Structured data that says what the page means
Structured data is a small block of code that tells search engines, in their own vocabulary, what a page is about: this is a business at this address, this is a product at this price, this is a course with these dates. I write it to match the page exactly and test it before it goes live.
Markup I add most often
Your business
Name, address, phone, hours, logo and links to your profiles, on every page.
Products
Price, availability, brand and genuine product reviews for online stores.
Hotels and lodging
Amenities, check-in times and star rating where you hold one.
Courses and schools
The organisation, its courses and who provides them.
Events
Dates, place, price and availability for events you host.
Breadcrumbs and FAQs
Site structure, and questions that are genuinely answered on the page.
Accurate, or not at all
Structured data has to describe what's visibly on the page. Markup that claims things the page doesn't show, such as prices that aren't there, reviews nobody can read or a business type you aren't, breaks Google's rules and can lose you rich results across the site.
So I generate markup from the same facts the page shows, test every type in Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, and watch Search Console's enhancement reports afterwards. This website's own markup is built the same way. It's one part of technical SEO.
Questions about structured data
Will structured data improve my rankings?
Not directly. It helps Google understand what a page is about and can make the page eligible for richer results, like product prices or event dates. The page still has to be the best answer to the search.
Can I mark up reviews of my own business?
Google doesn't show review stars for a business's reviews of itself, and marking them up anyway can count against you. Product reviews collected on your own store are a different case and can be marked up properly.
Which format do you use?
JSON-LD, the format Google recommends. It sits in one block in the page and doesn't change the visible content, which makes it easier to keep accurate.
Want Google to understand your pages better?
Send me your website and tell me what you sell. I'll check your current markup and tell you what's missing or wrong.