Schema Markup
Schema markup is the shared Schema.org vocabulary you add to your HTML so that machines understand what a page describes. It powers rich results in search and gives AI systems structured facts they can extract and cite with real confidence.
Why it matters for your rankings
Schema translates a page from prose a machine must interpret into statements it can simply read. Instead of inferring that a number is a price, the markup declares it, along with the currency and availability.
That certainty is worth more every year. Rich results depend on it, and AI answer engines lean on it heavily when deciding what they can assert about a business. The most valuable types for most sites are Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, Article and BreadcrumbList. The recurring failure is drift between markup and page, usually because they are maintained by different systems. Google treats mismatches as a violation, and the resulting loss of rich results is site-wide rather than page-specific.
How to check it on your site
Audit what you already have
Run key templates through the Rich Results Test. Many sites carry schema injected by plugins that nobody reviewed.
Check for duplicates and conflicts
Themes and SEO plugins commonly each add their own Organization or Article block, producing contradictory statements.
Verify markup matches visible content
Prices, ratings, dates and availability must agree with what a visitor actually sees on the page.
Prioritise by page type
Organization on the homepage, Product on product pages, Article on posts and BreadcrumbList everywhere delivers most of the value.