Structured Data (JSON-LD) for AI Search: A Beginner's Guide
Structured data is a way of labeling the facts on your page so machines can read them without guessing. For AI search, that clarity helps your content get understood and quoted accurately.
What structured data is
Normally a price or an author is just text on the page: a human understands it, but a machine has to infer it. Structured data adds invisible labels that say, in a standard vocabulary, “this is the price,” “this is the author,” “this is a recipe.” The most common format is JSON-LD — a small block of code in your page’s <head>.
The shared vocabulary is Schema.org, used by search engines and increasingly referenced by AI.
When it helps most
- Articles & blogs — author, publish date, headline.
- Products — price, availability, ratings.
- Local business — name, address, hours, phone.
- FAQs & how-tos — questions and steps.
If your page states facts a machine could misread, structured data removes the doubt.
A copy-paste example (Article)
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Your article title",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Doe" },
"datePublished": "2026-06-19",
"description": "A one-line summary of the article."
}
</script>Put it in the <head>. Change @type to match your content — Product, LocalBusiness, Recipe, FAQPage, and many more are defined on Schema.org.
Two rules to keep it honest
- Only describe what’s actually on the page. Marking up a rating or price you don’t show is against search guidelines and can backfire.
- Keep it in sync. If the visible price changes, update the structured data too.
The bottom line
Structured data is the difference between hoping AI reads your facts correctly and telling it plainly — one of the “be understandable” steps in our GEO overview. Start with the single type that fits your main pages, keep it truthful, and you remove a whole category of guesswork.