How I Boosted SEO with Schema Markup (And You Can Too)

A client came to me last year with a problem.

They had great content. Good rankings. Decent traffic.

But their click-through rate (CTR) from Google was garbage.

Their search listings looked like this:

How to Bake Bread at Home - MyBakery.com Learn how to bake bread at home with our easy guide...

Boring. Generic. Invisible.

Two weeks later, after adding schema markup, they looked like this:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.8) - 45 min prep - 200 reviews How to Bake Bread at Home - MyBakery.com

Their CTR doubled. Same ranking, same content. Just a better-looking search result.

What Is Schema Markup?

It's structured data that tells Google what your page is about.

Google is smart, but it's not psychic. It sees text on a page and makes guesses.

Schema markup removes the guessing. You explicitly say:

• "This is a recipe."
• "It takes 45 minutes."
• "It has 4.8 stars from 200 reviews."

Google trusts that info and displays it as a rich snippet in search results.

The Format: JSON-LD (Not As Scary As It Sounds)

You've probably seen schema before and thought it looked complicated. It's not.

Here's what a basic FAQ schema looks like:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How long does bread take to bake?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "About 45 minutes at 350°F."
      }
    }
  ]
}

You drop that in a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag. That's it.

The Types That Actually Get Rich Snippets

Not all schema types trigger visual changes in Google. Here are the ones that do:

• FAQPage: The accordion-style dropdowns.
• Recipe: Stars, cook time, calorie count.
• Product: Price, availability, reviews.
• HowTo: Step-by-step carousels.
• Article: Author info, publish date.

If you run a blog, add Article schema. If you have a FAQ page, add FAQPage schema. It takes five minutes.

Validating Your Markup

The annoying part is debugging.

One missing comma and the whole thing breaks silently.

Google has a free Rich Results Test that tells you if your schema is valid.

But manually writing JSON-LD is tedious. That's why I built the Axonix Schema Generator.

You pick the type (FAQ, Product, Article). You fill in the blanks. It outputs valid JSON-LD.

No typos. No missing brackets.

Real Results

After adding schema to that bakery client:

• CTR went from 2.1% to 4.3%
• Impressions stayed the same
• Clicks nearly doubled

Same content. Better packaging.

If You Only Add One Thing

Add FAQPage schema to your main service pages.

Find three questions your customers ask. Add them to the page as an FAQ section. Wrap them in schema.

Within a few weeks, Google will start showing your FAQ directly in search results—above your competitors.

It's free real estate.