---
title: "What Is Schema Markup? A Plain Definition | Kihan Marketing"
description: "Schema markup is code that describes a page's facts to search engines in the Schema.org vocabulary. What it does, an apartment example and how to add it."
url: https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/schema-markup/
published: 2026-10-16
updated: 2026-10-16
author: "Kiran Dasgupta"
---

# Schema Markup

Structured data, defined, with an apartment example

Schema markup is code added to a web page, usually as a JSON-LD script, that describes the page's facts in the shared vocabulary of Schema.org: the business, its address, a service, an article and who wrote it. Search engines read it to understand the page, and Google uses some types of it to show rich results in Search.

By [Kiran Dasgupta](https://kihanmarketing.com/kiran/), Founder and Lead Strategist

## What does schema markup actually do?

It removes the guessing. A person reading a page knows that a string of digits is a phone number and a name at the top is the author. A machine has to infer it. Markup states it outright, in a format Google documents in its [introduction to structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data), using types defined at [Schema.org](https://schema.org/).

It is not a ranking shortcut. Markup has to describe what is visibly on the page, and it helps a search engine or an AI assistant read the facts correctly, which is what makes a page easier to show and to quote.

## Why does schema markup matter for apartment communities?

An apartment community's page carries exactly the kind of facts markup is for: an address, floor plans, a phone number for leasing, and the management company behind it. Schema.org has types for this, including [ApartmentComplex](https://schema.org/ApartmentComplex) and [FloorPlan](https://schema.org/FloorPlan).

For example, a community page can describe itself as an ApartmentComplex with its address and phone number, list each floor plan as a FloorPlan with its bedroom and bathroom counts, and name the management company as an Organization. A search engine reading that page no longer has to work out which of several addresses on it is the building's.

## How do you add schema markup?

1. **Choose the types.** Match each page to the Schema.org type that describes it: a LocalBusiness subtype for the business, a Service, an Article.
2. **Write it as JSON-LD.** Add one script block to the page with the facts that are visible on it, and nothing that is not.
3. **Test it.** Run the page through Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator, and fix every error.
4. **Keep it current.** Update the markup when the page changes, so the two never disagree.

## Related terms

- **Answer engine optimization.** [Making pages quotable](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/answer-engine-optimization/) for AI answers, which markup supports.
- **AI Overviews.** [Google's AI answers](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/ai-overviews/) at the top of some results.
- **llms.txt.** A [proposed file](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/llms-txt/) that points AI tools at a site's best pages.

We add and test markup as part of [technical SEO](https://kihanmarketing.com/services/seo/) and our [multifamily website design](https://kihanmarketing.com/multifamily-marketing/multifamily-website-design/) work.

## Keep reading

- [SEO and AI Search](https://kihanmarketing.com/services/seo/): Search work judged by where you rank.
- [Multifamily Website Design](https://kihanmarketing.com/multifamily-marketing/multifamily-website-design/): One system underneath a live portfolio of community sites, with one identity per community.
- [Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/answer-engine-optimization/): Getting a business named and quoted in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews.