Structured data (schema.org): a beginner's guide to rich results

Structured data is a small block of code that describes your page in a language search engines understand: this is a business, this is a product with a price, this is a recipe, these are FAQs. It can turn a plain blue link into a rich result.

Start with these types

• Organization (or LocalBusiness with address and opening hours) on the homepage.
• WebSite on the homepage.
• Product with price and availability on product pages.
• Article or BlogPosting on blog posts.
• BreadcrumbList to show the page path in results.
• FAQPage where you have real questions and answers.

How to add it

• WordPress: Yoast SEO and Rank Math add Organization, WebSite, Article and breadcrumbs automatically; fill in your organisation details in the plugin settings.
• Shopify: most themes include Product markup; check that price and availability are present.
• Other sites: paste a JSON-LD script block into the page head, like the example above.

Test and fix

1. Use Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator.
2. Fix syntax errors: a missing comma or quote makes the whole block unreadable. The SEO audit flags JSON-LD that can't be parsed.
3. Only mark up what's visible on the page. Hidden or misleading markup can lead to a manual action.

Pair structured data with good Open Graph tags so your pages look right everywhere they're shared.