JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is the format Google recommends for embedding schema markup, defined by the Schema.org (opens in new tab) vocabulary, into a webpage’s HTML. It is written as a self-contained script block, keeping structured data separate from visible page content while still describing it to search engines.
Why This Format Specifically
Before JSON-LD became the standard, structured data was often written as microdata scattered directly among a page’s visible HTML tags, which was error-prone and hard to maintain. JSON-LD keeps everything in one clean, self-contained block, making it easier to write correctly, easier to validate, and less likely to break if the visible page design changes later.
It’s worth validating any JSON-LD block with Google’s Rich Results Test after adding it, since a single syntax error can quietly cause the entire structured data block to be ignored.
Most modern content management systems and frameworks can generate this automatically from existing page data, so it rarely needs to be written entirely by hand for a typical business site.
People also ask
Is JSON-LD visible to website visitors?
No — it lives inside a script tag in the page’s code and is read by search engines and crawlers, not displayed to human visitors.
See also
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