What is structured data and why it is important for your website’s SEO

They are called “structured” because they organize the information on the page according to a definite scheme. Schema.org is the vocabulary that represents the widespread and consolidated standard for building and reading structured data.

Unlike simple textual elements visible on the page to all users (titles, paragraphs, links…), structured data communicates clearly and unambiguously to engines such as Google or even ChatGPT what a piece of content represents: a product, an article, a recipe, and so on. The vocabulary of structured data is extensive and includes a vast array of different page types.

• Microdata: embeds structured data directly into the HTML code, allowing more granular control over the information. However, it is less flexible and more complex to manage over time.
  
  
• JSON‑LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data): today Google’s recommended standard, it’s easier to maintain and modify because it places the structured data within a separate “block” from the rest of the page’s code.

One of the main reasons structured data is so important is its ability to generate rich results (or rich snippets). Rich results are those search results that appear in the SERP with extra graphic or informational elements: review stars, product images, event dates and times, prices, and so on.

Compared to a standard result, rich results therefore offer more information directly in the search results page and catch the user’s eye, making them more likely to click, translating into a higher CTR. A site with well‑implemented structured data can thus receive more clicks compared with competitors with similar positioning but without rich snippets.

Which structured data matters most depending on your website type

Not all websites have the same priorities: each type of editorial or commercial project has its own key structured data for increasing organic visibility. Let’s look at some examples of the most common site types.

E‑commerce sites: structured data as a support to sales

For an e‑commerce site, structured data is essential for showcasing products and boosting conversions:

• Product: allows numerous details such as description, price, availability, images, colour, material, and product type.
  
  
• Offer: communicates data such as offer conditions, validity dates and price variants, if any.
  
  
• Review and AggregateRating: communicates user ratings and the overall score, an element that encourages clicks and builds user trust.

You’ve surely seen, on Google’s results page, results “enriched” with rating stars, prices, or availability information: all these details can appear in the SERP if product structured data is compiled correctly.

Another opportunity offered by the Product structured data is appearance in Google’s “Products” tab: this way, items will be visible to users interested in purchasing even in this shopping‑dedicated section.

Editorial sites: communicating the relevance of our journalistic content

For an editorial site, structured data plays an equally strategic role, as it highlights the reliability and authority of both the articles and the publication:

• NewsArticle: signals to Google that the content is a news article, helping it appear in the Top Stories carousel at the top of Google’s results page.
  
  
• LiveBlogPosting: ideal for live coverage of sporting events, elections, or constantly evolving breaking news, it’s important for signaling to Google and users that the content is updated in real time and therefore potentially more reliable.
  
  
• Paywall and subscriptions: if content is accessible only by subscription and a paywall is present, Google recommends specifying this via markup.

Local businesses: structured data to be found in your area

For shops, restaurants, professional practices, and generally all businesses with a physical location, the most important structured data is LocalBusiness, which lets Google and AI engines clearly understand where the business is located and which services it offers. It can be enriched, for example, with:

• PostalAddress to specify the full address and geo for the exact coordinates;
  
  
• OpeningHoursSpecification to indicate opening days and times;
  
  
• Telephone to communicate the business’s phone contact accurately.

Structured data and AI: the new SEO frontier

Structured data has already been strategic for traditional organic visibility, but today it becomes even more so with the arrival of engines based on large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini, which will become increasingly central to users search habits.

Simplifying a rather technical and complex issue, we can say that AI engines do not understand web content in the same way as traditional search engines. They need even clearer sources with well‑defined content, which therefore appear more reliable in their eyes.

This is why precise and complete structured data becomes a competitive advantage:

• LLMs can extract information more accurately from a page with complete structured data, increasing the probability that the content will be used and cited in responses;
  
  
• In the retail sector, tools like ChatGPT Shopping or AI‑based evolutions of Google Shopping rely heavily on structured product data to provide results consistent with user queries.

The creation of structured data is a strategic choice

Implementing structured data undoubtedly requires a joint effort between SEO and development teams: it implies choosing the correct markups, integrating them into pages, and updating them promptly.

However, a site with clear and complete markup is also a more reliable site for search engines, potentially more visible in search results and more competitive in terms of visits and sales.

Every carefully completed field, even optional ones, is an extra signal that can make the difference between an invisible site and a brand that stands out in the new SERPs.

For further reading:

1. Google’s official guidelines on structured data: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data?hl=en
2. Structured data benefits explained in a Google case study: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-case-study-shows-importance-of-structured-data/518561/