Schema Markup (Structured Data / Structured Data) is the practice of labeling a web page’s content in a structured format using the Schema.org vocabulary so that search engines can better understand it.
With schema markup, the following can be clearly communicated to search engines:
- “This is a product, its price is X, it is in stock”
- “This is a recipe, the preparation time is 30 minutes”
- “This is an article, its author is X, its publication date is Y”
- “This is an FAQ section, and these are its questions and answers”
- “This is a business, and these are its hours and address”
The most common schema types are: Article, BlogPosting, Product, Recipe, FAQPage, Organization, LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, Event, Course, Review, VideoObject, DefinedTerm.
When schema is implemented correctly, rich snippets can be triggered in search results: star ratings, price, recipe photo, FAQ dropdowns, etc. This can increase CTR by up to 30 percent.
Tip: Preferably provide schema markup in JSON-LD format inside <script type="application/ld+json">. Microdata and RDFa are older formats; JSON-LD is Google’s preferred method.