Structured data is one of the few SEO investments with a visible, binary payoff: your result either shows stars, FAQs, breadcrumbs and pricing — or it doesn’t. This guide covers what to implement on WordPress and how to keep it valid.
The schema types that earn rich results
- Product / SoftwareApplication with offers and aggregateRating — price and stars in the SERP.
- FAQPage — expandable questions directly under your listing.
- BreadcrumbList — replaces the raw URL with a readable trail.
- Article — eligibility for Top Stories and enhanced news presentation.
- HowTo and Review — situational, but powerful where relevant.
Implementation principles
Use JSON-LD, not microdata. Output a single graph per page with stable @id references between entities. Only mark up content that is visible on the page — invisible markup is a manual-action risk. And never fabricate ratings: aggregateRating requires genuine review data.
A validation workflow that scales
Test one representative URL per template type in Google’s Rich Results Test after any theme or plugin change. Then watch Search Console’s enhancement reports weekly — they surface errors across the whole site, including ones introduced by content editors rather than code.