# Schema markup (structured data)

> Schema markup is structured data, usually JSON-LD, that labels the facts on a page, such as organization, service, price or author, using the shared schema.org vocabulary.

- Page: https://methodcrew.com/glossary/schema-markup
- Last updated: 2026-10-28
- Publisher: [The Method Crew](https://methodcrew.com/)
- Also known as: schema.org markup

## How it works

Schema.org is a shared vocabulary started in 2011 by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, with Yandex joining later that year. You describe the page in a block of JSON-LD: this page is a Service, provided by this Organization, with this price range; this article has this author and this modified date. Google recommends JSON-LD over the older inline formats, Microdata and RDFa, for most sites.

The markup must match what a visitor can see. Google's structured data guidelines treat markup that describes content missing from the page as a policy violation, and it can cost a site its rich result eligibility.

## How businesses use it

For a service business, a small set of types does most of the work:

- Organization on the home page, with name, logo, contact details and sameAs links to real profiles.
- Service on each service page, with the provider and a price range if you publish one.
- Article with a Person author on guides and posts.
- BreadcrumbList on inner pages.

Check the output with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator at schema.org.

Structured data still earns some rich results in Google, such as breadcrumbs and product details. It also gives search engines and AI systems an unambiguous statement of who you are and what you sell, which supports [entity SEO](https://methodcrew.com/glossary/entity-seo).

## Where it goes wrong

Schema markup does not get you into AI answers on its own. Google states that no special schema is needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode ([AI features documentation](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)).

Rich results also come and go. Google retired HowTo rich results in 2023 and stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026, so FAQPage markup no longer produces a special result in Google. Keep visible FAQs if they help readers, and treat that markup as optional.

The most common failure is drift: prices or names updated on the page but not in the markup. Generate the JSON-LD from the same data as the visible page so the two cannot disagree.

## Example (hypothetical)

Hypothetical: a law firm's site lists 14 practice areas, but its markup still names 9 from an old template. Rebuilding the JSON-LD from the same CMS records as the pages fixes the mismatch, and every new practice page gets correct Service markup when it is published.

## Related terms

- [Entity SEO](https://methodcrew.com/glossary/entity-seo): Entity SEO is making sure search engines and AI systems recognize your business as one distinct thing, with consistent facts about what it is, does and connects to.
- [Google AI Overviews and AI Mode](https://methodcrew.com/glossary/ai-overviews): AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries shown at the top of some Google results with links to sources; AI Mode is a conversational search view built on the same systems.
- [Answer engine optimization (AEO)](https://methodcrew.com/glossary/answer-engine-optimization): Answer engine optimization structures pages so a search engine or AI assistant can lift a direct answer from them, as a featured snippet, voice answer or AI citation.
- [llms.txt](https://methodcrew.com/glossary/llms-txt): llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file at a site's root that gives AI tools a short site summary and a hand-picked list of links to its key pages.
- [Generative engine optimization (GEO)](https://methodcrew.com/glossary/generative-engine-optimization): Generative engine optimization is the work of making your pages likely to be retrieved, quoted and cited in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.

## Services where this matters

- [SEO and GEO](https://methodcrew.com/services/seo-and-geo): Technical SEO plus pages written to be quoted by ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews. $3,500 to $15,000 per project.
- [Web design and development](https://methodcrew.com/services/web-design-development): Custom Next.js sites, server-rendered so search engines and AI crawlers read every page. $18,000 to $80,000 per project.
- [Answer engine optimization (AEO)](https://methodcrew.com/services/answer-engine-optimization): 10 to 25 pages rewritten so AI answers can quote them, tracked on 30 to 50 buyer prompts. $6,000 to $15,000 per project.
- [Landing pages and conversion sites](https://methodcrew.com/services/landing-pages): Single-goal pages for campaigns and launches, wired to your CRM and tracked to the lead. $3,000 to $8,000 per project.

## Articles that use this term

- [How to get your company cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews](https://methodcrew.com/insights/get-cited-by-chatgpt-perplexity-ai-overviews)

Full glossary: https://methodcrew.com/glossary