Structured data explained: helping Google read your website.

Google is good at reading web pages, but it still guesses. It sees a number on your page and has to work out whether that is a price, a phone number or a postcode. Structured data removes the guesswork. It is a small block of code, invisible to visitors, that states the facts plainly: this is a business, this is its address, this is a product, this is what it costs.

Most small business websites in Norwich and across Norfolk either have none of it, or have a generic version bolted on by a plugin that nobody has checked since launch. It is one of the quieter parts of SEO, but it is worth getting right.

What structured data actually is

Structured data uses a shared vocabulary from Schema.org, which Google, Bing and other search engines all understand. The usual format is JSON-LD, a tidy block of code that sits in the page and lists facts as labelled pairs. Name, address, opening hours, price, availability, that kind of thing.

Your visitors never see it. Search engines read it alongside your normal content and use it to understand the page with more confidence.

Your page is written for people. Structured data is the same facts, written for machines.

What it can do for you

Let's be honest about this. Structured data is not a ranking trick, and adding it will not push you up the results on its own. What it does is make your pages eligible for richer listings and help Google trust that it has your details right.

• Rich results: product listings can show price and stock status straight in search, which helps people decide before they click.
• Consistent business details: it backs up the name, address and phone number on your Google Business Profile, which matters for local search.
• Clearer meaning: Google can tell a product page from a blog post, and a service from a location.

Google decides whether to show a rich result. Correct structured data gives you the chance. It does not guarantee it.

The types worth caring about

LocalBusiness

For any business serving customers in a place, this is the starting point. It covers your trading name, address, phone number, opening hours, website and the area you serve. There are more specific subtypes too, such as a restaurant, a dentist or a store, so pick the closest match.

The golden rule: it must match your Google Business Profile and your website exactly. Same business name, same address format, same phone number. Local SEO guides keep coming back to this consistency for good reason. Mismatched details across the web make it harder for Google to be sure who you are.

Product

If you sell online, Product markup is where structured data earns its keep. Name, image, price, currency and availability, all stated clearly so search engines can show them.

Breadcrumb and Organisation

Breadcrumb markup shows where a page sits in your site. Organisation markup ties your logo and social profiles to your brand. Neither is exciting, both are easy wins.

Use with care: FAQs and reviews

Google shows FAQ rich results far less often than it used to, so do not add FAQ markup expecting a big change. And reviews you collect and publish about your own business on your own site are not eligible for star ratings in search. Marking them up anyway is a common mistake.

What we did for Surplush

Surplush is a Norwich buyers club selling packaging and cleaning supplies to businesses at wholesale prices, with e-cargo bike delivery in Norwich, Cambridge and London. Since relaunching their shop in January 2025, part of our ongoing work has been SEO, and structured data was a piece of that.

We added Product structured data to their product pages, alongside two related jobs: moving to slug-based product URLs, so addresses describe the product rather than showing a number, and writing new meta titles. The three work together. Clean URLs and clear titles help people, and the structured data spells out the same facts for search engines.

Structured data works best when it simply confirms what the page already says clearly.

Common mistakes we see

1. Set and forget. Prices change, opening hours change, you move premises. If the markup is hard-coded and nobody updates it, it ends up wrong.
2. Plugin defaults. Some tools add a generic block with placeholder details or the wrong business type.
3. Duplicate markup. A theme and a plugin both adding LocalBusiness data, with slightly different details.
4. Bank holiday hours ignored. Special opening hours can be stated too, and local customers do search for them.

The fix for most of these is to generate structured data from the same source as the page content. On the sites we build with Next.js, the product price in the markup comes from the same place as the price on the page, so they cannot drift apart.

How to check your own site

You do not need to read code to get a rough picture. Google offers two free tools:

• Rich Results Test: paste in a page address and it shows which rich results the page is eligible for, plus any errors.
• Schema Markup Validator: shows all the structured data on a page, whether Google uses it or not.

Try your homepage, a key service page and one product page. If nothing shows up, or the details are wrong, that is worth fixing.

If you would like a second pair of eyes on your site's structured data, or want it built in properly from the start, get in touch. It is usually a small job with a tidy result.