A Can question

Can an SEO company handle schema markup?

3 min read Cites 4 sources

Yes. Schema markup, also called structured data, is code that describes a page’s content in a form search engines can read directly, and adding, testing, and maintaining it is routine technical SEO work. What separates careful work from careless work is three things: choosing markup from Google’s own documentation rather than from everything schema.org allows, marking up only what the page actually shows, and keeping the markup current as Google changes which features it displays. That last point is easy to miss: the FAQ rich result no longer appears in Google Search.

What the work involves

The company reviews what your pages publish and matches markup to each page type: Product for product pages, Article for editorial content, LocalBusiness or Organization for company information, BreadcrumbList for navigation paths, and so on. On a template-driven site this is done in the templates, so every page of a type gets the right markup automatically.

The format Google prefers is JSON-LD. Its introduction to structured data explains that it “recommends using JSON-LD for structured data if your site’s setup allows it, as it’s the easiest solution for website owners to implement and maintain at scale.”

Which markup counts for Google

Schema.org defines a very large vocabulary, and not all of it is used by Google Search. The same introduction is clear about which documentation to follow: “you should rely on the Google Search Central documentation as definitive for Google Search behavior, rather than the schema.org documentation.” A company that proposes markup should be able to point to the Google documentation page for each type it plans to use.

This is also where proposals go out of date. Google’s documentation updates log recorded in May 2026 that the FAQ rich result “will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026”, and later noted that its documentation had been removed because “the FAQ rich result feature is no longer shown in Google Search results.” A plan that promises FAQ snippets in search results is promising a feature that no longer exists.

What it cannot promise

Correct markup makes a page eligible for a rich result. It does not make one appear. Google’s structured data guidelines state that “Google does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results, even if your page is marked up correctly according to the Rich Results Test.” Any proposal that guarantees stars, prices, or other enhancements in your listings is promising something outside the company’s control.

The same guidelines set the main rule for honest markup: “Don’t mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page.” Ratings, prices, and details in the markup have to match what visitors can see.

Testing and maintenance

Google describes the Rich Results Test as “an easy and useful tool for validating your structured data, and in some cases, previewing a feature in Google Search.” It checks one page at a time. Ongoing problems show up in Search Console’s rich result status reports, which cover the site as a whole. Markup can break quietly when a template, theme, or plugin changes, so maintenance is part of the job rather than an optional extra.

Before you agree to schema work

Ask which markup types the company would add to your site and the Google documentation page behind each one. Ask how it will be implemented across your templates, how it will be tested before launch, and who watches the Search Console reports afterwards. And ask what the company expects the markup to do for you; an honest answer talks about eligibility, not guaranteed features.

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