What is Structured Data (Schema Markup)?
Structured data is machine-readable code that labels the key facts on a page, such as what a product costs, who wrote an article or where a company is based. Schema markup is its most common form: a shared vocabulary from Schema.org, launched in 2011 by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo and later joined by Yandex.
Most sites add it as a JSON-LD script in the page's HTML, the format Google recommends. A product page might declare its name, brand, price, availability and review rating. An About page might describe an Organization with a logo, founding date and sameAs links to official profiles. Visitors never see the markup, but machines read it directly.
Why structured data matters for AI visibility
Search engines use structured data to understand pages and to show rich results, such as star ratings or prices in search results. For AI systems, its value is in removing ambiguity. Markup states plainly that a number is a price, that a name refers to your company and that a page describes a specific product. That supports entity optimization and keeps your facts consistent wherever they are reused.
It is not a shortcut to being cited. Google has said no special markup is needed to appear in its AI features, and that structured data should match the visible content of the page. Product information is where it counts most: AI shopping experiences such as ChatGPT Shopping rely on structured product data for prices, availability and reviews.
How to implement structured data
Start with the types that describe your business: Organization or LocalBusiness, Product and Offer, Article and BreadcrumbList.
Use JSON-LD and fill in every relevant property, such as brand, GTIN, price, currency, availability and sameAs links.
Only mark up information that visitors can also see on the page.
Put the markup in the HTML your server delivers rather than injecting it with a tag manager, so AI crawlers that do not run JavaScript can read it too.
Validate with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, and monitor errors in Search Console.
Keep markup in sync with your product feeds, prices and business details when they change.
Maintaining this by hand across hundreds of pages is error-prone. Trackbase's Structured Data feature automates schema markup, so your facts stay machine-readable as your site grows.
Examples of Structured Data (Schema Markup)
A Dutch bicycle webshop adds Product and Offer markup with price, stock status and GTIN to every e-bike page.
A B2B payroll software vendor marks up its About page as an Organization with its logo, founding year and links to its LinkedIn and review profiles.
A local accounting firm uses LocalBusiness markup with its address, opening hours and service area.
A publisher adds Article markup with the author, publication date and last-modified date to every blog post.
Frequently asked questions
Does structured data help you get cited by AI assistants?
It can help indirectly. Structured data makes facts about your pages, products and company explicit, which reduces the chance that search engines and AI systems misread them. It does not guarantee citations, and Google has said no special markup is needed for its AI features. Treat it as a foundation that supports good content, not a replacement for it.
What is the difference between structured data and schema markup?
Structured data is the general concept: information organized in a fixed, machine-readable format. Schema markup is the most widely used way to add it to web pages, using the Schema.org vocabulary and usually written as JSON-LD. In everyday SEO language the terms are used interchangeably, which is why they often appear together.
Which schema types should I start with?
Start with the types that describe who you are and what you sell. For most businesses that means Organization or LocalBusiness, Product with Offer for webshops, Article for blog content and BreadcrumbList for site structure. Fill in the properties completely, keep them identical to the visible page and validate the markup after every template change.