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Structured data and AI answers: what schema still does in 2026

By Vibeking · Published 30 September 2026 · Facts checked on 30 September 2026

Structured data is not a requirement for appearing in AI answers: Google itself writes that structured data is not needed for its generative AI search features. It is still useful for telling search engines who you are, and Microsoft says that schema helps search engines and AI systems understand your content.

And one thing really has changed: since 7 May 2026, FAQ rich results no longer appear in Google.

What is structured data?

Structured data is code in your page that uses a fixed vocabulary, usually that of schema.org, to describe what is on the page: a business, a product or an event. Google recommends the JSON-LD format, because it is the easiest to add and maintain.

Google uses structured data to understand the content of a page and to gather information about the web. For a number of types, your page can also get a more extensive search result from it, a rich result.

What Google says about AI features

On the page about AI features and your website (updated 10 December 2025), Google writes that there are no additional requirements for appearing in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Special schema.org markup is not needed for that. One condition was added in 2026: since 31 August 2026, every site in Search Console has the Search generative AI setting. By default, your site is set to include; if you choose exclude, it no longer appears in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

The guide to optimising for AI search features (updated 10 July 2026) repeats that structured data is not needed for generative AI search results. Google does recommend it as part of your SEO, because it helps you become eligible for rich results.

For local businesses and online shops, the same guide gives one more tip: a Google Business Profile and Merchant Center feeds can help your products and services become visible in AI answers and other Google search results.

Organization schema: put it on your homepage

Organization markup on your homepage can help Google better understand your business details and distinguish your organisation from other organisations in the search results. Google lists no required properties and recommends adding all relevant properties, such as name, url, logo, address, telephone, email, sameAs, legalName and vatID.

Place the markup on your homepage or on one page about your business, such as an about-us page; it is not needed on every page. The code goes in a script tag of the type application/ld+json. An example for a fictional bakery. A bakery is a local shop, so the example uses the more specific type Bakery:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Bakery",
  "name": "Example Bakery",
  "legalName": "Example Bakery B.V.",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example.com/logo.png",
  "email": "info@example.com",
  "telephone": "+31-20-0000000",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "Voorbeeldstraat 1",
    "postalCode": "1000 AA",
    "addressLocality": "Amsterdam",
    "addressCountry": "NL"
  },
  "sameAs": ["https://social.example.com/example-bakery"],
  "vatID": "NL000000000B01"
}

If you have a shop, practice or restaurant, use LocalBusiness or a more specific type, as here. In schema.org, LocalBusiness is a subtype of Organization. For local businesses, Google lists name and address as required; this example has both.

FAQ schema: what changed

In August 2023, Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known, authoritative government and health websites. On 7 May 2026, Google discontinued them completely, and on 15 June 2026 the documentation disappeared.

FAQPage remains valid schema.org markup, but Google Search no longer does anything visible with it. Google's John Mueller wrote on 9 May 2026 that the markup was already being ignored on sites that were not eligible, and that you may remove it if you want.

What remains: a good list of questions and answers on your page helps your visitors, and a short, clear answer to a specific question is easy to cite. The effect then lies in the text, not in the markup.

What about ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity?

Microsoft is the most outspoken. In a blog post from 8 October 2025, Bing product manager Krishna Madhavan writes that schema helps search engines and AI systems understand your content. He lists schema among the practices that increase your chance of inclusion in AI answers, but also writes that nothing guarantees that inclusion.

OpenAI does not mention schema.org in its guidance for publishers. For shopping, it mentions structured data from providers and product feeds. Perplexity does not mention schema.org markup in its explanation of its crawlers. That does not prove that Perplexity ignores it, but none of these parties guarantees more visibility with it.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Markup that does not match the page. Google asks for structured data to match the visible text, and prohibits markup for content that visitors do not see.
  • Misleading markup, such as fake reviews. That can lead to a manual action: your page then loses its chance of rich results, although, according to Google, its ranking is left untouched.
  • Not testing. Check Google features with the Rich Results Test and all schema.org markup with the Schema Markup Validator.
  • Expecting markup to guarantee a spot. Google does not guarantee that structured data will appear in the search results.

How to check it

The free SEO check by Vibeking looks at whether your homepage has Organization schema, including as LocalBusiness or a subtype such as Bakery. If it is missing, you get a fix task with an explanation, the solution and how to check whether it worked.

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