Charles JonesStructured data is a small block of machine-readable description embedded in a page. It says, in a form software does not have to guess at: this is a business, this is its address, these are its hours, this is what it charges.
Why inference is not good enough
A person reading “Open till 7 on weekdays, 3 on Saturdays” understands instantly. Software has to decide whether “3” is an hour, a price, or a street number, and it will sometimes decide wrong — silently, and on your behalf.
The cost of being wrong is asymmetric. A customer told the wrong closing time does not blame the assistant.
What to mark up first
In rough order of how often it changes an outcome:
- The business itself — name, address, phone, and the area you serve.
- Opening hours, including the exceptions.
- Services and prices, where you publish them.
- The booking action, if you take appointments.
Depth is not the point, accuracy is
It is possible to mark up a page exhaustively and still mislead, if the marks disagree with what the page says. The rule we hold ourselves to: the structured data describes the page, and the page is the truth. If they diverge, the markup is the defect.
388,329 pages on the insurance platform we run carry seven to eighteen structured nodes each. The number is not the achievement. Keeping them true at that scale is.