Definition

Schema markup is structured data — usually in JSON-LD, microdata or RDFa format — embedded in a page that uses a shared vocabulary (most commonly schema.org) to describe what the page is about: an article, a product, an event, a FAQ, and so on.

Search engines use schema markup to better understand a page's content and to render rich results — review stars, FAQs, recipe details, event dates and similar enhanced snippets. Adding valid schema does not guarantee rich results, but pages without it are not eligible for them. Google supports a subset of schema.org types; only properties Google explicitly documents will affect appearance in search. The markup must accurately describe content visible on the page; misleading or hidden content used to qualify for rich results can trigger manual penalties.

Examples

• A recipe page

  A food blog adds Recipe schema with cooking time, ingredients, ratings and a calorie count. Google starts displaying the page with a recipe rich snippet — image, star rating and prep time — directly in search results.

• Inline JSON-LD

  <script type="application/ld+json">{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "...", "datePublished": "2026-05-10" }</script>

Sources

• Google Search Central — Introduction to structured data markup
• schema.org

Related terms

• Meta Description
  A short HTML attribute summarising a page, often used by search engines as the snippet shown beneath a result's title.
• Core Web Vitals
  A set of three Google metrics that measure real-world page experience: loading speed, interactivity and visual stability.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• Schema Generators
• SEO Audit