Adding structured data without misleading markup

Structured data describes a page to machines in a standard vocabulary (schema.org). It is optional, but it can help search engines understand entities such as your organisation, articles and products.

Use JSON-LD, and describe what is visible

Google recommends JSON-LD placed in a script tag. The golden rule is that markup must reflect content that users can see on the same page. Marking up reviews, ratings, prices or authors that do not appear on the page is misleading and can lead to a manual action.

Which types are worth adding

• Organization and WebSite on the home page.
• BreadcrumbList where breadcrumbs are shown.
• Article on editorial content, with a real author and dates.
• Product and Offer on product pages. Only add ratings if you display genuine customer reviews.

Validate

Generate markup with our schema generators, check syntax with the JSON-LD Validator, then test eligibility in Google's Rich Results Test. A page can have valid markup and still not receive a rich result; Google decides.