Structured data
In short
Structured data is machine-readable information in a page's source code that tells search engines what the page contains: a business with an address, an article with an author, a product with a price. The common vocabulary for it is schema.org, and the format Google recommends is JSON-LD. It does not make a page better, but less ambiguous – and it is a prerequisite for some enhanced displays in search results.
The common mistake: schema brings rankings
Google says it plainly: structured data is not a general ranking factor. It helps a page to be classified correctly and unlocks certain displays – nothing more.
For AI search the lever is not proven either. An Ahrefs measurement of 1,885 pages against a control group found no positive effect of schema on citations in AI Overviews, AI Mode or ChatGPT in May 2026.
What changed in 2026
Some well-known displays no longer exist. Google switched off the FAQ rich result in May 2026; FAQ markup has since been valid JSON-LD with no visible effect in search results.
And since August 2026 Google no longer resolves double-encoded special characters in JSON-LD. An ampersand then shows up as garbled characters in the search result – with no warning in Search Console.
For a Swiss company
The most important type for a local business is the company record: name, address, phone number and opening hours, marked up as LocalBusiness and identical to the Google Business Profile. Inconsistent spellings – «Bülach» here, «Buelach» there, once with +41 and once without – turn one company into two for a machine.
One limit applies without exception: Google does not show star ratings from the schema of your own company. If you control your own reviews, you are not eligible for the stars.
How we handle it
We mark up what is visible on the page and nothing beyond it – Google prohibits markup for content visitors cannot see. Every page of this website carries a connected graph of organisation, location and people that is checked automatically with every change.
It is part of the technical side of SEO and is built into every new website, together with a clean sitemap.
Related terms
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