What is Structured data (schema markup)?

Its most useful job in 2026 is removing ambiguity, not unlocking AI answers. Google’s guide to its generative AI features says “structured data isn’t required for generative AI search, and there’s no special schema.org markup you need to add”, while still recommending it for rich results. Think of it as a precise, machine-readable restatement of what the page already tells people.

Why it matters in 2026

The rich results it unlocks have narrowed. In June 2025 Google began phasing out seven types — Book Actions, Course Info, ClaimReview, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement and Vehicle Listing — and on 7 May 2026 FAQ rich results stopped appearing for every site, government and health sites included. You need not delete FAQPage markup, because Google says unused structured data doesn’t cause problems. Just don’t expect it to show.

The evidence for AI citations is weak. Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD against 4,000 matched pages that didn’t (May 2026): schema brought no uplift in AI Mode or ChatGPT citations, and a small decline in AI Overviews that the authors could not clearly attribute to schema. Every page studied already had 100+ AI Overview citations, so it says less about sites with no AI visibility yet. Microsoft’s Fabrice Canel has said schema helps Microsoft’s language models understand content (March 2025), and Copilot was not part of the Ahrefs test. Useful, then, but not magic.

How does structured data work?

You add a JSON-LD block describing the page’s main entity, with a type (Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, Article) and properties (name, address, openingHours, price, author, sameAs). Google reads it alongside the visible page and may use it to:

• show a rich result — review stars, price and availability, event dates, logos, or breadcrumbs (desktop only since January 2025);
• understand the entity, since Organization markup helps Google “disambiguate your organization in search results”.

Google’s search gallery (updated June 2026) still lists Organization, Local business, Breadcrumb, Article, Product, Review snippet, Event, Video and others. Eligibility is not a promise: “Google does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results.”

How to get it right

1. Start with who you are. Put Organization, or the most specific LocalBusiness subtype, on the home or about page: name, logo, url, address, telephone and sameAs links to official profiles, matching your Google Business Profile exactly.
2. Add the page types that still pay: BreadcrumbList sitewide, Article with author and dates on posts, Product with real price and availability on product pages.
3. Generate markup from the data that renders the page, so prices, hours and names cannot drift apart.
4. Mark up only what visitors can see. Google’s rule is blunt: “Don’t mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page.”
5. Validate with the Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, then watch Search Console’s enhancement reports.
6. Keep review markup honest. If a business controls the reviews about itself, its LocalBusiness or Organization pages are ineligible for review stars.

Common mistakes

• Copying your Google rating into your own LocalBusiness aggregateRating. Self-serving stars are ineligible, and markup that breaks the guidelines can draw a manual action that removes rich-result eligibility.
• Marking up FAQs, prices or reviews that aren’t on the page.
• Buying “AI schema” packages on the promise of citations.
• A different name, phone number or hours in the schema, the website and the Business Profile.
• Several plugins emitting conflicting Organization blocks.

In practice: a Chennai restaurant

A Chennai restaurant would use Restaurant markup (a LocalBusiness subtype) with the same name, address, phone number and hours as its Business Profile, plus servesCuisine, a hasMenu link and acceptsReservations. It would leave out any aggregateRating built from its own testimonials. That won’t win AI citations by itself, but it gives Google one unambiguous version of the facts, which is the foundation of entity SEO. Compare llms.txt, where the evidence of benefit is weaker still.