GEO GUIDE
Structured Data Basics: Making Content Machine-Readable
Updated 2026-10-19 · this page makes no search or citation promises
The direct answer: structured data declares what a page means, using schema.org vocabulary — humans read the prose, machines read the markup. The three most common types: Article, FAQPage, and BreadcrumbList. Validate with the Rich Results Test.
The direct answer: structured data declares what a page means, using schema.org vocabulary — humans read the prose, machines read the markup. The three most common types: Article, FAQPage, and BreadcrumbList. Validate with the Rich Results Test.
The three common types
- Article: for article pages — headline, author, publish and modify dates.
- FAQPage: for question-and-answer pages — one Question entity per pair.
- BreadcrumbList: the page's position in the site hierarchy.
Writing points
- JSON-LD format (a script tag with JSON), in the head or body of the page.
- The markup must match the visible content — marking content the page does not show is a violation.
- Linked entities connect via @id (Organization and WebSite reference each other).
Validation and boundary
- Validate with the Rich Results Test.
- Structured data does not guarantee rich snippets — display is the engine's decision.
- Markup that contradicts visible content is a violation; mark less rather than mark wrong.