What is structured data?
SEO Definition and Examples

Structured data is HTML code (JSON-LD, microdata) that tells Google about the content type (article, event, product) for featured snippets and rich results.

Author:Iordache Alexandru·Updated 2026-06-13

Full Definition: What is structured data

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.

Why Does Structured Data Matter for SEO?

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 Data

How RankRO SEO Helps You with Structured Data

Every RankRO SEO article has complete JSON-LD: Article type, author, date, image. Set up for featured snippet optimization.

Why AI optimization (GEO) matters

~48%

of Google searches already show an AI Overview.

BrightEdge, 2025

+37%

higher chance of being cited by AI engines when you add sourced statistics.

Princeton GEO study, SIGKDD 2024

+115%

visibility lift in AI answers for lower-ranked pages that cite sources.

Princeton GEO study, 2024

Frequently Asked Questions about Structured Data

Related Terms

Schema.org

Advanced

Schema.org is a collaborative standard for structured-data markup, backed by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex to encode web content.

Definition

Featured Snippet

Intermediate

A featured snippet is the box above Google's organic results — "Position 0" — showing a direct answer to a question, extracted from an indexed page.

Definition

AI SEO

Advanced

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.

Definition

Technical SEO

Advanced

Technical SEO covers your site's infrastructure — crawlability, indexing, loading speed, HTTPS and data structure — that lets Google find and understand pages.

Definition