Structured Data SEO: What Expert Agencies Do Differently

Most lists of the best structured data SEO experts agencies judge them on the same thing: whether their markup passes the Rich Results Test. That is the easy part. The hard part is choosing the rich results worth having on your site, marking up only what is true and visible, keeping it working through theme updates, and dropping types Google no longer shows.

I have worked in SEO and digital marketing for more than 16 years, and structured data is one of the areas where I most often find work that looks finished but earns nothing. This article explains what separates schema that earns rich results from schema that only passes a validator, so you can judge any agency’s proposal, including mine.

Passing a validator is not the same as earning a rich result

Google’s general structured data guidelines make the distinction themselves. The Rich Results Test can “catch most technical errors”. The quality guidelines, however, “are not easily testable using an automated tool.” A green tick tells you the code is readable and the required fields exist. It does not tell you whether the markup is a fair description of the page.

The same page is clear on two more points. “Google does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results”, and “Items that are missing required properties are not eligible for rich results.” I covered the guarantee question in ten expert skills of an SEO agency, so here I will stay with what happens after the validator says yes.

In audits, the markup I see failing quality rather than syntax usually falls into a few groups:

• Ratings or reviews that appear nowhere on the page. Google’s guideline is short: “Don’t mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page.”
• Generic types where a specific one exists. A plain Thing or WebPage where a product, event or local business type fits. Google asks you to “use the most specific applicable type and property names defined by schema.org.”
• Site-wide markup copied onto every page. Organisation details are fine everywhere. A product block or review on every page is not, because structured data must be “a true representation of the page content.”
• Image URLs Google can’t fetch. “All image URLs specified in structured data must be crawlable and indexable.”

What the best structured data SEO experts agencies do differently

The difference is not a secret format. Google’s introduction to structured data says JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa all work, and recommends the format “that’s easiest for you to implement and maintain.” The difference is in process.

The “properties” row comes straight from Google. Its introduction says recommended properties can help, but “it is more important to supply fewer but complete and accurate recommended properties” than to try to fill every one. When I see a product page with a made-up priceValidUntil date or a review count that doesn’t match the page, the agency has chosen coverage over accuracy.

Structured data should describe the page your customer sees, not the page you wish you had.

Google keeps changing which rich results exist

This is the part many proposals ignore. Google’s list of documentation updates shows a steady stream of retired features:

• 12 June 2025: Google added notices to book actions, course info, estimated salary, ClaimReview, learning video, special announcement and vehicle listing, “to indicate upcoming changes.”
• 9 September 2025: documentation for course info, estimated salary, learning video, special announcement and vehicle listing was removed, because “These structured data types are no longer shown in Google Search results.”
• 6 January 2026: the practice problem type “is no longer shown in Google Search results.”
• 8 May 2026: a deprecation notice for FAQ rich results, saying the feature “will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026.” On 15 June 2026 the FAQ documentation itself was removed.
• 24 July 2026: a new review snippet guideline “about fake and undisclosed incentivized reviews.”

Two practical points follow. First, if a 2026 proposal promises FAQ rich results as a visible win in Google Search, ask which page of Google’s current documentation supports that. Second, a good agency reads this log as part of the job. Nothing in these entries says leftover markup harms you, so I don’t bill clients to rip out old FAQ blocks. I simply stop recommending new work aimed at a feature Google no longer shows.

How experts check structured data after it goes live

Most structured data breaks quietly. A theme update renames a field, a plugin adds a second block, or a developer changes a template and the price disappears. Google’s introduction describes the routine I follow:

1. Test during development. Use the Rich Results Test on one page of each template before release.
2. Monitor after release. Google advises checking the rich result status reports in Search Console, because templating or serving problems can break markup after deployment.
3. Confirm Google found it. Use the URL Inspection tool on a sample of pages, and confirm the markup is valid there too.
4. Measure. Google suggests running a before-and-after test on a few pages and comparing their Performance report data, filtered by URL.

On measurement, Google’s introduction quotes results from sites that added structured data, for example that Rotten Tomatoes “measured a 25% higher click-through rate for pages enhanced with structured data.” Those are other sites’ results on their own pages. Your pages, queries and competitors are different, so measure your own before-and-after rather than borrowing anyone’s percentage, including Google’s examples.

The risk of cutting corners: manual actions

Google’s guidelines say that structured data problems can lead to a manual action, which makes the pages concerned ineligible for rich results. The same page notes that this kind of action “doesn’t affect how the page ranks in Google web search.” So the cost is the feature you paid for, plus the time to clean it up and request a review.

The pattern I see behind these problems is almost always the same: review or rating markup that doesn’t reflect real, visible reviews, or markup describing something the page doesn’t contain. If you are already dealing with a manual action, our Google penalty recovery work starts by finding exactly which pages and which markup triggered it.

How I approach structured data work

I treat structured data as part of technical SEO, not as a separate product. On WordPress, the SEO plugin usually outputs the basics, and the settings matter more than the brand. I covered those in the free SEO plugin settings that matter. My work starts where the plugin stops: product, local business or article markup that matches your templates, conflicts between plugin and theme output, and the release checks above. A WordPress SEO audit is a sensible first step if you are not sure what your site outputs today.

If someone tells you that AI search needs special schema, Google’s page on AI features and your website says: “There’s also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add.” I covered the wider question in hiring an SEO expert for Google AI search. I charge by the hour, so you pay for the templates that need work, not for a schema package.

FAQ

What is structured data in SEO?

It is code on a page that describes its content in a standard format, usually schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD. Google’s introduction says it gives Google explicit clues about the meaning of a page and can make the page eligible for rich results. It doesn’t change what visitors see unless Google chooses to show a rich result.

Do rich results guarantee more clicks?

No. Google says it doesn’t guarantee that structured data will show up in search results at all, and the click-through figures on its introduction page are other sites’ results. Measure your own pages before and after, using the Performance report filtered by URL.

Is it still worth adding FAQ structured data?

Not for a rich result in Google Search. Google’s documentation updates say the FAQ rich result stopped appearing from 7 May 2026, and the documentation was removed in June 2026. A clear FAQ section can still help readers, but it no longer earns that display.

Does the format matter: JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa?

Google’s introduction says all three work. It recommends using the format that is easiest for you to implement and maintain. Most sites I work on use JSON-LD because it sits in one block and is easier to generate from templates.

How do I know if my structured data is working?

Check the rich result status reports in Search Console, inspect a sample of URLs with the URL Inspection tool, and compare clicks for the affected pages before and after the change. If the reports show errors after a release, the template is the first place to look.