Schema markup is structured data you embed in your page's HTML using vocabularies like Schema.org and formats like JSON-LD. It explicitly labels what things are—this number is a price, this date is an event start time, this person is the author—so search engines don't have to infer meaning from surrounding text. Google, Bing, and others use it to generate rich results: star ratings under product listings, recipe cards with cook time and calories, FAQ dropdowns, job posting details, and breadcrumb trails in the SERP. Without schema, a five-star review is just text; with schema, it becomes a rating Google can display as gold stars. The practical win is visibility and click-through. A local business with LocalBusiness schema and AggregateRating can show stars and hours directly in search results. An article with Article schema and speakable markup might get picked for voice assistants. E-commerce sites using Product and Offer schema see price, availability, and reviews right in the snippet—users get the info before clicking, which paradoxically increases qualified clicks because intent-matched users engage more. Common types we deploy at Ottawa SEO: Organization and LocalBusiness for brand identity and NAP consistency, Article and BlogPosting for news and content sites, FAQPage and HowTo for informational pages, Product and AggregateRating for e-commerce, Event for venues and promoters, and BreadcrumbList for site hierarchy. We use JSON-LD because it's clean, sits in the head or footer without cluttering HTML, and Google prefers it. Schema doesn't directly boost rankings—Google has said it's not a ranking factor—but rich results increase real estate and draw eyes, which lifts CTR. Higher CTR signals relevance, which can indirectly improve position over time. The catch: garbage markup can trigger manual actions or removal from rich results, so test with Google's Rich Results Test and keep it accurate. If your price changes, update the schema. If you mark up content that isn't on the page, Google will ignore or penalize it. Schema is a precision tool—use it to describe what's genuinely there, and search engines reward you with better presentation.