Schema markup gives search engines explicit context about what's on your page rather than forcing them to guess from content alone. When you mark up a recipe, for example, Google can extract cook time, ingredients, and ratings directly and show them in search results as rich snippets. This doesn't guarantee higher rankings, but it often increases click-through rates by making your result more visually prominent. JSON-LD is the format Google recommends because you can drop it anywhere in your HTML without tangling with the visible content. You embed it in a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag, typically in the <head>. Most CMS platforms have plugins that generate this automatically, but at Ottawa SEO we often hand-code critical schemas for client sites to ensure accuracy and avoid bloat from plugin overhead. Start with schema types that match your business model: - Organization and LocalBusiness for brand entities and NAP consistency, especially if you serve Ottawa, Toronto, or other Canadian metros - Article or BlogPosting for content pages to enable headline and date stamps in news results - Product and Offer for e-commerce, including price, availability, and review aggregates - FAQ and HowTo for informational pages targeting featured snippet opportunities - Event for anything time-bound, from webinars to in-person conferences Google's Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator will flag errors before you publish. Common mistakes include mismatched required properties, incorrect date formats (use ISO 8601), or missing image dimensions. We've seen clients lose rich results for months because one property was formatted as a string instead of a number. Schema doesn't replace good on-page SEO or quality content, but it's table stakes for competitive niches. In practice, pages with valid schema in our portfolio see rich result eligibility within two to four weeks if the content quality supports it. The effort-to-reward ratio is high: thirty minutes of setup can yield years of enhanced visibility.