Crawlsonar
SEO & structured data2 min readUpdated 2026-07-09

How to add structured data (JSON-LD)

Structured data helps search engines and AI systems understand your pages. Here's how to add valid JSON-LD that matches your visible content and earns rich results.

Structured data is a machine-readable description of your page's meaning — who you are, what an article is about, a product's price, a recipe's steps. Search engines use it for rich results (star ratings, FAQs, breadcrumbs) and AI systems use it to understand your entities. The recommended format is JSON-LD in a script tag.

Use JSON-LD#

Of the three formats (JSON-LD, Microdata, RDFa), use JSON-LD — it lives in one script tag and doesn't tangle with your markup. Place it in the <head> or <body>:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Acme Widgets",
  "url": "https://acme.com",
  "logo": "https://acme.com/logo.png",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/acme",
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme"
  ]
}
</script>

The types worth adding#

  • Organization / WebSite — site-wide identity and sitelinks search box. Add the sameAs links to strengthen your entity for AI.
  • Article / BlogPosting — for content pages: headline, author, dates, image.
  • BreadcrumbList — shows the breadcrumb path in results.
  • FAQPage — mark up Q&A to be eligible for FAQ rich results and easy AI extraction.
  • Product / LocalBusiness — price, availability, ratings, address, hours.

The golden rule#

Watch out: Structured data must describe content the visitor can actually see on the page. Marking up prices, ratings or FAQs that aren't visible is a guidelines violation and can earn a manual penalty.
  • Keep JSON-LD in sync with the visible page — same title, same price, same answers.
  • Server-render it so crawlers and AI fetchers see it in the initial HTML.
  • Use one @type per real thing; combine with @graph if a page has several.

Validate it#

Invalid JSON-LD is silently ignored. Extract and validate a page's markup with the Structured Data Checker, and build valid records with the JSON-LD Generator. Google's Rich Results Test confirms eligibility for specific rich results.

Frequently asked questions

▸ Does structured data improve rankings?

Not directly as a ranking factor, but it can earn rich results (FAQs, ratings, breadcrumbs) that raise click-through, and it clarifies your entities for search and AI — which supports discovery. It's high-leverage for little effort.

▸ JSON-LD vs Microdata vs RDFa — which should I use?

JSON-LD. Google recommends it, it's the cleanest to maintain (one script block, separate from your HTML), and it's the easiest for AI systems to parse.

▸ Where should the JSON-LD script go?

Either the head or the body works. What matters is that it's in the server-rendered HTML and accurately describes visible content.

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Published 2026-07-09 · Updated 2026-07-09 · By Crawlsonar.