In plain English
It's labelling the boxes when you move house. Someone could open every box to work out what's inside, but clear labels let them understand it at a glance.
Used in a sentence
“We added schema markup describing your business, services and service areas, so Google reads them exactly.”
“Our competitor's results show their hours and ratings right in Google, and ours just show a title.”
In detail
Schema markup uses a shared vocabulary from schema.org, usually written in a format called JSON-LD that sits in the page's code without changing how it looks. It can describe an organisation, a local business, a service, an article, a product, an event, frequently asked questions and much more.
Search engines use it to understand pages and sometimes to show rich results, like product details or breadcrumbs in search listings. It doesn't guarantee those extras, and the markup must match what's visible on the page. Done right, it removes guesswork about who you are and what you offer.
Why it matters for your business
Schema markup helps search engines and AI tools describe your business accurately.
- Clear facts for search engines
- Eligible for richer search listings
- Helps AI tools describe you correctly
Easy to mix up
Schema markup isn't visible text, and it isn't a ranking shortcut. It describes what's already on the page; marking up things that aren't there is against Google's guidelines.
Related terms
SERP, Google Business Profile and Indexing. Or browse the whole glossary.
