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Structured data is the wider idea. Schema markup is that idea written in Schema.org. JSON-LD is one syntax. Treating the three as one word is how “add schema” becomes a promise the documentation does not make.
What is schema markup?
Schema markup is structured data that uses the Schema.org vocabulary. Schema.org opened in 2011 as a collaboration of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex. It defines types and properties. Google Search documents a smaller list of types it will use for enhanced displays.
How do you write it?
Google accepts JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa for rich-result eligibility. Google recommends JSON-LD because it can sit next to the visible copy. Recommendation is not a requirement. A Microdata graph in the delivered HTML is readable by any client that parses the response.
A fourth route is commonly treated as equivalent and is not: injecting JSON-LD with JavaScript after the response. Google can pick that up on a later rendering pass. The fetchers measured in 2024 for the major answer engines cannot.
Which types belong on a publishing site first?
- Organization and Person, with sameAs.
- WebSite and WebPage.
- BreadcrumbList.
- Article or TechArticle, with dates and author.
- DefinedTerm when the page is one node in this SCN.
Product, Recipe, Event, JobPosting, FAQPage and HowTo exist for pages that actually are those things.
What is markup not?
It is not grounding. Markup states what you claim. Grounding requires that the claim can be matched against something outside your site. sameAs is the cheapest pointer. Inconsistency across pages is the most common reason the pointer fails.
Next in this set Rich Results · Entity Disambiguation · Entity Recognition
Elsewhere on this site Entity grounding · Semantic search · Named entity recognition · Client-side rendering check · Large language models · Answer engine optimization · Generative engine optimization · Evidence · E-E-A-T