Schema.org in Plain English

How structured data can label business facts for compatible parsers without promising rankings or recommendations.

Web pages are written primarily for people. Schema.org provides a shared vocabulary that a site can use to label facts such as a business name, address, phone number, hours, services, products, and events.

Structured data does not make a statement true. It should describe information that is already visible and accurate on the page.

What structured data can do

• identify the type of entity a page describes
• label contact and location information
• connect a business with its official URL and profiles
• describe services, products, events, or offers where applicable
• make relationships between facts explicit for compatible parsers

What structured data cannot do

• guarantee a search ranking or rich result
• force an AI product to use, cite, or recommend the information
• replace accurate visible content
• resolve conflicting facts published elsewhere
• prove that a visit, booking, sale, or customer came from an AI response

Google's structured-data policies explicitly require representative, visible, and non-misleading content. Eligibility for a search feature does not guarantee that the feature will appear.

Choose the applicable type

Schema.org provides a general LocalBusiness type and more specific subtypes. Use the most accurate type supported by the real business. Organization can describe a broader entity. Product, Service, Event, and other types can describe applicable page content.

Do not add types or properties only because they sound beneficial. Every marked-up value should be supported by the page and maintained when the business changes.

A simplified example

The following example is fictional and is included only to show the structure:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Restaurant",
  "name": "Example Restaurant",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "telephone": "+1-555-0100",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "100 Example Street",
    "addressLocality": "Example City",
    "addressRegion": "WA",
    "postalCode": "00000",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  }
}

Replace every example value with the business's real, publicly visible information before publishing.

Validate before publishing

Use the Schema.org validator to inspect vocabulary and structure. Use a search provider's testing tool when targeting one of that provider's supported search features. Fix syntax errors and confirm that marked-up facts match visible content.

Validation proves that a tool can parse the markup. It does not prove that a provider will display, rank, cite, or recommend the page.

Keep it current

Update structured data whenever the corresponding public facts change. Review business name, address, phone, hours, URL, categories, services, and any offers or ratings that are represented.

The bottom line

Structured data is a labeling system. It can reduce ambiguity for compatible parsers when it accurately reflects visible content. Search engines and AI products independently decide whether and how to use it.

MiddleVerse can help review markup and information consistency. It cannot promise rankings, citations, recommendations, traffic, customers, bookings, sales, or revenue.

MiddleVerse offers a free visibility scan that includes structured-data observations for supported checks.