Which structured data helps AI understand your business?
Which structured data should you use to be understood by AI?
Start by describing your business with Organization or LocalBusiness, linked to your official profiles with sameAs, then your pages with WebPage, Article, Service and BreadcrumbList. Use the JSON-LD format and only describe what is visible on the page. Google states that no special markup is needed for its AI features.
What does structured data do for AI?
Structured data is a machine-readable summary added to a page’s code: “this page describes business X, in Casablanca, which offers this service; here is its website, phone number and official profiles”. It uses the schema.org vocabulary, shared by Google, Bing and other engines.
For AI assistants, its main value is removing ambiguity: which business, which official name, which other spellings, which profiles belong to it. It is the foundation of the entity work described in the guide What is GEO?
What rules does Google set?
Google’s general guidelines come down to four points:
- JSON-LD is recommended, although Microdata and RDFa are still accepted.
- Only mark up what is visible: Google asks you not to mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page.
- Markup must be faithful: structured data must be “a true representation of the page content”.
- No guarantee: Google does not guarantee that structured data will show up, even when it is correct.
For its AI features, Google adds that structured data should match the visible text, and that no special schema.org markup is needed.
Which types should a business use?
| schema.org type | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Organization or LocalBusiness | Every page | Name, logo, contact details, address or area, founder |
sameAs | Inside Organization | Links the website to official profiles (LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, directories) |
WebSite and WebPage | Every page | Describe the site and the page, their language and dates |
Service | Service pages | What you offer, to whom, where |
Article | Guides and news | Title, author, publication and update dates |
BreadcrumbList | Deep pages | Places the page within the site |
FAQPage | Pages with a visible FAQ | Pairs each question with its answer |
Choose the most precise type: Dentist rather than LocalBusiness for a dental practice, for example. For a business without premises open to the public, Organization is enough.
Which mistakes should you avoid?
- Different information between the markup, the page text and your other profiles: exactly the confusion you want to avoid.
- Reviews or ratings that do not appear on the page: Google asks you to mark up only visible content.
- Markup copied from a template with empty fields or sample values.
- Disconnected pages: use stable identifiers (
@id) so the business described on each page is recognized as the same one.
Where should you start?
- Describe your business once, with a stable identifier, on every page.
- Add
sameAsto each official profile as you create them. - Mark up your service pages and guides.
- Test with Google’s Rich Results Test and the schema.org validator.
Frequently asked questions
Does structured data guarantee being cited by AI?
No. It helps machines understand who you are and what each page says, but Google states that correct markup does not guarantee any particular display. The page's content and reputation remain decisive.
Do you need special markup for ChatGPT or Gemini?
No. There is no vocabulary specific to AI assistants: you use schema.org, as for Google. Google states that no special schema.org structured data is needed for AI Overviews and AI Mode.
How do you check your structured data?
With Google's Rich Results Test and the schema.org validator. Also check that every piece of information in the markup appears in the visible text of the page.