GEO glossary

Structured data for AI search

Structured data for AI search is machine-readable code, usually schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, that states the facts on a page explicitly: what the page is about, who published it, prices, dates, authors and products. It helps search engines and AI systems interpret content without guessing.

Reviewed by Gareth Hoyle, Managing Director
Last reviewed 31 October 2026

Where does schema markup come from?

Bing, Google and Yahoo launched schema.org together in June 2011 as a shared vocabulary for describing content. Google defines structured data as a standardised format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. It accepts JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa, and recommends JSON-LD where a site's setup allows it.

Does structured data help with AI search?

It depends on the system. Google says no special schema.org structured data is needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, but that structured data should match the visible text on the page. Fabrice Canel of Microsoft Bing said on stage at SMX Munich that schema markup helps Microsoft's LLMs understand content.

The practical case is accuracy. Markup that states a product's price, a business's address or an article's publication date removes ambiguity for any system that reads it. It does not make thin content more likely to be cited.

Which types matter most?

Each type should describe content a visitor can see. Google's guidelines say not to mark up information that is not visible to the user, even if it is accurate. Markup added only by JavaScript may be missed by crawlers that do not run scripts, so server-rendered JSON-LD is the safer choice.

Organization, with sameAs links to official profiles
Article or BlogPosting, with author and dates
Product and Offer, with price and availability
LocalBusiness, with address and opening hours
Person, for authors and named experts

Example

A recipe page for a Victoria sponge can state 45 minutes and 8 servings in the text and repeat them as totalTime and recipeYield in Recipe markup. An assistant asked for a sponge recipe that serves eight then has an explicit value to match.