Time to read: 6 minutes
It’s long been debated whether adding schema markup to your website impacts your search engine optimization. And while many agree it has great benefits, there is hardly any data that supports these claims.
Let’s take a look at the facts. But before we do that, we want to clear some things up:
Schema vs. Structured Data vs. Rich Snippets vs. Rich Results
Before we get into things, let’s clear up the confusion of terms we will be using in this post! These terms are often thought of as synonyms, but that’s not completely true! This helpful cooking analogy will hopefully clear some things up:
- Schema markup is like the recipe, it includes defined instructions and steps on what to use, how to use it, etc.
- Structured data is like the portioned-out ingredients listed in the recipe ready to be used.
Then, the live schema code on your web pages is like a fully cooked dish being served to search engines.
- Rich snippets are a portion of a completed dish with extra garnishes (stars, ratings, etc.).
- Rich results are like the whole course experience, including the dish’s presentation, and dining ambiance (snippets, knowledge panels, action cards, etc.).
TLDR: Schema markup is the language, structured data is the data from the schema markup, rich snippets are a specific type of rich result on SERPs, and rich results are the umbrella term for all enhanced search results.
Popular Types of Schema to Know About
- Organization – The most general type of schema any business can use that relays details about your company.
- LocalBusiness – Best for B2C types, including dental offices, brick and mortar retailers, and gyms.
- Article – Can be applied to the news section of your site, and you can even specify if it is a blog.
- Product – For retail websites, product schema can help connect the dots between your brand and your products. It also includes a review element, shown below:
Recent Studies and Statistics on Schema for AI Search
As AI search continues to gain popularity, schema has become a notable topic in the conversation. While Google itself has recommended using schema for your AI search strategy, others have seen no influence from using it. Thankfully, a few people have done the work to come up with some interesting results, with thanks to Cyrus Shepard for sharing some need-to-know data:
- After schema was implemented, citations in Google AI Overviews increased 1,500% after schema, while ChatGPT citations dropped (OtterlyAI)
- Pages with JSON-LD saw a 6.5% gain over non-JSON-LD pages (AirOps)
- Research shows there is a strong correlation between structured data and AI citations, with nearly 40% increase in citations (UC Berkeley)
- Pages with schema were cited 2.3x more in Google’s AI Overviews over pages without schema (Digital Applied)
- Schema was shown to improve AI visibility scores by 55% (Helpful Hero)
- However, a recent study showed that schema showed no lift across all AI sources (Ahrefs)
More Statistics on Schema, Structured Data, and Rich Snippets
- As of May 2026, Only 12 schema types are deployed on 10 million or more domains, including WebSite, WebPage, Organization, Person, and ImageObject (Schema.org)
- 72.6% of pages on the first page of Google use schema (Backlinko)
- But overall, only 30% of websites are utilizing schema (Searchmetrics/Search Engine Land)
- 36.6% of searches show at least one rich snippet with information derived from schema markup (Searchmetrics/Search Engine Land)
- Users click on rich results 58% of the time compared to 41% for non-rich results (SEJ)
- FAQ rich results have an average CTR (click-through-rate) of 87% (Milestone Research/SEJ)
- Rich results get 58% of clicks on search results vs. non-rich results (Milestone Research/SEJ)
- Pages with schema received a 40% higher click-through rate than pages without (Schema App)
- Branded queries that trigger video-rich snippets get more clicks in Google Search than non-branded (Milestone Research/SEJ)
- Adding additional questions and answers in combination with FAQ Schema results in 9% more organic traffic (Search Pilot)
- In a study in 2020, after adding WebPage schema, twice as many sites saw increases in keyword positions (InLinks)
- In a recent study, it was tested if Price and Review schema combined would increase traffic, however it was found that when you add Review schema alone to product pages, it can help increase traffic by 20% (Search Pilot)
- However, adding dateModified schema to your pages has proved to be inconclusive in improving rankings or traffic (Search Pilot)
There are even some specific case study statistics from Google on the subject:
- Pages that show as rich results in search saw an 82% higher click-through rate vs. non-rich result pages (Nestle/Google)
- Rotten Tomatoes saw a 25% higher click-through rate for pages with schema vs. those without (Rotten Tomatoes/Google)
- Users spent 1.5x more time on pages that have structured data vs. non-structured data pages (Rakuten/Google)
- Pages with schema got 2.7x organic traffic, and the average session duration was now 1.5x longer than before it was implemented (Rakuten/Google)
- Videos that used VideoObject markup saw an increase of 3x impressions and 2x clicks within a years time (Vidio/Google)
So, Is Schema a Ranking Factor?
The short of it is no, Google does not use schema code on your site as a ranking factor. However, that does not mean it can’t improve your site as a whole, which could result in higher rankings. Google’s Gary Illyes stated this in 2017:
“[Schema markup] will help us understand your pages better, and indirectly, it leads to better ranks in some sense, because we can rank easier.”
Recently, we added schema for one of our higher education SEO clients on Oct. 30, and a month later, we saw some great results:
So while there is no definitive say that adding schema to your site will boost in rankings, there is no downside to adding to your site. Just be sure to abide by Google’s policies when you do.
Relevant Articles to Continue Reading
- The Latest Updates from Google on Schema, Pay-Per-Click, and More
- What Are Featured Snippets? Everything That You Need to Know
- Google Rolls Out New Featured Snippets – Have You Seen Them?
- What Is Zero-Click Content?
Our Collection of Marketing Statistics and Facts
Disclaimer: The statistics on this page have been compiled by our team from various third-party sources for informational purposes only. We do not claim ownership of this data unless cited otherwise.
