Marked-up content

What we check

In the structured data of the home page we look for types that describe content, not only the company itself:

• FAQPage, QAPage (questions and answers),
• HowTo (instructions),
• Article, BlogPosting, NewsArticle (posts),
• Person (team members),
• Review, AggregateRating (testimonials, ratings),
• Service, Product, Offer (services, products, offers).

If we find none of them, we give a note. This check counts for little, at most 5 of 100 points in the area.

Why it matters

Structured data about the company tells machines who is behind the website. Structured data about content tells them what is on the page:

• With an FAQ it is clear which answer belongs to which question. An AI assistant can then quote it precisely when someone asks exactly that.
• With a service it is clear that "travel insurance" is an offer and not just a word in a blog post.
• With a testimonial it is clear that it is a review and who it comes from.
• With a team member name, role and qualification are linked, which evidences expertise.

The visible text always remains decisive. The markup helps with classification, it does not replace content.

How to fix it

Mark up what is on the home page anyway. A typical example is a questions section:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [{
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "How long does delivery take?",
    "acceptedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "Orders placed by 5 pm are delivered within two working days."
    }
  }]
}

Rules:

• Mark up only what is visibly on the page, with the same wording.
• No invented reviews, no reviews from third-party platforms as the site's own stars.
• Better a few correct entries than many inaccurate ones.

WordPress

• With Yoast SEO the block editor offers an "FAQ" block that creates the markup automatically. Rank Math has a similar block.
• For services and persons, schema plugins such as "Schema & Structured Data for WP" help.

Website builders

Wix marks up content of its own FAQ app and blog posts automatically. With Squarespace and Jimdo blog posts are generally marked up. For further content add custom JSON-LD, if the builder allows it.

How to check it yourself

Google's "Rich Results Test" and the Schema Markup Validator list all marked-up content of a page.

Frequently asked questions

May I mark up reviews that are on Google?

No. You may only mark up content that is visibly on the page itself. Marking up reviews from third-party platforms on the website itself as stars goes against Google's guidelines.

Is FAQ markup still worth anything now that Google hardly displays the questions any more?

For the display at Google hardly any more. For AI assistants it is: they recognise unambiguously which answer belongs to which question and can reproduce it precisely.