Open Google and search for a recipe. You will see star ratings, cooking times, and calorie counts right in the search results. Search for a product and you see prices and availability. These enhanced listings are called "rich results," and they are powered by schema markup.
Rich results get significantly more clicks than standard search listings. Studies show click-through rates can increase by 20 to 30 percent when rich results are present. That is free additional traffic — if you implement the markup correctly.
What Is Schema Markup?
Schema markup is a standardized vocabulary (from Schema.org) that you add to your web pages to help search engines understand the meaning of your content. Instead of just seeing text on a page, Google can understand that a particular piece of text is a product name, a price, a review rating, or a business address.
Think of it like labeling items in a warehouse. Without labels, someone has to open every box to figure out what is inside. With labels, finding what you need is instant. Schema markup labels your web content for search engines.
JSON-LD: The Preferred Format
There are three ways to add schema markup: JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa. Google explicitly recommends JSON-LD because it is the easiest to implement and maintain. It sits in a