Schema markup and structured data
The description of your page written for machines rather than people. It decides how confidently a search engine can summarize you — and whether it will cite you.
Since 2011 · Validated before it ships · Never LocalBusiness · Veteran-owned
Why a search engine cannot tell what your page is
It can read every word and still be guessing about the things that matter.
Most small business sites publish none. The page says what it costs and what it answers, but only in prose — which a machine has to infer rather than read.
A plugin emitted it on install and nobody validated it — missing properties, wrong types, or two conflicting blocks on one page. Invalid markup is ignored, so it does nothing.
Ratings nobody left, prices that appear nowhere on the page, an address that is not a real place of business. That category gets a site penalized rather than merely ignored.
More searches are answered above the links now, from a handful of cited sources. Being unreadable to a machine is a reliable way not to be one of them.
The schema types we implement, and what each one is for
Types chosen because the page genuinely is that thing — not because they exist.
- Organization — who publishes the site, and how the same entity is described everywhere
- Service — a thing you sell, what it covers and the area it is delivered to
- BreadcrumbList — the hierarchy a page sits in, which is what search engines display
- FAQPage — questions and answers, marked so they can be lifted and shown directly
- Article and BlogPosting — authorship, publication date and what a post is about
- Product and Offer — where there is a real product with a real price on the page
- Validation against Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator before it ships
What schema markup does: rich results and AI Overview visibility
Two effects, and only one of them is the famous one.
Rich results are the extras in a search listing — the breadcrumb trail, the expandable questions, the review stars where they are genuinely earned. Correct schema makes a page eligible for those. It does not guarantee them: Google decides per query whether to show them, and anyone telling you schema will get you stars is selling you eligibility as though it were an outcome.
AI visibility is the effect that matters more each month. When a search is answered by a summary above the results, something has to decide which handful of pages are confident enough to cite. Structured data is how a page states plainly what it is, who published it, what it costs and what it answers — rather than leaving all of that to be inferred from prose.
How we audit, implement and validate structured data
Boring on purpose. The failure mode here is enthusiasm.
An audit first: what markup exists, whether it validates, whether it contradicts itself across pages, and whether it claims anything the page does not support. Generated markup from an abandoned plugin is the usual finding, and removing it is frequently more valuable than adding anything.
Then validation before it ships: Google’s Rich Results Test for eligibility and the Schema.org validator for correctness, which are not the same check. Markup that validates but describes the page inaccurately is worse than none — it is a claim rather than an omission.
Why we do not use LocalBusiness schema on our own site
A live example of the judgment, using the constraint we actually have.
We do not use it, on this site or anywhere. We are a remote team with no physical location in Iowa, so publishing a street address in structured data would be a claim we cannot support — and structured data is exactly where an unsupportable claim gets read as a deliberate one. We use Organization and Service with an areaServed, which is what we actually are.
If your business does have premises customers visit, you should absolutely use LocalBusiness and we will implement it for you. The point is not that the type is bad. It is that the right schema is the one that is true, and the temptation runs the other way.
What schema markup does not include, and cannot do
Shorter than the list of things it is sold as.
- Any guarantee of rich results — correct markup earns eligibility, Google decides the rest
- A ranking increase. Schema is not a ranking factor and we will not imply that it is
- Review or rating markup where the reviews are not real and on the page
- LocalBusiness markup for a business without premises customers can actually visit
- Google Business Profile work, which is a different thing that people often mean by this
- Fixing a page that is poorly written. Legible and worth reading are separate problems
Every site is built by Elisabeth Samuels and the Salterra team — a company building websites since 2011. Not a reseller, not an offshore queue. The same person who scopes your project writes the pages and hands over the logins.
Send us the address. We will run your pages through the validators and send back what is there, what is broken and what is missing — in plain language.
What schema markup costs in Des Moines
Mostly nothing, because it should not be sold separately.
Structured data is built into every site we build and is not a line item. Organization, WebPage, Service, Breadcrumb and FAQ markup ship with the build, validated, from $499. Charging separately for it would be charging you for part of doing the job properly.
On a site we did not build, an audit is free — you get what exists, what is broken and what is missing, in writing. Implementing it afterwards is quoted from that audit, because the honest number depends on how the site is put together and whether anything already emitting markup has to be untangled first.
What moves the number
- How many page types there are — one Service template covers twelve service pages, but a blog, a store and a directory are three separate implementations
- Whether existing markup has to be removed first — untangling a plugin and a theme both emitting the same entity is often the bulk of the work
- Whether the page content supports the markup — if a page has no visible price, it cannot honestly carry Offer markup, and the fix is a content fix
- Whether it goes into the theme or a plugin — theme-level is more robust and takes longer
Frequently asked questions about schema markup
What is schema markup and does my business need it?
A description of your page written for machines rather than people — what kind of thing the page is, who published it, what it costs, what it answers. Worth having if you want to be legible to search engines and citable by the AI summaries above them. It is not urgent the way a broken form is urgent, and it is cheap at build time and fiddly to retrofit.
What does schema markup cost?
On a site we build, nothing extra — it ships with the build from $499. On a site we did not build, the audit is free and implementation is quoted from what the audit finds, because the work depends heavily on whether anything already emitting markup has to be untangled first.
Will schema markup get me rich results?
It makes you eligible. It does not guarantee them, and nobody can. Google decides per query whether to show a rich result, and correct markup is the entry requirement rather than the outcome. Anyone promising you stars in the search results is selling eligibility as though it were a result.
Does schema markup help with AI Overviews?
It helps, and it is becoming the more important of the two effects. Something has to decide which pages are confident enough to cite, and structured data lets a page state plainly what it is and what it answers rather than leaving it to be inferred. It is not the only factor — a clear answer stated early matters at least as much.
Which schema types does my business need?
Organization, WebPage and BreadcrumbList as a base. Service for each thing you sell, FAQPage where you answer real questions, Article for posts, and Product only where there is a real product with a real price on the page. The right answer is the type that is true of the page — a shorter list than most plugins will emit.
Do you use LocalBusiness schema?
For clients with premises customers can visit, yes. On our own site, no — we are a remote team with no physical location in Iowa, so a street address in structured data would be a claim we cannot support. We use Organization and Service with an areaServed instead.
Tell us what you sell. Get your number.
Send us what your business does and roughly how many pages you think you need. You will get the number and a timeline in writing.
Takes about a minute. No call, no obligation.
We reply to everything within one business day.