schema markup

Plain HTML tells a browser how to display text, but not what the text means. Schema markup closes that gap. It labels page elements with a shared vocabulary (Schema.org, supported by Google, Microsoft, Yandex, and Yahoo) so a machine reads “4.8” as an aggregate rating, not just a number. Google supports three formats (JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa) and recommends JSON-LD, a script block that sits in your page’s HTML and never touches visible copy.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Trail Runner 2",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.8",
    "reviewCount": "212"
  }
}

Google’s one hard rule: only mark up content that is actually visible on the page. Marking up prices or ratings a user cannot see is a policy violation.

What it does and does not do

Schema is what powers rich results, the star ratings and product details that make a listing stand out. It does not, on its own, lift rankings or guarantee those enhancements; Google decides when to show them.

For AI search, keep expectations grounded. Google has said no special markup is required to appear in AI features, and an Ahrefs study of 1,885 pages found that adding JSON-LD produced no meaningful change in AI citations. Schema helps machines parse you cleanly. It is not a citation shortcut.