Structured Data
Standardised code markup (typically JSON-LD) added to pages to help search engines understand content and enable rich results.
Definition
Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and its content to search engines. It uses a defined vocabulary from schema.org, applied through one of three encoding formats: JSON-LD (the format recommended by Google, embedded as a <script> block in the <head>), Microdata (HTML attributes embedded in markup), or RDFa (also HTML-based). JSON-LD is strongly preferred because it is easy to implement without touching the page's HTML structure.
Structured data enables Google to understand the specific entities on a page — a recipe, a product, a job posting, an event, an FAQ — and display enhanced "rich results" in SERPs. Rich results include recipe cards with ratings and cook time, product panels with price and review stars, FAQ dropdowns, How-To steps, and video carousels. These enhanced formats consistently achieve higher click-through rates than standard blue-link results.
Implementing structured data does not guarantee rich results — Google decides whether to display them based on quality and relevance. Common schema types with strong rich result eligibility: Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Product, Recipe, Event, LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, and VideoObject. Validate all structured data with Google's Rich Results Test before deployment and monitor rich result status in Google Search Console.