Introduction to Structured Data

Structured data helps search engines understand your content beyond just the text on the page. By adding JSON-LD markup, you can enable rich results (also called rich snippets) that make your pages stand out in search results.

What is Structured Data?

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. It uses vocabulary from Schema.org, a collaborative project supported by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex.

Why Use Structured Data?

Rich Results in Search

With structured data, your search results can include:

• Star ratings for products and reviews
• Recipe cards with cooking time and calories
• Event listings with dates and ticket info
• FAQ accordions that expand in search results
• Breadcrumb navigation showing site hierarchy
• Course information with provider and rating

Better Understanding

Structured data helps search engines:

• Understand the type of content (article, product, course)
• Extract key information (author, date, price)
• Connect related entities (author → organization)
• Display enhanced search features

Structured Data Formats

There are three formats for structured data:

JSON-LD (Recommended)

JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data. Google's recommended format.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "SEO Best Practices"
}
</script>

Microdata

Inline HTML attributes:

<article itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Article">
  <h1 itemprop="headline">SEO Best Practices</h1>
</article>

RDFa

Another inline format:

<article vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="Article">
  <h1 property="headline">SEO Best Practices</h1>
</article>

We'll focus on JSON-LD as it's:

• Recommended by Google
• Easier to implement in React/Next.js
• Doesn't mix with HTML structure
• Easier to maintain

Schema.org Vocabulary

Schema.org defines hundreds of types. Common ones include:

Type	Use Case
Article	Blog posts, news articles
Product	E-commerce products
Course	Educational content
Organization	Company information
Person	Author profiles
FAQPage	FAQ sections
BreadcrumbList	Navigation breadcrumbs
WebSite	Site-wide information

How Google Uses Structured Data

1. Crawls your page - Finds the JSON-LD script
2. Parses the data - Extracts structured information
3. Validates - Checks against schema requirements
4. Enhances results - Shows rich snippets if eligible

Rich Result Eligibility

Not all structured data results in rich results. Google decides based on:

• Content quality
• Schema accuracy
• Site trustworthiness
• Search query relevance

Basic JSON-LD Structure

Every JSON-LD block needs:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",  // Required: defines vocabulary
  "@type": "Article",                 // Required: type of content
  "headline": "Title Here"            // Properties specific to type
}

Summary

In this lesson, you learned:

• What structured data is and why it matters
• Different formats (JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa)
• Schema.org vocabulary overview
• How Google processes structured data
• Basic JSON-LD structure

In the next lesson, we'll implement JSON-LD in Next.js pages.