Meaning
Schema Markup is structured data vocabulary (JSON-LD format typically) added to web pages helping search engines understand content meaning and relationships.
Definition
Schema.org provides standardized vocabulary describing: articles, products, recipes, events, local businesses, people, organizations, reviews, FAQs, and hundreds of other content types.
Search engines use this structured data to display rich snippets: star ratings, pricing, availability, event dates, recipe cooking times, and enhanced search results.
WordPress schema implementation includes: using SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math automatically add basic schema), specialized schema plugins (Schema Pro, WP SEO Structured Data Schema), manual JSON-LD addition to templates, or themes with built-in schema markup.
Common schema types for WordPress: Article (blog posts), Product (WooCommerce), LocalBusiness (location-based businesses), Recipe (food blogs), and FAQ (question/answer content).
Proper schema markup improves: click-through rates (rich results are more attractive), search visibility (appearing in specialized search features), and content understanding (search engines comprehend context better).
Google’s Rich Results Test validates schema implementation.
Example
A recipe blog implements comprehensive schema markup for recipe posts. Each recipe includes Schema.org Recipe type with: name, image, author, datePublished, description, prepTime, cookTime, totalTime, recipeYield, recipeIngredient (list), recipeInstructions (step-by-step), nutrition (calories, protein, etc.), and aggregateRating (stars).
When users search “easy chocolate cake recipe” on Google, the blog’s results display: recipe image, star rating, cooking time, and calorie count directly in search results – dramatically increasing click-through rates compared to plain text snippets without schema markup.
