Structured data: the language your site speaks to machines
Looking at a page, a person understands that «from $40» is a price and «Mon–Fri 9:00–19:00» is opening hours. A machine does not: to it this is just text. Structured data is a way of telling the machine directly: here is the price, here is the address, here is the rating.
This is markup that tells robots what is actually on the page: the organisation, the service, the price, the question and the answer. It does not raise positions on its own, but it earns rich results in search and helps models quote you accurately. The minimum for a business: organisation, services, and a questions block.
In this article9 sections
What it actually is
Markup is a block of code on the page, invisible to a person, where the same information is written in a strict format. The standard is called schema.org and every major search engine and language model understands it.
Nothing changes in the design. What changes is how a machine reads the page.
What it gives
| What it gives | How it looks | How noticeable |
|---|---|---|
| Rich result | Rating stars, price, availability under the link | Noticeably increases clicks |
| Questions block | Expandable questions right in search | Takes more space in the results |
| Organisation panel | A panel on the right with address and phone | Builds trust |
| Breadcrumbs | A readable path instead of a long address | Improves legibility |
| Understanding by AI models | Precise facts to quote | Improves the odds of being cited |
Markup does not improve rankings directly — it is not a ranking factor. But it increases the share of clicks on your link, and that in turn does affect rankings.
Which types an ordinary business needs
- Organisation or local business — name, address, phone, hours, coordinates. The basic type, needed by everyone.
- Service — what the service is, who it is for, the price range. For service pages.
- Product — price, availability, rating, specifications. For online stores.
- Questions and answers — for FAQ blocks. One of the most useful types.
- Breadcrumbs — the path through the site structure.
- Reviews and rating — only if the reviews are genuine and present on the page.
- Article — for blog and knowledge base materials.
The main rules, and breaking them is punished
- You may only mark up what is actually on the page. Marking up a rating with no reviews is a violation.
- The data in the markup must match the visible text. $40 in the code and $80 on the page is grounds for a penalty.
- Do not mark up someone else's reviews as your own.
- Do not mark up a whole page as a product if it is not one.
For deception in markup, platforms remove the rich result, and getting it back is not easy.
How to implement and verify it
- Decide the type for each pageHome page — organisation, service pages — service, articles — article, catalogue — product.
- Add the markupThe simplest way is a separate JSON-LD block — it does not mix with the layout and is easy to edit.
- Check it with a validatorGoogle and Yandex both have free testing tools: they show errors and warnings.
- Watch the webmaster consoleIt shows which types were found and where the errors are, after indexing.
- Update it with the dataPrices or hours changed — change them in the markup too. A mismatch is worse than nothing.
Common mistakes
- The markup exists but has a syntax error, so it is not read at all.
- A rating is declared that is nowhere on the page.
- The address in the markup differs from the address on the maps.
- Markup was added to the home page and forgotten everywhere else.
- Prices in the markup are a year out of date.
What markup looks like in practice
Markup is added as a separate block in the page code. Formally it is text inside curly braces where every fact is given a name from the schema.org vocabulary: name, address, telephone, priceRange.
For a business owner what matters is not how it looks but three things: it exists on every page, it contains the same data the person sees, and it has no errors. The rest is the developer's job.
What to mark up first
- Home pageOrganisation or local business: name, address, phone, hours, coordinates, links to profiles.
- Service pagesService with description and price range.
- Questions blocksEvery question and answer. One of the most visible effects in search.
- Product cardsPrice, availability, rating — if this is a store.
- All pagesBreadcrumbs: they replace a long address in search with a readable path.
How to check that it works
- Run the page through a structured data validator — it shows the types found and any errors.
- Two to four weeks after indexing, check the report in the webmaster console.
- Type your own query into search and see whether stars, price or questions appeared under the link.
- Check after every site update: markup breaks silently.
A rich result does not appear automatically or immediately. The search engine decides whether to show it, and overall trust in the site affects that. No stars after a week does not mean the markup is not working.
Frequent questions
Is markup mandatory?
Technically no, the site works without it. In practice it is a cheap advantage: a rich result noticeably increases clicks at the same positions.
Does it affect rankings?
Not directly. Indirectly yes: through a higher click share and through better understanding of the page by search engines and language models.
Can markup be added to a site on a website builder?
Usually yes — either through built-in settings or by inserting a code block. Some builders add basic markup themselves, but it is worth checking.
How many types can be used on one page?
Several, if they genuinely describe its content: organisation, breadcrumbs and questions-and-answers at the same time, for example. The main rule is not to mark up what is not there.
What happens if the markup contains an error?
The search engine simply ignores it — no rich result appears. It is worse when the marked-up data does not match what is visible: that gets the rich result removed deliberately.
Is markup needed on blog pages?
It helps: the «Article» type with a date and author lets the search engine judge how fresh the material is. For a knowledge base and long guides it is worth doing.
The materials answer general questions. We will look at your specific case — free and without obligation.