What types of schema markup should I use for my business?

Implementing schema markup tailored to your business improves SEO by helping search engines better interpret and display your content, resulting in higher visibility and engagement. From enhancing local SEO for brick-and-mortar stores to showcasing product reviews and recipes, using the appropriate schema types can lead to richer search snippets and increased traffic.

Written by RithvikLast update 3 months ago

Implementing the right types of schema markup can significantly enhance your website's SEO, helping search engines interpret and display your content more effectively.

Here are some essential schema types to consider for your business:

Article schema
Breadcrumb schema
Product Review Schema
Product merchant schema
Local Business Schema
Organization Schema
Video Schema
FAQ Schema

The Webrex SEO Schema Suite covers all the schema types mentioned above.

Implementing structured data through schema markup enhances how search engines interpret and display your website's content.

Here's a comprehensive overview of various schema types:

1. Article Schema

The Article schema is designed for news articles, blog posts, and similar content. It helps search engines understand the article's details, such as the headline, author, publication date, and images. Proper implementation can lead to rich snippets in search results, displaying additional information like the author's name and publication date, thereby increasing click-through rates.

Usage:

Helps news publishers, bloggers, and content creators improve visibility in Google News and other specialized search features.
Adds credibility by displaying article information directly in search results.

Example Elements:

headline, image, author, datePublished, publisher

Impact:

Articles with schema markup are more likely to appear in "Top Stories" and similar rich results, leading to higher click-through rates.

2. Breadcrumb Schema

The BreadcrumbList schema represents the breadcrumb navigation on a website, showing the page's position within the site's hierarchy. This schema aids search engines in understanding the site's structure and can result in breadcrumb trails appearing in search results, enhancing user navigation and experience.

Usage:

Ideal for large websites with a complex structure (e.g., eCommerce sites) to create a logical flow for users.
Helps search engines understand the site hierarchy, making it easier to index pages.

Example Elements:

itemListElement, position, name, item

Impact:

Breadcrumb schema can improve user experience and may lead to breadcrumb-style navigation in search results, helping users understand the site structure and increasing the likelihood of engagement.

3. Product Review Schema

The Review schema is used to mark up individual product reviews, providing details like the reviewer's name, review date, and rating. When combined with the Product schema, it enables search engines to display rich snippets featuring star ratings and review summaries, which can boost user trust and engagement.

Usage:

Used by eCommerce sites, review sites, or blogs that feature product ratings.
Provides structured data that includes ratings, reviewer names, and review dates.

Example Elements:

reviewRating, author, reviewBody, datePublished

Impact:

Pages marked with product review schema can display star ratings directly in search results, making them more attractive to users and potentially increasing click-through rates.

4. Product Merchant Schema

The Product schema allows merchants to provide detailed information about products, including name, description, brand, price, and availability. This schema helps search engines present product details directly in search results, potentially increasing visibility and driving more traffic to product pages.

Usage:

Especially beneficial for retailers to display product prices, stock status, and seller information.
Applies to product pages to provide search engines with product-specific details.

Example Elements:

offers, price, priceCurrency, availability, brand

Impact:

Product merchant schema allows product details to appear in Google Shopping and other eCommerce-rich results, making products more visible to potential buyers directly in search results.

5. Local Business Schema

The LocalBusiness schema provides structured data about a physical business location, such as name, address, phone number, opening hours, and geo-coordinates. Implementing this schema enhances local SEO by improving the business's chances of appearing in local search results and on platforms like Google Maps.

Usage:

Used by brick-and-mortar businesses, franchises, and service providers to improve local search visibility.
Helps with accurate information display in Google Maps, local search results, and voice searches.

Example Elements:

name, address, telephone, openingHours, geo

Impact:

Local business schema enhances a business’s presence in local search, often leading to better positioning in "near me" searches and increasing foot traffic to physical locations.

6. Organization Schema

The Organization schema offers structured information about an organization, including its name, logo, contact details, and social media profiles. This schema helps search engines display consistent and accurate information about the organization in search results, contributing to brand credibility and recognition.

Usage:

Used by businesses, institutions, non-profits, and other organizations to standardize important information.
Essential for branding, as it allows a company's information to appear in Google’s Knowledge Panel and other trust-building rich snippets.

Example Elements:

name, logo, contactPoint, sameAs (for social media profiles)

Impact:

Organization schema builds brand credibility by displaying consistent information across Google’s results, leading to improved brand recognition and trust.

7. Video Schema

The VideoObject schema is used to provide metadata about video content, such as title, description, thumbnail URL, upload date, and duration. Proper implementation can lead to video-rich snippets in search results, featuring video thumbnails and details, which can enhance visibility and encourage user engagement.

Usage:

Used by video hosting sites, content creators, and blogs with video content to make video listings more engaging.
Helps search engines understand video content, enabling video indexing in Google’s Video Search.

Example Elements:

name, description, thumbnailUrl, uploadDate, duration

Impact:

With video schema, videos can appear in Google’s video carousel and with thumbnails, improving visibility and potentially increasing video views and engagement.

8. FAQ Schema

The FAQPage schema is designed for pages containing a list of questions and answers on a particular topic. Implementing this schema allows search engines to display the FAQs directly in search results, providing users with quick answers and potentially increasing the page's visibility and click-through rate.

By utilizing these schemas appropriately, you can improve how search engines interpret your content, leading to enhanced search result appearances and a better user experience.

Usage:

Used by informational sites, service providers, and product pages that have FAQs.
Helps in voice search optimization, as FAQ content is often relevant for voice search queries.

Example Elements:

mainEntity (contains Question and Answer pairs)

Impact:

FAQ schema can lead to FAQ-rich snippets in search results, increasing page real estate and improving the likelihood of engagement by addressing users’ questions directly in search results.

The unique cases

In some cases, you might be a specialized business such as a restaurant, recipe seller, course seller, job board movie distributor, software app seller, vacation rental company or a vehicle listing company. And in those special cases, these are the schemas you will have to add:

1. Restaurant Schema

Purpose:

The Restaurant schema is designed to structure data about restaurants, making it easier for search engines to showcase key details like menus, opening hours, reviews, and location in search results.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "Restaurant",

  "name": "Gourmet Delight",

  "image": "https://example.com/restaurant.jpg",

  "address": {

    "@type": "PostalAddress",

    "streetAddress": "123 Main Street",

    "addressLocality": "Springfield",

    "addressRegion": "IL",

    "postalCode": "62701",

    "addressCountry": "US"

  },

  "telephone": "+1-555-555-5555",

  "servesCuisine": "Italian",

  "menu": "https://example.com/menu",

  "openingHours": "Mo-Su 11:00-23:00"

}

Benefit:

This schema helps improve visibility in local search results, especially when users look for nearby restaurants.

2. Recipe Schema (Recipe Seller)

Purpose:

The Recipe schema is used by sites that share or sell recipes. It provides structured details like ingredients, cooking instructions, nutrition information, and reviews.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "Recipe",

  "name": "Classic Lasagna",

  "image": "https://example.com/lasagna.jpg",

  "author": {

    "@type": "Person",

    "name": "Chef Mario"

  },

  "datePublished": "2023-01-20",

  "description": "A traditional Italian lasagna with layers of homemade pasta, cheese, and meat sauce.",

  "recipeIngredient": [

    "1 lb ground beef",

    "2 cups marinara sauce",

    "1 cup ricotta cheese"

  ],

  "recipeInstructions": [

    "Brown the ground beef in a skillet.",

    "Spread a thin layer of sauce in the baking dish."

  ],

  "nutrition": {

    "@type": "NutritionInformation",

    "calories": "500 calories"

  }

}

Benefit:

Adding recipe schema helps recipe sellers or blogs get featured in search with detailed recipe previews, often showing images, cooking times, and ratings.

3. Course Schema (Course Seller)
Purpose:

The Course schema is ideal for educational content providers, such as online course sellers. This schema highlights course details, such as name, provider, description, and start date.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "Course",

  "name": "Introduction to Digital Marketing",

  "description": "Learn the fundamentals of digital marketing in this comprehensive course.",

  "provider": {

    "@type": "Organization",

    "name": "Marketing Academy",

    "sameAs": "https://example.com/marketing-academy"

  }

}

Benefit:

Courses with structured schema can appear in Google’s “Courses” carousel, which can drive more attention to educational content and increase enrolments.

4. Job Posting Schema (Job Board)

Purpose:

JobPosting schema is used by job boards or companies listing open positions. It includes job title, job location, salary, employment type, and company information.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "JobPosting",

  "title": "Software Engineer",

  "description": "We are looking for a skilled software engineer to join our team.",

  "datePosted": "2023-11-01",

  "employmentType": "FULL_TIME",

  "hiringOrganization": {

    "@type": "Organization",

    "name": "Tech Innovations",

    "sameAs": "https://example.com/tech-innovations"

  },

  "jobLocation": {

    "@type": "Place",

    "address": {

      "@type": "PostalAddress",

      "streetAddress": "500 Tech Street",

      "addressLocality": "San Francisco",

      "addressRegion": "CA",

      "postalCode": "94102",

      "addressCountry": "US"

    }

  },

  "baseSalary": {

    "@type": "MonetaryAmount",

    "currency": "USD",

    "value": "70000"

  }

}

Benefit:

Job schema makes listings eligible for job search features in Google, such as “Google for Jobs,” improving visibility to job seekers.

5. Movie Schema (Movie Distributor)

Purpose:

The Movie schema is for movie information, including details about the director, actors, genre, and release date. It's beneficial for movie distributors to provide this information to search engines.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "Movie",

  "name": "Inception",

  "director": {

    "@type": "Person",

    "name": "Christopher Nolan"

  },

  "actor": [

    {

      "@type": "Person",

      "name": "Leonardo DiCaprio"

    },

    {

      "@type": "Person",

      "name": "Joseph Gordon-Levitt"

    }

  ],

  "genre": "Science Fiction",

  "datePublished": "2010-07-16"

}

Benefit:

Movie schema allows search engines to display rich information about the movie, such as genre and release date, and makes the movie eligible for rich snippets, which can increase engagement.

6. Software Application Schema (Software App Seller)

Purpose:

The SoftwareApplication schema provides structured data about software products, including operating systems, features, and pricing. It’s beneficial for app stores or software vendors to highlight app-specific details.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "SoftwareApplication",

  "name": "Photo Editor Pro",

  "operatingSystem": "Android",

  "applicationCategory": "Photo Editing",

  "aggregateRating": {

    "@type": "AggregateRating",

    "ratingValue": "4.5",

    "reviewCount": "1500"

  },

  "offers": {

    "@type": "Offer",

    "price": "9.99",

    "priceCurrency": "USD"

  }

}

Benefit:

Software app schema enables search engines to show app details like ratings, supported platforms, and pricing in search results, which can increase click-through rates from potential users.

7. Lodging Business Schema (Vacation Rental Company)

Purpose:

The LodgingBusiness schema is ideal for vacation rental companies, allowing them to structure data for properties, including amenities, check-in policies, and pricing.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "LodgingBusiness",

  "name": "Seaside Villa",

  "description": "A beachfront villa with private access to the beach and stunning ocean views.",

  "address": {

    "@type": "PostalAddress",

    "streetAddress": "789 Beach Road",

    "addressLocality": "Malibu",

    "addressRegion": "CA",

    "postalCode": "90265",

    "addressCountry": "US"

  },

  "amenityFeature": [

    {

      "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification",

      "name": "WiFi",

      "value": "True"

    },

    {

      "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification",

      "name": "Pool",

      "value": "True"

    }

  ],

  "checkinTime": "15:00",

  "checkoutTime": "11:00"

}

Benefit:

This schema helps display vacation rental details in search results, making listings more attractive and accessible to potential customers.

8. Vehicle Listing Schema (Vehicle Seller)

Purpose:

The Vehicle schema is used by companies listing vehicles for sale. It includes structured data like make, model, price, mileage, and condition.

Example:

{

  "@context": "https://schema.org",

  "@type": "Vehicle",

  "name": "Toyota Camry",

  "model": "Camry",

  "manufacturer": "Toyota",

  "fuelType": "Gasoline",

  "mileageFromOdometer": "30000",

  "price": "18000",

  "priceCurrency": "USD",

  "vehicleCondition": "Used"

}

Benefit:

Vehicle schema allows vehicle listings to appear with specific details in search results, increasing visibility and attracting more interested buyers to the listings.

Summary

Each schema provides structured data tailored to specific industries, making it easier for search engines to interpret and present relevant information in search results. Implementing these schemas correctly enhances visibility, attracts relevant audiences, and often leads to higher engagement and conversions.

Did this answer your question?

What types of schema markup should I use for my business?

Here are some essential schema types to consider for your business:

1. Article Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

2. Breadcrumb Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

3. Product Review Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

4. Product Merchant Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

5. Local Business Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

6. Organization Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

7. Video Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

8. FAQ Schema

Usage:

Example Elements:

Impact:

The unique cases

1. Restaurant Schema

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

2. Recipe Schema (Recipe Seller)

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

3. Course Schema (Course Seller)Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

4. Job Posting Schema (Job Board)

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

5. Movie Schema (Movie Distributor)

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

6. Software Application Schema (Software App Seller)

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

7. Lodging Business Schema (Vacation Rental Company)

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

8. Vehicle Listing Schema (Vehicle Seller)

Purpose:

Example:

Benefit:

Summary

3. Course Schema (Course Seller)
Purpose: