Structured Data for AI Search: Which Schema Types Matter

Structured data is code on a page that states, in a standard vocabulary, what the page is about. Instead of leaving a system to infer that a block of text is an address or that a heading is a question, you label it. Search engines have used this for years, and it is equally useful as machines try to work out who a business is and what it offers.

One caution first. Structured data does not guarantee that any search feature or AI answer will include you. What it does is reduce ambiguity, and ambiguity is a common reason brands are described vaguely or wrongly.

Start with the entity: Organization or LocalBusiness

The most valuable markup identifies who you are. For a company, use Organization with your name, website, logo, contact details and links to your official profiles. For a business with a physical location, use LocalBusiness or a more specific subtype, adding your address, phone number, opening hours and area served. Medical practices can use types such as MedicalBusiness, MedicalClinic or Physician, where they genuinely apply.

Put this on your home page and keep it identical to the details elsewhere on the web. Mismatched names and addresses weaken the picture.

Describe people and services

If individuals matter to your credibility, such as a practitioner or an author, mark them up with Person and connect them to the organisation. Service pages can describe what you offer and where. Accuracy matters more than volume. Do not mark up claims that are not visible on the page, because that can be treated as misleading markup.

Article and author markup

Blog posts and guides benefit from Article markup that names the headline, the author, the publisher and the dates. Dates and authorship are practical signals of freshness and responsibility, and they also give assistants something concrete to attribute.

FAQPage: useful, with a caveat

FAQPage markup labels questions and answers on a page. In 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results in search to well-known government and health websites, so most businesses will not see the visual feature. The markup is still valid, and the habit of writing clear questions and short answers helps readers and answer systems alike. Only mark up questions that are visible on the page.

BreadcrumbList for structure

Breadcrumb markup shows how a page sits within your site. It is simple to add and helps systems understand the relationship between your sections.

What a good Organization block contains

A complete organisation block names the business exactly as it trades, gives the main website address, links a logo that is a real image file, and lists contact details. Add the addresses of your official profiles, such as professional directories and social accounts, in the sameAs field so systems can connect those profiles to the same entity. Include a short description in plain language that matches the description on your site.

Keep the data identical to what appears visibly on the page. Systems check that the markup and the visible text agree, and disagreement reduces how much weight the markup carries.

Local businesses and practices

A LocalBusiness block adds the practical details a customer needs: the full postal address, a phone number, opening hours and the area you serve. If your premises are in a place where several practitioners work, give each practitioner a Person entry and relate them to the practice. For medical or aesthetic practices, use the most specific type that genuinely describes you, and describe services in plain language on the visible page rather than using the markup to make claims that are not otherwise on the page.

Common mistakes with markup

• Marking up content that is not visible to the visitor.
• Copying an example and leaving its placeholder values in place.
• Duplicating the same block several times with conflicting details.
• Letting a plugin and a hand-written block describe the business differently.
• Forgetting to update the markup when the address, phone number or opening hours change.

Any of these can cause validators to flag errors or can make systems trust the data less.

Validating and maintaining it

Run each important page through Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org validator after publishing. Fix errors first, then warnings that apply to your type. Put structured data on your content calendar, because it silently decays. Template changes, plugin updates and new staff all affect it. A quarterly check of your home page, a service page and a recent article is enough to catch most problems.

How to add it and check it

1. Choose the type that matches the page.
2. Fill in only information that is true and visible on the page.
3. Output it as JSON-LD in a script tag in the page head or body.
4. Test it with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org validator.
5. Recheck after redesigns, since templates often strip it out.

The Schema Generator builds JSON-LD for local businesses, organisations, FAQs, articles and breadcrumbs from a simple form, and the Search Readiness Auditor will tell you which types are already on a page. For where this fits in the bigger picture, see our AI search readiness checklist.

Frequently asked questions