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Structured data

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Structured data helps search engines understand a page. It earns rich results only for supported types and only when it matches what users can see.

Rules

Section titled “Rules”
  • Use JSON-LD in the page head, built from the same data that renders the page, so they cannot drift.
  • Mark up only content that is visible on the page. Never mark up hidden, invented or aggregated-from-elsewhere content.
  • One @graph per page with stable @ids (https://example.com/#website, …/#person, <page-url>#webpage) so entities connect.
  • Use the same Person or Organization @id across all sites you own so they describe one entity.
  • Validate every template with Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator before merging.
  • Re-check Google’s supported features at least twice a year; they change.

Types by page kind

Section titled “Types by page kind”
Page Types
Every page WebSite, Person or Organization (publisher), BreadcrumbList
Article, guide, docs page Article, TechArticle or BlogPosting with headline, description, author, datePublished, dateModified, image
Hub or category page CollectionPage + ItemList
Product Product with real offers; reviews only if genuine
Software / app SoftwareApplication
Video on the page VideoObject (only if the video is really on the page)
Event Event

What to avoid (as of the verification date)

Section titled “What to avoid (as of the verification date)”
  • HowTo: Google stopped showing HowTo rich results in 2023. Write steps as an ordered list in HTML instead.
  • FAQPage: since 2023 Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known authoritative government and health sites. Write questions as normal headings; skip the markup.
  • Sitelinks search box (SearchAction): retired by Google; do not rely on it.
  • Review / AggregateRating: only for genuine reviews you collect and display; never fabricate or import ratings.
  • Any markup describing content that is not on the page.

Example (docs page)

Section titled “Example (docs page)”
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://devbook.raturi.in/#website", "url": "https://devbook.raturi.in/", "name": "Devbook", "publisher": { "@id": "https://raturi.in/#person" } },
    { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://raturi.in/#person", "name": "Nitin Raturi", "url": "https://raturi.in/" },
    { "@type": "TechArticle", "@id": "https://devbook.raturi.in/web/structured-data/#article",
      "headline": "Structured data", "author": { "@id": "https://raturi.in/#person" },
      "dateModified": "2026-10-22", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://devbook.raturi.in/#website" } },
    { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [
      { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Web & content", "item": "https://devbook.raturi.in/web/technical-seo/" },
      { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Structured data" } ] }
  ]
}

Checklist

Section titled “Checklist”
  • JSON-LD from the same data as the page
  • Only visible content marked up
  • Stable, shared @ids
  • No HowTo/FAQ/SearchAction; no fake reviews
  • Validated in both tools
Written by Privacy