SEO & Search
What is schema markup?
Schema markup is structured data added to a web page, using the shared schema.org vocabulary, that describes what the page contains in a form machines can read unambiguously, an article, a product, an FAQ, an organisation. It can make pages eligible for richer search listings and helps automated systems interpret content correctly, but adding markup does not guarantee any particular treatment.
What schema can and cannot do
Marking up an article, organisation, product or FAQ makes pages eligible for enhanced treatment, richer listings, and content that automated systems can interpret without guessing. Eligibility is the honest word: search engines decide whether to use the markup, and adding schema does not guarantee rich results, better rankings or AI citations. Markup describing content that is not visibly on the page can also breach guidelines rather than help.
Why it matters
Ambiguity is expensive for machines. A page may mention a name, a date and a price; markup states which is the author, which the publication date, which the cost, removing interpretation. As more retrieval is done by automated systems assembling answers, being unambiguous is a modest, cheap advantage that compounds across a whole site.
Common questions
Which schema types matter most for content marketing?
For most business sites: Organization for the company, Article or BlogPosting for editorial pages, and BreadcrumbList for structure. Beyond those, add types only where the page genuinely is the thing described.
Related terms
Schema rides on pages built through content optimisation, and helps the structured extraction behind featured snippets and AI citations, without guaranteeing either.