Web Dev//SEO//Structured Data

- Machine-readable metadata embedded in HTML that describes the content's meaning — not just what it looks like, but what it *is*.

Machine-readable metadata embedded in HTML that describes the content's meaning — not just what it looks like, but what it is.

Primary format: JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) in a <script type="application/ld+json"> block. Preferred by Google over microdata or RDFa.

Vocabulary: schema.org — a shared vocabulary (Article, Person, Organization, BreadcrumbList, etc.) that search engines and AI systems understand.

What it enables: rich snippets in Google (star ratings, recipe cards, FAQ dropdowns), knowledge graph entries, and better AI understanding of page content.

For AEO: structured data tells AI crawlers the relationships between entities. A ProfilePage with Person schema lets an LLM know "this page describes a human, not a product."

Common schemas: Article (blog posts), ProfilePage + Person (about pages), WebSite (homepage), BreadcrumbList (navigation path), FAQPage, HowTo.