Does structured data improve my ranking?

Not directly. Google states that most schema types are not ranking signals. The gain is indirect but real: eligibility for rich results, clearer entity understanding, and a much better chance of being cited by AI answer engines — all of which move clicks.

Which types should a small business site have?

Organization (or LocalBusiness if you have a physical location) on the homepage, BreadcrumbList on inner pages, and FAQPage where you genuinely answer questions. That covers most of the available value for a typical service site.

Is FAQ schema still shown in Google results?

Rarely. In 2023 Google restricted FAQ rich results to well-known government and health sites, so most sites no longer get the visual expansion. The markup is still worth adding — answer engines and Bing continue to use it — but do not add it expecting the old SERP real estate.

The checker found nothing but I use a schema plugin. Why?

Either the plugin injects the markup with JavaScript (we read the served HTML, as most crawlers do on first fetch), or it is only enabled on certain templates. Check the homepage HTML source directly for `application/ld+json`.

Structured data checker

Structured data is a machine-readable description of what a page is about, embedded as JSON-LD. It is how a search engine knows a number on the page is a price rather than a phone number. Enter a domain and we'll list every schema type actually present in the served HTML.

43%publish no structured data at all

Across 959 websites analyzed

Measured across every site in our public database.

Why this matters

It is the difference between being read and being understood

Without structured data a crawler sees a wall of text and guesses. With it, the page states plainly: this is a product, this is its price, this is the review count, this is who published it. That does not raise your ranking directly — Google is explicit that most schema types are not ranking factors — but it is what qualifies a page for rich results, and a result with stars and a price takes clicks from the plain links above it.

It is disproportionately important for AI answers

Answer engines have to decide, fast, whether a page is a trustworthy source for a specific claim. Explicit Organization, author and date markup gives them an unambiguous answer where prose requires inference. This is the cheapest structural change you can make to be citable — and it is missing on most sites, which is precisely why it is still an advantage.

How to fix it

1. Start with Organization on the homepage
One JSON-LD block with `name`, `url`, `logo`, `sameAs` (your social and business-directory profiles) and contact details. This is the entity record for your brand — it is what lets a search engine connect your site, your business listings and your name into one thing. Ten minutes of work, applies site-wide.
2. Add the type that matches the page, not every type
Product pages get Product with an `offers` block. Articles get Article with `author` and `datePublished`. A physical business gets LocalBusiness with address and opening hours. Adding types that don't describe the page is a spam signal, not a bonus.
3. Only mark up what is visible on the page
This is the rule that gets sites penalised. Structured data must describe content the visitor can actually see — marking up reviews that aren't shown, or a price that isn't on the page, is a manual-action risk. If you want the rich result, put the content on the page first.
4. Use JSON-LD, and validate it
Google recommends JSON-LD over microdata or RDFa — it sits in one `<script type="application/ld+json">` block and doesn't entangle your markup. Validate with Google's Rich Results Test and schema.org's validator: the first tells you if you qualify for a rich result, the second tells you if the syntax is actually correct.

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Frequently asked questions

Does structured data improve my ranking?: Not directly. Google states that most schema types are not ranking signals. The gain is indirect but real: eligibility for rich results, clearer entity understanding, and a much better chance of being cited by AI answer engines — all of which move clicks.
Which types should a small business site have?: Organization (or LocalBusiness if you have a physical location) on the homepage, BreadcrumbList on inner pages, and FAQPage where you genuinely answer questions. That covers most of the available value for a typical service site.
Is FAQ schema still shown in Google results?: Rarely. In 2023 Google restricted FAQ rich results to well-known government and health sites, so most sites no longer get the visual expansion. The markup is still worth adding — answer engines and Bing continue to use it — but do not add it expecting the old SERP real estate.
The checker found nothing but I use a schema plugin. Why?: Either the plugin injects the markup with JavaScript (we read the served HTML, as most crawlers do on first fetch), or it is only enabled on certain templates. Check the homepage HTML source directly for `application/ld+json`.