What's The Difference Between Rich Results, Schema, and Structured Data?

SEO professionals often interchangeably use the terms “structured data” and “schema”, but it’s helpful to know the differences between these terms.

What is Structured Data?

Google defines structured data as “a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content.”

Simply put, this format was developed to help search engines accurately understand a webpage to properly display snippets of information in the search results pages (SERPs).

What is Schema?

Schema is a form of structured data that was officially launched via schema.org.

Schema was created by Google, Yahoo, Bing and Yandex in 2011 as a collaborative project.

Utilizing the Schema markup available on schema.org enables a landing page to be eligible for rich results.

What are Rich Results?

Rich results ( formerly called rich snippets) are tiny bits of extra information you see on the search engine results pages (SERPs) that are beyond the typical blue title tag and meta description

These can include:

• Breadcrumbs
• Review star ratings
• Additional website links

Google provides two tools to audit structured data on your website: the

Schema Markup Validator and the

Rich Results Test.

Below are a few examples of websites that are benefiting from rich results:

Review Rich Results Example

Sitelink Rich Results Example

FAQ Rich Results Example