Structured data: what Google reads on your website that you never see

Open the code of almost any website and, among everything visitors never see, you'll sometimes find a block with dry little words like «name», «telephone» or «opens: 09:00». That's structured data: the same things your page already says, written in a format that Google and other machines can read without having to interpret anything. Few business owners know whether their website has it. And when it does, it often still shows the opening hours from three years ago, or star ratings that Google no longer displays.

What structured data is, without the jargon

Google's introduction to structured data describes it as a standardised format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. Put another way: your website already says you're open Monday to Friday from 9 to 2, but it says so in a sentence, between photos and buttons. Structured data says the same thing in boxes: which days, what time you open, what time you close. Nobody has to guess.

Think of the delivery note that comes with an order. The box contains what it contains, but the delivery note lists it in order, in the usual boxes, so whoever receives it knows what's inside without opening it. That's what this data does for your website.

Who decides which boxes there are

The shared vocabulary is schema.org, a project founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex, so it isn't tied to a single search engine. It defines what a local business, a product, an event or an article is, and what details each one carries. All of it goes into a block of code inside the page that visitors don't see. Google recommends the format called JSON-LD because it's the easiest to maintain.

What structured data does for you on Google

First, it helps Google understand the page without getting it wrong. Second, it lets Google show the page with more information than usual: a product's price and whether it's in stock, the date and venue of a concert, a recipe's rating. That's called a rich result. It takes up more space than a plain blue link and gets looked at more.

Google publishes a few case studies. Rotten Tomatoes measured a 25% higher click-through rate on pages with structured data, and Nestlé an 82% higher one on pages that appeared as rich results. These are big companies, but the logic holds for anyone: if your result shows what the one next to it hides, people pick you first.

What Google doesn't promise

Even if it's perfect, Google doesn't guarantee that it will show; its guidelines say so plainly. It decides depending on the search, the device and what it considers most useful each time. Nor is it a trick to climb the rankings. It helps Google understand you and show you better, which is plenty.

What Google no longer shows, and many sites still mark up

Rich results change, and some have disappeared completely:

• FAQs. In 2023 Google limited them to government and health websites, and since 7 May 2026 it no longer shows them for anyone. A good FAQ page is still very useful for other reasons, which we cover in the FAQ page, but the drop-down under your result won't appear any more.
• How-to steps. Removed in 2023, on desktop and on mobile.
• The page path on mobile. Since January 2025 breadcrumbs only show on desktop.
• Stars from your own reviews. This one surprises people most, so it gets its own section.

Why the stars from your reviews don't show

Lots of businesses add a widget with their Google reviews to their website, or a plugin that marks them up, hoping to see little stars under their name in search results. They won't appear. Google says so in its review snippet rules: if a business controls the reviews about itself, pages marked up as a local business or organisation can't show stars, whether you write them into the code or they come from a Google or Facebook widget. A local business earns its stars on its Google Business Profile, with genuine reviews, and you'll find how to ask for them in how to get Google reviews.

And don't be tempted to make them up. Google warns that ratings which don't come from real customers can lead to a manual action: you lose your rich results, even though your position in search isn't affected.

Which structured data your website needs, depending on your business

There's no need to mark up everything. Google prefers a few complete, accurate details to lots of half-finished ones. This is what usually makes sense:

Structured data for a local business

If you have premises, or you go to customers' homes from a fixed address, the basic block is LocalBusiness. Google only requires the name and the address, and recommends the rest: a phone number with the +34 country code, your website, coordinates, opening hours and a price range. There are two details hardly anyone takes advantage of:

• The specific type. Google asks you to use the most specific type available. The schema.org list of business types includes plumbers, electricians, painters, hair salons, dentists, restaurants, hotels, campsites and estate agents, and if you do several things you can give more than one type at once.
• Seasonal closures. Opening hours can take dates. If you close from November to March, like so many businesses on the Costa Brava, you can say so with a start and an end date, instead of leaving opening hours that are simply wrong in January.

If you sell online

Each product gets its own Product markup: name, photo, price, currency, whether it's in stock and, if you have them, ratings from people who bought it. These can show with stars, because they're written by customers about the product, not by the business about itself. What it costs to set up a shop properly is in how much does an online shop cost.

If you run activities or write articles

Tastings, courses, workshops or concerts go with Event: date, time, venue and ticket price. And if you have a blog, each post gets Article, with the author and the date, so it's clear who wrote it and when it was published.

The mistakes that keep coming up

• Data that doesn't match what visitors see. The code still has the opening hours from before you changed them, the old phone number or last season's price. Google asks you to mark up only what visitors can see on the page, and warns that it won't show rich results for outdated information.
• Two plugins saying different things. It happens a lot on WordPress: the theme marks up one thing, the SEO plugin another, and Google gets two versions of your business.
• Leftovers from the template. Websites still telling search engines the name of the theme they bought, or that their logo is the sample one.
• Marking things up for the sake of it. Reviews that aren't on the page, questions nobody can see, or an event that happened a year ago.

Structured data and AI: what Google says

There's a lot of hot air about this, so it's best to go to the source. In its guide to optimising for generative AI features in Search, updated in July 2026, Google says structured data isn't required to appear in its AI answers and that no special markup is needed. Its documentation also recommends that you keep using it as part of your SEO, check that it matches the visible text and keep your Google Business Profile up to date.

For a business, that means there's no magic code that makes AI recommend you. What counts is that your name, address, phone number, opening hours and what you do say exactly the same thing on your website, in your structured data and on your Google Business Profile. When everything matches, Google and any other assistant have fewer reasons to doubt you. Getting that data in order and making it match everywhere is a big part of GEO, which is the name for the work of appearing in AI answers.

How to check whether your website has structured data

It takes five minutes and costs nothing:

1. Google's Rich Results Test. Search for it by name, paste in your home page address and it will tell you what data it found and whether there are errors.
2. The schema.org validator, which shows everything that's marked up, including what Google doesn't use.
3. Search Console, under Enhancements, where Google lists by type what it has found on your website and any problems. What else is worth checking there each month is in Google Search Console: what to check.

Then open your Google Business Profile and compare it line by line: name, address, phone number and opening hours. If something doesn't match, you know what to fix first.

How it gets added

If your website is built on WordPress, Wix or Shopify, the usual way is a plugin or a settings section in the platform itself, as Google explains. It works, but it needs filling in properly, and you need to make sure two plugins aren't treading on each other. If your website is custom-built, a block goes into the template that takes the details from the page itself, so that when you change your opening hours or a price, everything changes at once.

That's how we do it on this website. The code of this article includes the author and the date, the questions at the end are marked up, and every page carries our name, the Palau Firal address and our phone number. The author, the date and the questions come from the same text you're reading, so they can't contradict each other.

How much it costs to get structured data right

As our pricing shows, the technical markup is part of the GEO work included in all three presence plans: €400, €750 and €1,500 a month, plus VAT and with no lock-in, with articles on your website and on your Google Business Profile and replies to all your reviews. If you don't have a website yet, Your Landing is €100 a month and Your Website €200, also plus VAT. What we do at each stage is on our SEO page.

Where to start this week

Run your home page through the Rich Results Test and take a screenshot. Put it next to your Google Business Profile and look for differences. If errors come up, or nothing comes up at all, send us the screenshot on WhatsApp or through the contact form and we'll tell you what's missing and where to start, with no commitment.