Schema markup – what it is and why it matters

Definition

Schema markup is code that describes what the content on a page actually is. It translates text into a machine-readable format so that search engines and AI systems do not have to guess.

What is schema markup?

Schema markup is standardised code that you add to a page to state exactly what the content is – that SEK 1,499 is a price, that 4.8 is a rating, that a piece of text is a frequently asked question. The code is built on a shared vocabulary (schema.org) that search engines and AI systems understand, and it is the most common way of adding structured data to a web page.

What sets schema markup apart from ordinary HTML is that it is explicit. A person understands context; a machine only reads what has been explicitly marked up – and schema markup removes the guesswork.

What schema markup actually does – an example

A person sees immediately that SEK 1,499 is a price and that 4.8 out of 5 is a rating. A machine cannot be sure of that. Schema markup labels each part explicitly, with two results: search engines can show more information directly in the search result – price, rating or breadcrumbs – and AI systems can interpret and relay the information correctly.

What schema markup looks like – a JSON-LD example

JSON-LD is the format Google recommends. It is added as a separate script block of type application/ld+json in the page's head section and does not affect the visible content. For an organisation, the markup itself can look like this:

{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "Organization",
 "name": "SEOS Design",
 "url": "https://www.seosdesign.se",
 "logo": "https://www.seosdesign.se/logo.png",
 "sameAs": ["https://www.linkedin.com/company/seos-design-ab/"]
}

Each line tells the search engine something concrete: what type of entity the page describes, what it is called, where it can be found and which profiles belong to the same organisation.

Common types of schema markup

Which type you use depends on what the page actually contains:

• Organization – company details, logo and channels. The foundation for search engines to understand you as an entity.
• Article / BlogPosting – for editorial content and blog posts.
• Product – price, stock status and ratings for e-commerce.
• LocalBusiness – address and opening hours, important for local SEO.
• FAQPage – questions and answers. Google removed the FAQ rich result in 2026; the markup is still valid and harmless to keep, but no longer produces an expandable box in the search results. The value lies in stating the questions and answers clearly in the text.

How to add schema markup

JSON-LD is placed in the page's head section as a separate block and is therefore platform-independent – but the platforms differ in how easy they make it to build a good, consistent schema structure.

In Webflow, you add the markup in a dedicated schema field under Page settings, and you can even have AI generate a draft directly there. You can add the schema per page (Page settings) or for the whole website (Site settings), depending on whether the markup is unique to the page or global – just be consistent in how and where you place it.

You can also bind dynamic CMS fields, so every blog post or product gets correct markup automatically.

Always test the markup before you publish – a syntax error makes the whole block unreadable, and if a required property is missing, the page cannot get a rich result. We explain how to validate it, and which formats exist besides JSON-LD, in our glossary entry on structured data.

Is schema markup a ranking factor?

No, not directly. According to Google Search Central, structured data does not in itself raise a page's position. But the effect is still real: schema makes a page eligible for rich results, which can raise the click-through rate, and it helps the search engine understand the content, which reduces the risk of misinterpretation. Worth knowing: a rich result is never guaranteed – Google decides when it is shown and has removed support for some types over time.

Schema markup, entities and AI answers

Today, schema makes the biggest difference to how well machines understand you. By explicitly linking your company, your people and your services, you help search engines and AI build an accurate picture of who you are – an entity, not just a collection of pages.

For AI answers, it is not decisive: Google writes that no special structured data is needed to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode (Google Search Central). It still helps machines read facts such as prices and contact details correctly. We cover how this affects visibility in Google's AI answers in AI Overviews and GEO.