Structured data is HTML code (JSON-LD, microdata) that tells Google information about the content (article, event, recipe, product) for featured snippets and rich results.
Structured data = markup code (JSON-LD recommended) that labels content for search engines. Format: {"@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "...", "image": "...", ...}. Different types: Article, Product, Recipe, Event, LocalBusiness, Person. Google uses structured data to: (1) Extract featured snippets (recipe snippets with images, cook time); (2) Rich results (product price and reviews); (3) the Knowledge Graph; (4) voice search optimization. Without structured data, Google guesses the content. With structured data, it is clear.
Structured data = rich results. A recipe article without structured data = dense text. With structured data = a featured snippet with an image, cook time, rating. A featured snippet = +30% CTR. It is a free ranking boost.
Source: Google — Structured DataSchema.org is a collaborative standard for structured-data markup. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex support it. Used to encode web content in a structured format.
A featured snippet is the box that appears above Google's organic results — "Position 0" — showing a direct answer to a question, extracted from one of the indexed pages.
AI SEO = optimizing content to be cited by AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) and to appear in AI-generated answers. Different from traditional Google SEO.
Technical SEO covers the optimizations of your site's infrastructure — crawlability, indexing, loading speed, HTTPS and data structure — that let Google find and understand your pages.
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