Structured data is coded in a specific format, written in such a way that search engines understand it.
You may add in your websites, structure data for the following content:
Reviews – both individual and aggregate reviews are supported, with different properties used for each.
People – you may have noticed Google and Bing now showing richer information from LinkedIn when you search for certain (well-known) people. Similar results are possible for any website that includes profiles of staff, team members and other people relevant to the organization. Supported properties include name, title, role, professional affiliations and contact details.
Products – one of the single most important uses of structured data markup is with products and special offers of merchants, particular online stores. Properties available include name, image, brand, description, identifiers (ISBN, SKU, etc.) and even reviews, all extendable with price, currency, seller and condition and quantity. Online marketplaces who offer the same product from multiple merchants can use low Price and high Price to show the price range for a single item.
Businesses & Organizations – properties available include business name, address (physical and URL), telephone number, geolocation (latitude and longitude) and logo.
Recipes – structured data markup for recipes offer a multitude of properties, allowing operators of websites related to cooking and recipe collections to include everything from the type of dish, reviews, and preparation and cooking time, through to nutritional information such as serving size, calories, fat content and more.
Events – the usage of structured data markup with events is intended only for future occurring events, not past events. It is worth noting here that the property summary is not intended for a summary of the event, but for the event’s official name. Other properties include start and end date, duration, ticket details and geolocation.
Music – Bing makes no mention of any support for music, but Google does make provision for structured data markup relating to songs and music albums. This can include links to previews of songs, and direct links to buying individual tracks or full albums.
Video Content – this applies to embedded video content on your website and can be used to indicate duration, license, production company and/or the creator of the video, and even if the content if family friendly.
Structured data is also known by several other terms, depending on the context or specific application. Here are some commonly used alternatives:
Schema Markup: Refers specifically to structured data implemented using schemas like schema.org to enhance search engine understanding.
Rich Snippets: Refers to the enhanced search results generated by structured data, such as reviews, ratings, or FAQs, that stand out on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Rich Data Markup: Highlights the role of structured data in enabling rich search results like snippets, carousels, or knowledge panels.
Microdata: Refers to a specific HTML specification used to nest metadata within existing content on web pages.
Structured Markup: A generic term for marking up content in a structured way for search engines and other applications.
RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes): A specification for embedding rich metadata into web documents using attributes.
JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data): A format for structured data that is lightweight and easy to implement.
Knowledge Graph Data: Used when structured data contributes to building a knowledge graph for better semantic understanding.
Metadata Tags: A more generic term referring to embedded information describing the content of a web page or resource.
