What is schema markup? A plain explanation

Schema markup is a block of code in your page. It states facts about the page in a format that machines understand. A visitor does not see it.

For example, it can say: this page is for a bakery, at this address, open at these hours.

Why it helps

Search engines and AI tools read your text and guess what it means. Schema removes the guess. It can also make your result in search richer, with stars or hours shown under the link. Google decides when to show those. Google now shows FAQ results for only a few sites. The FAQ markup still states your facts to other machines.

The types a small business needs

• LocalBusiness: your name, address, phone and hours.
• FAQPage: questions and answers from your FAQ page.
• BreadcrumbList: the path to the current page.
• Article: the author and date of a blog post.

How to add it

The usual format is JSON-LD. You paste it into the head or the body of your page. Use the local business schema generator, the FAQ schema generator or the breadcrumb schema generator.

Rules to follow

Mark up only what a visitor can see on the page. Keep the facts the same as your text. A mismatch can cause search engines to ignore the markup.