Schema Markup

What is schema markup?

Schema markup is code added to a web page that explicitly tells search engines and AI systems what the content means, not just what it says. It uses a standardised vocabulary from schema.org, a collaborative project founded by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. When a page includes schema markup, search engines can understand that a number on the page is a rating, that a date is a publication date, that a block of text is an FAQ answer, or that a page is describing a product, a person, or a business. This understanding enables rich results and improves AI citation accuracy.

Schema markup formats

• JSON-LD: JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data. The preferred format recommended by Google. Added as a script block in the page head or body, separate from the HTML content.
• Microdata: Schema attributes added inline within HTML elements. Older format, still valid but less commonly used.
• RDFa: Another inline format used primarily in open data and linked data contexts.

Schema types that matter most for SEO and GEO

• Article / BlogPosting: Marks up the author, publication date, modified date, and headline of articles. Critical for E-E-A-T and news-related features.
• FAQPage: Marks up question and answer pairs. Can trigger FAQ rich results and improves AI Overviews extraction.
• HowTo: Marks up step-by-step instructions. Enables rich results for instructional content.
• Product: Price, availability, reviews for product pages. Enables shopping rich results.
• Organization: Company name, logo, social profiles. Supports knowledge panels.
• DefinedTerm: Defines a term within a DefinedTermSet. Used for glossary pages and increases citation probability for definitional queries.
• BreadcrumbList: Page hierarchy. Helps both SERP display and AI navigation of site structure.

Schema markup and AI citations

Schema markup significantly helps AI engines parse and extract information accurately from pages. A page with FAQPage schema is easier for an AI engine to extract individual question-answer pairs from. A page with Article schema including named authorship and a publication date is more likely to be assessed as credible and recent. DefinedTerm schema on glossary pages explicitly signals to AI systems that a page is authoritative for a specific term definition. GEO strategy treats schema markup as a foundational requirement, not an optional extra.