberg 20, 85092 Kösching” is an address. To machines not always. Structured data — usually embedded as JSON-LD — removes this ambiguity: company name, address, commercial register, services, reviews or FAQs are explicitly marked up.
Google uses structured data for rich results such as FAQ or breadcrumb displays, among other things. AI assistants benefit because they can attribute facts to a company with more confidence.
What matters is that the data matches the visible content — contradictory or invented data does more harm than good.
What to look out for
- Lay the foundation: mark up the organisation with name, address, contact, logo and profiles on every page.
- Choose the matching type per page — service, article, FAQ, product, event or breadcrumbs.
- Test with Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator.
- Only mark up what is also visible on the page.
- Test again after every major change — otherwise broken data goes unnoticed for a long time.
Common mistakes
- Review stars or FAQs are marked up that are not visible on the page.
- Address and company name in the data differ from the legal notice.
- A plugin generates duplicate, contradictory records for the same page.
Frequently asked questions
With Google’s Rich Results Test, which shows which enhanced displays are possible, and the Schema Markup Validator, which checks the data in general. Search Console additionally reports errors across the whole website.
No. They make enhanced displays possible; whether Google shows them is Google’s decision.