Structured data code added to a webpage's HTML that helps search engines understand the content's meaning and context — for example, marking up a recipe's ingredients and cook time, or an article's author and publish date.
Why it matters
Schema markup is what enables rich results in search — star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, event details shown directly in search results — and increasingly helps AI-powered answer engines correctly parse and cite a page's content.
In a sentence
"Adding FAQ schema to the pricing page got us the expandable question dropdowns directly in search results."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Metadata (schema markup is a specific, standardized structured-data format understood by search engines; metadata is a broader term for descriptive information about content generally, including things like meta titles and descriptions that aren't schema markup).
- Synonyms: Structured data.