Knowledge base v2.13.0 · Community edition · data through 2 October 2026
Topic · Structured data and media
Day 2's structured data talk argued that markup still matters even though models can read pages, giving four reasons (said at the event, not in Google's docs): precision, since LLM extraction falls short of the very high accuracy, around 99.9% as the speaker put it, that Google needs and mishandles nested schemas such as sale pricing; extra content, such as full ISO dates or stable identifiers; efficiency, since parsing markup is nearly free while even Google cannot run complex models on every page, so Google will always prefer it; and focus, since markup points at the main item instead of, say, prices of related products. Google said the same cleaned, quality-checked data feeds both classic results and AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that raw schema.org markup is generally not turned into text and put into a model's context (the data is first sorted, quality-checked and indexed), partly because that would be an abuse vector (not in Google's docs). This extends Day 1's documented point that no special markup is needed: Google's generative AI guide lists overfocusing on structured data among things you don't need to do but still recommends it for rich result eligibility (features such as review stars and recipe filters), where Google located its proven value, more qualified traffic; a May 2018 case study reported 2.7 times more search traffic and 1.5 times longer sessions for Rakuten Recipes. Google's guidelines still say not to mark up information that users cannot see, even if it is accurate. Author’s view: the 'extra content' argument therefore covers the machine-precise form of visible facts, such as a full ISO date for a shown event date, not hidden content, and dropping markup because AI reads the page anyway is a mistake for prices and offers. Day 3 drew the line for AI features: AI Overviews and AI Mode are standard search features, not rich results, and need no structured data, as Google's AI features guide says; Google added that if AI Mode one day showcases elements such as recipes, those parts would need it. Author’s view: markup is therefore not a condition for appearing in AI features, but data Google takes from it can still reach them. Google Shopping said AI systems need rich data with light structure rather than deep nesting, and that some structure is much better than none (said at the event); it repeated that web markup is an efficient, unambiguous way to share product data. Day 1's lightning talks, captured by a second recording, added the community debate: one speaker said marking up which number is the price saves an AI agent from guessing, while another said a study linking JSON-LD to AI visibility was followed by a controlled study that found no benefit, the markup being a sign of teams doing everything else right. A second recording of Day 2 confirmed that a full ISO 8601 date helps where Google might not detect a visible date's local time zone, which matters for event extraction. Author’s view: use markup for rich-result eligibility and exact data, not as an AI-visibility lever.
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A community speaker said schema markup helps AI agents interpret a page: on a product page, marking up which number is the price saves the agent from guessing.
Speaker Carlos OrtegaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said a third-party study from early 2026 found that websites with JSON-LD were shown much more often, and that the industry reacted by adding schema markup everywhere.
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said a later controlled study, which added schema markup to pages that lacked it and kept everything else unchanged, found only a negative correlation: the markup had been a sign of teams doing everything else right, not a cause.
Speaker Thiago PojdaIn Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AIEvidence transcript
A community speaker said technical SEO remains the foundation for AI search, with site architecture showing the structure and thematic connections of content and structured data adding clarity, but that a technically sound site is only the beginning.
Speaker Jovana AvramovicIn Day 1, 16:20 · Lightning session C: CrawlingEvidence transcript
Google's AI optimisation guide says structured data is not required for generative AI search and needs no special schema.org markup, and on Day 2 Google said raw schema.org is generally not put into model context (D2-C477); use markup for rich-result eligibility and clear data, not as an AI-visibility lever.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 1, 13:10 · Lightning session A: Automation and AI
Google gave four reasons why structured data is still valuable even though models can extract information from pages: precision, extra content, efficiency and focus.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence slide photo, transcript
Structured data gives the high precision that complex schemas such as sale pricing need, with higher accuracy than large-scale extraction by large language models (LLMs).
“Structured data provides the high precision needed for complex schema (sale pricing), achieving higher accuracy than large-scale LLM extraction.”
Wording checked against the slide or recording
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence slide photo, transcript
Structured data often carries non-visible metadata that the page text lacks, such as full ISO dates or stable identifiers for user-generated content.
“It often contains non-visible metadata, such as full ISO dates or stable identifiers for UGC, that is not present in the page text.”
Wording checked against the slide or recording
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence slide photo, transcript
Used byrequirements DEV-SDA-04, DEV-SDA-05
Parsing structured data is significantly cheaper and more efficient than relying on LLMs for every complex extraction task.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence slide photo, transcript
Structured data explicitly points to the pertinent data on a page, which reduces noise and stops Google's systems from pulling in extraneous information such as prices of related products.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence slide photo, transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-SDA-07
A Google case study shown on stage (published May 2018) reported that Rakuten Recipes got 2.7 times more traffic from search engines and a 1.5 times increase in session duration after implementing recipe structured data.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence slide photo, transcript
The 'gold nuggets' that Google's feature extraction step pulls out of a page's HTML are structured data (such as JSON-LD), images and videos.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 2, 13:30 · Finding the gold nuggets: structured data, media, and more!Evidence transcript
AI Overviews and AI Mode launched as fairly text-heavy answers with little image content and few tables, and they have become more structured over time because that is what users want.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Structured data turns the loosely structured web into structured information that powers visual search features such as review stars and recipe filters (for example by preparation time).
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byglossary term Rich results
Describing a page's content in a structured way lets Google understand and interpret that content more accurately.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byglossary term Structured data
Structured data can bring more qualified traffic, because the site can be shown in new, more interesting ways to more people, who are then more likely to click.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Inside Google, views on structured data split into two camps: one says it is useless because models can generate it or read the page directly, the other says it is the future of machines talking to each other through MCP servers and new standards; the speaker said the truth is in the middle.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
In the speaker's own tests, even the latest LLMs asked to generate schema.org markup for a page often invent properties that do not exist, get deeply nested schemas such as complex pricing models wrong, and duplicate content across several fields.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-SDA-11
Automatic LLM extraction of structured information makes a great demo but is not yet good enough for extraction that aims at something like 99.9% accuracy, the speaker said.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Google's own extraction systems focus heavily on what is visible on a page, which improves precision but means they can miss content or interpret it incorrectly.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Markup can state a date as a full ISO 8601 value, which disambiguates a visible date whose local time zone Google might not detect correctly; this matters for event extraction and wherever the date must be exactly right.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-SDA-05
Even Google cannot afford to run complex AI models on every page in its index, and distilling them into cheaper models makes them less precise.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Rule-based parsing of markup is nearly free by comparison with AI models, so Google will always prefer extracting information from structured data over model-based extraction.
“So we're always going to prefer that particular approach.”
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Google's systems sometimes fail to determine a page's main content correctly, and structured data helps because site owners tend to mark up what is actually important rather than boilerplate or ads.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-SDA-07
The structured data Google processes is not fed very differently to AI Overviews and AI Mode: after cleaning and quality work, the same data goes to both the classic results page and the AI features.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-AIF-02
As far as the speaker knows, in most of Google's main AI uses a page's schema.org markup is not turned into text and put directly into the model's context; the data is first sorted out, checked for quality and indexed before it is passed on as grounding context.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
The speaker said there are concerns that feeding raw schema.org markup straight into an AI model's context would be a big abuse vector, one reason Google does not do so.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Google's developer site has a number of case studies that show traffic and session-duration gains from structured data.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
The speaker called the Rakuten study old and said the world has changed a lot, but expects the link between structured data and more interactive, visually appealing results to hold for the foreseeable future.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Structured data makes pages eligible to appear as rich results, Google's structured data talk said in its recap.
Speaker Ryan LeveringIn Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.Evidence transcript
Used byglossary terms Rich results, Structured data
A community speaker said the chapters and entities extracted from an interview transcript can then be used to generate metadata and structured data for the published content.
Speaker Patrick DomanicoIn Day 2, 14:00 · Lightning session F: MediaEvidence transcript
Google's structured data documentation says not to mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page, and not to add structured data about information that users cannot see even if it is accurate.
“don't add structured data about information that is not visible to the user, even if the information is accurate”
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.
Used byrequirement DEV-SDA-02
Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features lists 'overfocusing on structured data' among the things site owners don't need to do: structured data is not required for generative AI search and no special schema.org markup is needed, though it remains worth using because it helps pages become eligible for rich results.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.
Used byrequirement DEV-AIF-02
The 'non-visible metadata' argument is not a licence to mark up hidden content, since Google's structured data guidelines still require markup to describe what users can see; use markup for the machine-precise form of facts the page shows, such as a full ISO date with time zone for a visible event date or a homepage url for a named organisation.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.
Used byrequirements DEV-SDA-02, DEV-SDA-04, DEV-SDA-05
Do not drop markup on the assumption that AI reads the page anyway: by Google's own account LLM extraction is not precise enough for prices and nested offers and too costly to run on every page, so explicit markup remains the dependable route for those facts.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 2, 13:35 · What is Structured Data and why we need it on the internet.
Rich results differ from other search features because Google builds them from extra data that site owners provide, usually structured data and usually in JSON-LD format.
“The magic behind rich results is usually structured data. Emphasis on "usually".”
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 13:25 · How Search results are bornEvidence transcript
Used byglossary terms Rich results, Search features
AI Mode and AI Overviews are not rich results but standard search features: they need no structured data to function and work with the normal text results from Google's index.
“AI Mode and AI Overviews are not rich results.”
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 13:25 · How Search results are bornEvidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-AIF-02glossary terms Rich results, Search features
Google said that if AI Mode one day showcases images, recipes or similar elements, those parts would need structured data, but in their current form AI Mode and AI Overviews require pretty much nothing extra.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 13:25 · How Search results are bornEvidence transcript
Google Shopping said highly prescriptive product data is a lot of hard work for merchants and is no longer needed for LLMs.
Speaker Alex JansenIn Day 3, 13:40 · Shopping on Search: Beyond the blue linksEvidence transcript
Google Shopping called rich data with light structure the AI sweet spot: a little structure that helps the AI system understand the data, not deep, highly nested, complex structures.
Speaker Alex JansenIn Day 3, 13:40 · Shopping on Search: Beyond the blue linksEvidence transcript
Some structure is much better than none for AI systems, because without structure the model does not really know what is going on, Google Shopping said.
Speaker Alex JansenIn Day 3, 13:40 · Shopping on Search: Beyond the blue linksEvidence transcript
Rich, lightly structured information is critical to AI systems: product data with many levels of nesting is not needed, but some structure is very important.
“rich, lightly structured information is critical to AI systems.”
Speaker Alex JansenIn Day 3, 13:40 · Shopping on Search: Beyond the blue linksEvidence transcript
Web markup is an efficient and unambiguous way for sites to share product data with Google, Google Shopping said, repeating the Day 2 structured data talk.
Speaker Alex JansenIn Day 3, 13:40 · Shopping on Search: Beyond the blue linksEvidence transcript
Google usually picks up structured data updates within hours to one or two weeks, sometimes immediately.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 15:45 · How long does it take to..?Evidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-MON-10
Google may never use structured data from a site it does not trust: once it sees markup it does not trust, it does not touch it.
Speaker Gary IllyesIn Day 3, 15:45 · How long does it take to..?Evidence transcript
Used byrequirement DEV-SDA-02
Google's AI features guide says there are no additional requirements, and no special schema.org structured data, needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode; a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.
Publisher Google Search CentralAnnotates Day 3, 13:25 · How Search results are born
Used byrequirement DEV-AIF-02
Day 2 said the structured data Google processes also feeds AI Overviews and AI Mode (D2-C476), while Day 3 said these features do not need structured data to function: markup is not a condition for appearing in AI features, but data taken from it can still reach them.
Author Ibrahim AnjroAnnotates Day 3, 13:25 · How Search results are born
Used byrequirement DEV-AIF-02
Google's AI optimisation guide says structured data is not required for generative AI search and needs no special schema.org markup, and on Day 2 Google said raw schema.org is generally not put into model context (D2-C477); use markup for rich-result eligibility and clear data, not as an AI-visibility lever.
A community speaker said schema markup helps AI agents interpret a page: on a product page, marking up which number is the price saves the agent from guessing.
AI Overviews and AI Mode launched as fairly text-heavy answers with little image content and few tables, and they have become more structured over time because that is what users want.
Ecosystem principle 2, the SERP will evolve: besides organic links and ads, it will hold other elements such as videos and cards.
Google's systems sometimes fail to determine a page's main content correctly, and structured data helps because site owners tend to mark up what is actually important rather than boilerplate or ads.
Google extracts every element of a page so that it can tell the header, the navigation and the main content apart, and a slide labelled the main content as very important.
The structured data Google processes is not fed very differently to AI Overviews and AI Mode: after cleaning and quality work, the same data goes to both the classic results page and the AI features.
AI Mode and AI Overviews use the same crawling and the same index as Search. At serving they add grounding on the Search index and query fan-out.
As far as the speaker knows, in most of Google's main AI uses a page's schema.org markup is not turned into text and put directly into the model's context; the data is first sorted out, checked for quality and indexed before it is passed on as grounding context.
Google's guide says new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup are not needed to appear in Search, and that such files neither harm nor help visibility because Google Search ignores them.
Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features lists 'overfocusing on structured data' among the things site owners don't need to do: structured data is not required for generative AI search and no special schema.org markup is needed, though it remains worth using because it helps pages become eligible for rich results.
Google's guide says new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup are not needed to appear in Search, and that such files neither harm nor help visibility because Google Search ignores them.
Structured data makes pages eligible to appear as rich results, Google's structured data talk said in its recap.
Most of Google's search features need nothing extra from the site owner; Google generates them from what it extracted from the page during indexing.
The 'gold nuggets' that Google's feature extraction step pulls out of a page's HTML are structured data (such as JSON-LD), images and videos.
Rich results differ from other search features because Google builds them from extra data that site owners provide, usually structured data and usually in JSON-LD format.
Structured data makes pages eligible to appear as rich results, Google's structured data talk said in its recap.
AI Mode and AI Overviews are not rich results but standard search features: they need no structured data to function and work with the normal text results from Google's index.
AI Overviews and AI Mode use the same index structures and token-based snippets as classic web results, a point Google called important but not obvious.
Review structured data lets a site specify how its users rated something; the review snippet shows an average star rating and often the number of reviews of a product, service or piece of content.
Structured data turns the loosely structured web into structured information that powers visual search features such as review stars and recipe filters (for example by preparation time).
Google Shopping called rich data with light structure the AI sweet spot: a little structure that helps the AI system understand the data, not deep, highly nested, complex structures.
Describing every semantic detail of a page in markup is probably not worth the effort; focus on the structured data that Google or other consumers actually use.
Google may never use structured data from a site it does not trust: once it sees markup it does not trust, it does not touch it.
Structured data that is not relevant to the page's content can be treated as abusive: Google's filters make it ineffective, and egregious cases can lead to a manual action.
Web markup is an efficient and unambiguous way for sites to share product data with Google, Google Shopping said, repeating the Day 2 structured data talk.
Parsing structured data is significantly cheaper and more efficient than relying on LLMs for every complex extraction task.
Spend no effort on llms.txt, AI text files or AI-specific markup for Google
Rests on 15 claims, 5 of them in this topic
Mark up only content that is visible on the page and relevant to it
Rests on 5 claims, 3 of them in this topic
Write dates in ISO 8601 and give every date-time a UTC offset
Rests on 5 claims, 3 of them in this topic
Identify entities with unique identifiers: url, @id and stable IDs
Rests on 3 claims, 2 of them in this topic
Describe only the page's main product in Product markup, not related-product carousels
Rests on 4 claims, 2 of them in this topic
Plan releases and fixes around Google's processing times, and judge results only after them
Rests on 11 claims, 1 of them in this topic
Validate markup in the Rich Results Test before it reaches templates, and monitor it after release
Rests on 8 claims, 1 of them in this topic