November 11, 2025

Structured data

Auteur:

Daan Coenen

What is structured data?

Structured data is a way to add meaning and context to the content of your website so that search engines understand what they're reading. It tells Google not only that there is text on a page, but also what that text means, such as that a number is a price, review score, or opening time.

For search engines, that makes a world of difference. By adding structured data, you help Google interpret the content of your website. The result: more relevant search results, a better user experience and the chance of eye-catching extras such as stars, FAQs, or product information in search results.

Why is structured data important?

Search engines process millions of pages every second, and without additional context, they don't always know what the most important elements are. Structured data is the tool that provides that context.

For SEO, that means two things:

Your pages are better understood.
You get the chance to get rich results, search results with visual elements such as stars, prices, or breadcrumbs.

So it's not a trick, but a layer of communication between your site and Google. The better your data is structured, the stronger your position in relevant queries.

The basics: Schema.org

In 2011, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex started together Schema.org, an open standard for structured data.
It describes exactly how to mark entities, properties, and relationships so that every search engine understands them in the same way.

Some commonly used schema types:

Organization — name, logo, contact details
Local Business — address, opening hours, service area
Product — price, stock, reviews
Article — title, author, date of publication

This structure does not turn your website into a collection of single words, but a clear network of meaningful data.

Structured data formats

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Formaat</th>
      <th>Beschrijving</th>
      <th>Advies</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>JSON-LD</td>
      <td>Losse script-tag in de <head> van je website. Modern, flexibel en aanbevolen door Google.</td>
      <td>Aanbevolen</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>RDFa</td>
      <td>Voegt extra attributen toe aan HTML-elementen, verspreid over de pagina.</td>
      <td>Ouder alternatief</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Microdata</td>
      <td>Verouderde HTML5-extensie, niet meer actief ontwikkeld.</td>
      <td>Niet aanbevolen</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

At Rank Rocket, we almost always work with JSON-LD because it's clean, stable and easy to maintain.

What does structured data provide?

Structured data makes search results richer and more attractive. Think about:

Stars and product reviews
Breadcrumbs under the title
FAQ dropouts
Events with date and location
Recipes with cooking time or calories

These extras attract attention, improve CTR, and build trust in your brand.
Note: Google decides for itself whether to show rich results, but without structured data, you certainly won't get them.

Guidelines and quality requirements

Structured data only works well if it is relevant and reliable.
That is why these rules apply:

The flagged content must be visible to visitors.
The markup must match the content of the page.
The data must not be misleading (no fake reviews or wrong prices).
The page must be accessible to crawlers, not blocked in robots.txt.

Use one size per page, test regularly for errors, and follow Google Search Central guidelines.

Common mistakes

Review widgets misused, a general shop review on each product page.
Hidden markup, Google ignores invisible elements.
Wrong type of schedule, mark a blog as a product or an event as a trip.

Even small errors can cause rich results to disappear or your markup to be ignored.

Structured data according to Rank Rocket

At Rank Rocket, we use structured data as an integral part of every SEO strategy, especially local SEO.
A good example is projects for roofing companies: by adding LocalBusiness schedules with the correct address and location information, we can show that a company is really active locally. This increases the relevance of searches such as “roofer Eindhoven” or “Soest roof renovation”.

We implement standard Organization schemes at the brand level and combine them with extras such as Product, Service, or FAQ depending on the type of page.
For web shops, we also use Product markup with prices and inventory, which directly contributes to visibility and trust.

In most projects, we use plugins such as Rank Math or Yoast SEO because they are technically reliable and scale well.
For larger or custom projects, we write custom JSON-LD ourselves. In doing so, for example, we add unique company data or additional context that is not available by default.

A practical example: when a webshop was rebranded, the old brand name remained visible in Google because the Organization markup had not been changed.
After correction, Google recognized the new brand within a few days. It confirms how powerful structured data is and how important consistent maintenance remains.

We believe that structured data will become even more important in the future.
AI models use it to better understand pages and recognize relationships. Those who structure now are building a foundation that remains visible, even in an AI-driven search world.

Is structured data good for SEO?

Structured data is not a direct ranking factor, but it does have an indirect effect:

better visibility in Google,
higher CTR,
clearer context for search engines.

Google's John Mueller confirmed that structured data helps to better understand pages even without rich results. That's exactly why we integrate it into every strategy by default.

Structured data tools

Use these free tools to create and test markup:

Google Rich Results Test — check that your structured data is valid.
Schedule Markup Generator — TechnicalSeo.com — quickly create JSON-LD code.
Google Code Lab — practical explanations and examples.

The future of structured data

Structured data is evolving towards voice-based and AI search results. Google has been testing speakable content for a long time — markup that allows voice assistants to read content directly to them.

As AI models such as Gemini and SGE process more context, structured data becomes an essential anchor point. It will soon determine not only how you appear, but also where, in voice searches, AI overviews, and other interactive search experiences.

Op zoek naar hulp voor je SEO?

Neem gratis contact op en laten we samen kijken naar je website!

Neem contact op

🚀 Gratis SEO scan

Krijg direct inzicht in de SEO kansen voor jou website.

Bedankt!

Er is iets mis gegaan.

Daan Coenen

Ik ben Daan Coenen, SEO-specialist en oprichter van Rank Rocket. Al meer dan zes jaar help ik bedrijven in Nederland en daarbuiten om duurzaam beter vindbaar te worden in Google, met strategie, techniek en content die écht werkt.

More customers via your website?

Request a free intake and see how you can generate leads and sales for free.

Free introduction

Your website at #1 like a rocket

Company

Verder lezen

About us

Stay up to date