SEO
2026-10-25 · 8 min read
Sapun Lamichhane
Founder & CEO of Arcetis
Schema markup, also called structured data, is a standardized code format - usually JSON-LD - added to a webpage that explicitly labels information for machines: this is a business name, this is an address, this is a price, this is a frequently asked question and its answer. It is not visible to a human visitor reading the page normally; it exists specifically so that search engines and AI systems do not have to guess at what the surrounding text means.
It is important to be honest about what it does not do - schema markup is not a ranking hack. Adding it to a poorly written, thin page will not make that page rank well. What it does is remove ambiguity from content that is already good, making it easier and more reliable for machines to use correctly.
“Schema markup does not tell search engines you are the best - it tells them exactly what you are, which is a different and far more useful thing.”
LocalBusiness schema - name, address, phone number, opening hours, service area - is the foundation for almost any business with a physical location or defined service area, and it directly supports how Google displays your business in local search and Maps results. Organization schema does similar work at the company level, useful for every business regardless of whether it has a physical storefront.
FAQ schema, applied to a genuine frequently-asked-questions section, lets search engines display those questions and answers directly in results, and - relevant to how AI answer engines work - makes that same content easier to extract and cite accurately. For ecommerce businesses, Product and Offer schema marks up price, availability, and product details explicitly, which matters for both search results and comparison-style AI queries.
On the Google side, well-implemented schema can produce rich results - star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, business information directly in search results - that take up more visual space and tend to improve click-through rate even without a change in ranking position. On the AI side, structured data gives answer engines an unambiguous, pre-labeled source of facts to pull from, which complements the kind of direct, extractable writing style that genuinely citable content requires.
For WordPress sites, plugins like Rank Math or Yoast handle most common schema types - LocalBusiness, FAQ, Organization - through a straightforward interface without needing to write code directly, which covers the large majority of small business needs adequately. For more custom or complex requirements, manual JSON-LD code added directly to the page, or deployed through Google Tag Manager, gives more precise control.
Whichever route you use, always test the implementation with Google's Rich Results Test tool before considering it done - it is common for schema to be technically present but missing a required field or containing a formatting error that prevents it from being read correctly, and the markup looking fine in the code does not guarantee it is actually valid.
Review schema that does not reflect genuine, verifiable reviews is a serious one - this is a direct violation of Google's structured data policies and can trigger a manual penalty, not just a missed opportunity, so never add star rating schema without real reviews backing it. Missing required fields is a more common, less severe mistake that simply causes the rich result not to display rather than causing a penalty.
The most overlooked mistake is markup that does not match what is actually visible on the page - marking up a price or business detail in schema that contradicts what a visitor actually sees, even accidentally through outdated code left over from a redesign, undermines the trust search engines place in a site's structured data more broadly.
For most small Nepali businesses, start with LocalBusiness and FAQ schema, implemented through a WordPress plugin if that is the platform, and tested with Google's Rich Results Test before moving on. Arcetis implements and audits schema markup as a standard part of SEO work for clients, specifically because it is inexpensive to do correctly and genuinely useful when done well - but it is also one of the more commonly broken technical elements we find on Nepali business websites during an initial audit.
No. Valid, correctly implemented schema makes a rich result possible and more likely, but Google ultimately decides when and whether to display one, and there is no way to guarantee it will appear for any specific page or search.
Yes, for the most common types - LocalBusiness, FAQ, Organization - a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast makes this reasonably accessible without writing code. More complex or custom schema types typically benefit from someone with technical SEO experience to implement and test correctly.
Incorrect but honest markup - a missing field, a minor formatting error - usually just means the rich result does not display, which is a missed opportunity rather than a penalty. Dishonest markup, like fake review ratings, is the real risk, since that can trigger an actual manual penalty from Google.