Schema, also known as structured data , is a way of describing and presenting the information your website contains to search engines in a standardized way. Think of it like a school essay outline:

    I. Argument One
	A. Proof One
	    i. Detail One
	    ii. Detail Two
	B. Proof Two
	    ...
    II. Argument Two
	...

But instead of organizing the ideas with Roman numerals and the English alphabet, the most common type of schema (and the type recommended by Google) uses JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD). This type of formatting uses { “key”: “value” } pairs — just like a traditional dictionary with its list of words and their corresponding definitions.

And the information is arranged top to bottom, left to right, and with indentation just like that history essay outline you totally didn’t steal from the Contents section of a Wikipedia entry.

Here’s an example of a simple WebPage schema object:

    {
	"@context": "http://schema.org/",
	"@id": "https://schemascalpel.com/#webpage",
	"@type": "WebPage",
	"url": "https://schemascalpel.com/",
	"name": "Home | Schema Scalpel"
    }

This JSON object tells search engines

1. to use Schema.org’s vocabulary standard, 
2. that the information contained in the object describes the webpage on which the structured data resides, 
3. which URL to use in search results, 
4. and the official name (usually the title) of the page.

Search engines will down-rank your website in search results if it can not clearly identify the nature and content of your site. Don’t make them guess! Use schema to tell search engines exactly who you are and what you do.