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Glossary

Structured data

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Outseen
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Structured data is a standardised description of the content of a page, for example that it concerns a product with a particular price. Search engines read that description directly, and it can make a page eligible for rich results, with no guarantee of an extra display.

Structured data is a standardised description of the content of a page. A person reads “City bike, price, in stock”; with structured data, the code states that this is a product with a price in euros and a stock status. Google calls it a standardised format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. The vocabulary usually comes from Schema.org.

Which formats are there?

Google supports JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa, and recommends JSON-LD because it is the easiest to maintain. JSON-LD sits in the HTML as a separate block.

Example

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "City bike black",
  "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "price": "649.00", "priceCurrency": "EUR" }
}
</script>

What does it not do?

Structured data guarantees neither an extra display nor a higher position. It can make a page eligible for rich results, such as a price shown under a search result.

Common mistake

Marking up information the visitor cannot see on the page. Under Google’s guidelines, structured data must be a true representation of the page. A violation can cost a page its eligibility for rich results.

How do you check it?

Test the code with Google’s Rich Results Test. More explanation is in Structured data explained: what it does and what it does not.

Sources

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