JSON-LD

JSON-LD (JSON for Linking Data) is the format Google, Bing, and most modern search engines recommend for structured data. You embed a JSON object inside a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag in your HTML head, describing the page using the schema.org vocabulary.

A minimal example

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "How long should a meta description be?",
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Doe" },
  "datePublished": "2026-05-08"
}
</script>

The @context declares the vocabulary; @type declares what kind of thing the page is.

Why it matters

Three real benefits in 2026:

1. Eligibility for rich results: Article, Product, Recipe, Event, and a shrinking list of others can earn enhanced SERP treatment.
2. AI Overview and voice citations: AI search engines preferentially cite pages with clear structured data — the schema gives them confidence about what the page is.
3. Knowledge panel inputs: Organization and Person schemas feed Google's knowledge graph.

What still gets rich results in 2026

• Product (price, availability, rating)
• Recipe (cards with cook time, calories)
• Course (price, provider, rating)
• Event (date, venue, ticket link)
• BreadcrumbList (path under the URL)
• LocalBusiness (knowledge panel signals)
• FAQPage — limited rich result since Aug 2023, but still valuable for AI citations (see our FAQ schema deep dive)

What no longer gets rich results

• HowTo — deprecated September 2023

JSON-LD is not the only structured data format (microdata and RDFa also exist), but it's the only one Google explicitly recommends.