Schema Markup
Last updated September 2026
Schema markup is structured data code, typically written in JSON-LD, added to a webpage to explicitly label its content for search engines: this is a review, this is a price, this is a FAQ. It does not change what a page says; it clarifies what the page means so search engines can display richer results.
Schema markup uses a shared vocabulary, defined at schema.org, to describe content in a format machines can parse reliably. Written most commonly as JSON-LD, a block of code in the page's head that is invisible to visitors, it tells a search engine explicitly that a given block of text is a business address, a product price, a star rating, or an FAQ answer, rather than leaving the engine to infer it from surrounding text.
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Common schema types
LocalBusiness schema marks up name, address, hours, and category for local businesses. Product and Review schema support price and star-rating display in results. FAQPage schema can produce expandable question-and-answer dropdowns directly in search results, sometimes surfacing as an answer box. Article and BreadcrumbList schema help search engines understand content type and site navigation structure.
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How schema earns richer results
Correctly implemented schema makes a page eligible for enhanced SERP features, star ratings, price ranges, FAQ dropdowns, that occupy more visual space and typically earn a higher click-through rate than a plain blue link. Eligibility is not a guarantee: Google reserves the right to display or withhold rich results even when the markup is valid, based on its own quality checks.
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Schema and AI answer engines
Structured data is one of the clearest, most machine-friendly signals AI answer engines use when extracting facts to cite or summarize. A well-marked-up FAQ or DefinedTerm entry gives an answer engine an unambiguous fact to pull from, which is part of why schema work increasingly overlaps with answer engine optimization, not just traditional SEO.
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Why it matters for agencies
Schema is easy to get technically wrong, mismatched content, invalid syntax, markup describing something the page does not actually show, and invalid or misleading structured data can trigger a manual action rather than a reward. Conduit builds and validates schema as a deliberate part of technical SEO delivery rather than relying on a plugin's default toggle, since a broken implementation is often worse than no implementation at all.
