Glossary
Schema markup
Schema markup is structured data added to a page that tells search engines what things on it actually are — a business, a price, a review, an article.
It is written as JSON-LD in the page source and is invisible to visitors. It does not change rankings directly; it changes how confidently a search engine can interpret the page, and it powers rich results.
Why it matters to you
It is also the most direct lever for AI answers, which lean heavily on clearly-marked facts. Of 300 local sites we measured, 41% had none at all.
An example
A business marking up its opening hours can have them shown directly in a result. Without it, the search engine has to guess from a paragraph, and often does not bother.
Where this comes up: search engine optimisation .