On-page

What Is Schema Markup and Do I Need It?

15 September 2026 2 min read

Schema markup is standardized structured data, usually JSON-LD, that labels your page's content for search engines: this is a product, this is an FAQ, this is an article. You need it because it determines eligibility for rich results and increasingly for AI answer citations. It is free and it takes minutes.

The types that matter for most sites

  • Organization and WebSite: brand identity.
  • Article: blog posts.
  • FAQPage: pages with visible FAQs.
  • Product: product pages with offers.
  • LocalBusiness: local businesses.

Add and validate it free

Check any live URL with the Schema Validator to see what structured data Google reads. The On-Page SEO Checker flags missing schema, which 17% of audited pages have.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does schema improve rankings directly?

Rarely. It improves eligibility for rich results, which improves clicks.

Can schema hurt if wrong?

Broken markup is ignored. Misleading markup can earn a manual action, so mark up only what is visible.

Related reading

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