Structured Data Cheatsheet for AI Search (2026)

This cheatsheet provides 2026-current JSON-LD templates for the schema types that still drive AI citations and rich results: Article, FAQPage, Organization, Product, Review, BreadcrumbList, Person, and Event, plus a deprecation callout for HowTo, FAQ rich results outside gov/health, and the seven schema types Google retired in January 2026.

TL;DR: Use JSON-LD. Treat rich result eligibility and AI citation value as two different reasons to ship schema. As of 2026, Article, Product, Review, BreadcrumbList, Organization, Person, and Event still drive rich results; FAQPage and HowTo no longer drive rich results for most sites but still help AI extractors; seven schema types were fully retired in January 2026.

Quick Status (April 2026)

Schema	Rich result in Google?	AI citation value	Use it?
Article / NewsArticle / BlogPosting	Yes	High	Yes
Product	Yes	High	Yes
Review / AggregateRating	Yes	Medium-High	Yes
BreadcrumbList	Yes	Medium	Yes
Organization	Yes (knowledge panel)	High	Yes
Person	Yes (knowledge panel)	Medium	Yes
Event	Yes	Medium	Yes
LocalBusiness	Yes	High	Yes (local)
FAQPage	Restricted to gov/health since Aug 2023	Medium-High	Yes for AI; not for rich results
HowTo	Deprecated Sept 2023	Medium	Optional; semantic value only
Speakable	Beta (per Google docs)	Low-Medium	Optional
QAPage	Yes	Medium	Yes for community/Q&A

Article

For blog posts, news, and editorial content. Include all properties Google lists as recommended; the underlying schema has no strict requirements, but rich-result eligibility expects the full set.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Structured Data Cheatsheet for AI Search",
  "image": [
    "https://example.com/cover-1x1.jpg",
    "https://example.com/cover-4x3.jpg",
    "https://example.com/cover-16x9.jpg"
  ],
  "datePublished": "2025-04-25T00:00:00Z",
  "dateModified": "2026-04-28T00:00:00Z",
  "author": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Jane Author",
      "url": "https://example.com/authors/jane"
    }
  ],
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Example",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://example.com/logo.png"
    }
  },
  "description": "Copy-ready JSON-LD templates for 2026 AI search.",
  "mainEntityOfPage": "https://example.com/article-slug"
}

Keep headline under 110 characters and use images of at least 1200×675 pixels for rich-result eligibility.

FAQPage

FAQ rich results are restricted to government and health-focused sites in Google Search. The schema is still useful: Perplexity, Bing Copilot, and Google AI Overviews routinely extract FAQ blocks for direct answers.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is structured data?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Structured data is machine-readable markup that describes the meaning of page content to search engines and AI systems."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "Which format does Google prefer?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "JSON-LD, embedded in a script tag inside the page head or body."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Keep each answer to 40-60 words for clean AI extraction. Visible HTML must mirror the schema content; FAQ schema for hidden content violates Google's structured data guidelines.

HowTo (deprecated rich result)

Google removed HowTo rich results from desktop and mobile in September 2023. Adding HowTo schema does not penalize a page, but it produces no visible rich result. Keep it only if you value the semantic structure for AI extractors or you publish recipe-adjacent content.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HowTo",
  "name": "How to validate JSON-LD",
  "step": [
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "name": "Open the validator",
      "text": "Visit validator.schema.org."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "name": "Paste the JSON-LD",
      "text": "Paste your structured data into the form and submit."
    }
  ]
}

Organization

Use on the homepage and a single canonical About page. Add sameAs links to verified social and Wikipedia entries to strengthen entity recognition for AI knowledge graphs.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Example, Inc.",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example",
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example_Inc"
  ]
}

Person

Use on author bios and team pages. Cross-link to Article author for authorship clarity.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Jane Author",
  "url": "https://example.com/authors/jane",
  "jobTitle": "Staff Writer",
  "worksFor": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Example" },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeauthor",
    "https://twitter.com/janeauthor"
  ]
}

Product

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Example Widget",
  "image": ["https://example.com/widget.jpg"],
  "description": "A reliable widget.",
  "sku": "EX-1234",
  "brand": { "@type": "Brand", "name": "Example" },
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "price": "49.00",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
    "url": "https://example.com/widget"
  },
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.6",
    "reviewCount": "128"
  }
}

Review

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Review",
  "itemReviewed": { "@type": "Product", "name": "Example Widget" },
  "reviewRating": { "@type": "Rating", "ratingValue": "5", "bestRating": "5" },
  "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Author" },
  "datePublished": "2026-04-15",
  "reviewBody": "It does the job and the support team responded within an hour."
}

BreadcrumbList

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://example.com" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Reference", "item": "https://example.com/reference" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Structured Data Cheatsheet", "item": "https://example.com/reference/structured-data-cheatsheet" }
  ]
}

Event

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Event",
  "name": "GEO Summit 2026",
  "startDate": "2026-09-12T09:00",
  "endDate": "2026-09-13T17:00",
  "eventStatus": "https://schema.org/EventScheduled",
  "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode",
  "location": {
    "@type": "Place",
    "name": "Example Convention Center",
    "address": "123 Main St, San Francisco, CA"
  },
  "organizer": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Example" }
}

WebPage with Speakable (BETA)

Google still flags Speakable as BETA, and SpeakableSpecification remains in pending status on schema.org. Use only on news and short-answer pages where voice surfaces matter.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebPage",
  "name": "Structured Data Cheatsheet",
  "speakable": {
    "@type": "SpeakableSpecification",
    "cssSelector": ["h1", ".tldr"]
  }
}

Deprecated Rich Result Types (Do Not Invest In)

Google retired rich-result support for the following schema types as of January 2026. The schema vocabulary still exists; only the visible Search enhancement is gone.

HowTo (deprecated September 2023, never restored)
Course Info
Claim Review
Estimated Salary
Learning Video
Special Announcement
Vehicle Listing
Practice Problem
FAQPage rich result for non-gov/non-health sites (restricted August 2023)

Validation

Google Rich Results Test — confirms rich-result eligibility per type.
Schema.org Validator — checks structural validity against the vocabulary.
CI: validate JSON-LD in pre-deploy tests using schema-dts types in TypeScript or a JSON Schema derived from schema.org.

Visible content must match the schema content. Hidden FAQ blocks, fake reviews, and content-mismatched schema can trigger manual actions in Search Console and remove rich-result eligibility for the affected pages.

FAQ

Q: Should I keep FAQPage schema if I'm not a gov or health site?

Yes. FAQ rich results are gone for most sites, but FAQPage markup is still actively read by Perplexity, Bing Copilot, and Google AI Overviews when synthesizing answers. Keep the schema; just stop counting on the SERP feature.

Q: What's the safest minimum schema set for a content site in 2026?

Article on every content page, Organization on the homepage, Person on author bios, BreadcrumbList in the layout. That covers structural identity for both classic rich results and AI extractors.

Q: Do I need to remove deprecated schema like HowTo?

No. Deprecated rich results do not produce penalties. Leave the markup if it provides semantic structure for AI extractors; remove it only if you want a smaller payload.

Q: JSON-LD vs microdata vs RDFa — which should I use?

JSON-LD. Google explicitly prefers it, AI extractors parse it cleanly, and it sits in a dedicated