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Structured data (Schema.org)
Machine-readable markup that describes your page to search engines and can make it eligible for rich results. Helpful for SEO, never an AI requirement.
What it is
Structured data is extra markup you add to a page that spells out what the content means, not just how it looks. A recipe page says "this is the prep time, this is the rating, these are the ingredients" in a format machines read directly.
Most of it follows the Schema.org vocabulary and is written as JSON-LD: a small block of code in the page's <head>. Common types are Product, Offer, FAQPage, Article, Recipe, and LocalBusiness. It does not change what your visitors see. It hands search engines a clean, labelled copy of the same facts already on the page.
Why it matters
Done right, structured data can make a page eligible for rich results: star ratings, prices, FAQ dropdowns, the visual extras that win attention in search. Note "eligible," not guaranteed.
Two honest caveats. First, Google's SEO starter guide is clear that markup must describe content actually on the page, and that you should not over-rely on it as a ranking requirement. Second, it is not what gets you into Google's AI answers, that comes from being indexable and helpful. It helps the wider machine-readable ecosystem, so it is worth doing well.
For the AI-search angle, see structured data for AI search. To produce valid JSON-LD without hand-coding it, use the schema markup generator.
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