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SEO Basics·6 min read·July 1, 2026·Updated July 16, 2026

Schema Markup: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Add It Without Coding

Schema markup (JSON-LD) tells Google what your content is — a product, a local business, an article. Here's how to add it to any site in 10 minutes.

TC
Written by Tyler C., founder

What is schema markup?

Schema markup is structured data added to your HTML that helps search engines understand entities and page content. Instead of relying only on prose, a restaurant page can identify its name, address, hours, and other facts in a machine-readable form.

For supported page types, accurate markup can make a page eligible for rich results. Eligibility does not guarantee that Google will display an enhanced result, and the markup must match content visible to users.

Rich results you can unlock with schema

  • FAQPage — Machine-readable questions and answers; Google generally limits FAQ rich results to authoritative government and health sites
  • LocalBusiness — Structured facts such as address, hours, and telephone for eligible local business pages
  • Product — Eligibility for product information such as price and availability when all requirements are met
  • Article / BlogPosting — Clear article metadata such as headline, author, images, and publication dates
  • Review / AggregateRating — Eligible ratings only when the reviews are genuine, visible, and permitted for that content type
  • SoftwareApplication — Application details for eligible software pages

How schema markup works (JSON-LD)

The recommended format is JSON-LD — a script tag you drop in your <head> or <body>. Here's a LocalBusiness example:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Joe's Diner",
  "url": "https://joesdiner.com",
  "telephone": "+1-555-123-4567",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "123 Main St",
    "addressLocality": "Austin",
    "addressRegion": "TX",
    "postalCode": "78701"
  },
  "openingHours": "Mo-Sa 11:00-22:00",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.7",
    "reviewCount": "230"
  }
}
</script>

Add only structured data that accurately represents the main visible content. Not every page needs a special rich-result type, and unsupported schema vocabulary may help general understanding without producing a Google search feature.

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Which schema type should you use?

The answer depends on the page:

  • Homepage / about → Organization or LocalBusiness
  • Blog post → Article or BlogPosting
  • Product page (e.g. a Shopify store) → Product with Offer
  • FAQ page → FAQPage with Question / Answer
  • Service page → Service with provider
  • Event → Event with startDate, location
  • SaaS / web app → SoftwareApplication

How to validate your schema

After adding schema markup, test it with Google's tools:

  1. Google Rich Results Test — paste your URL to see which rich results your page qualifies for
  2. Schema.org Validator — checks for errors in your JSON-LD syntax

Generate schema for every page automatically

Writing JSON-LD for dozens of pages by hand is tedious and error-prone. Peak Visibility crawls your site, determines the correct schema type per page, and generates ready-to-paste JSON-LD blocks for every page in your scan. Paste your URL and get your complete schema-markup.html in under 3 minutes — free for 5 pages.

Sources and further reading

Technical claims in this guide were checked against primary documentation. Search features can change, so verify important implementation details before deploying.

See this in action on your own site

Paste your URL for a free, instant SEO check — no signup required.