Schema markup is one of those topics that gets explained a lot and implemented rarely. The gap between understanding what schema is and knowing how to actually write, validate, and deploy it correctly is wider than most blog posts acknowledge. This workshop is built to close that gap.

Why Schema Markup Matters More Now

Structured data has always been a way to communicate clearly with search engines. But the shift toward AI-powered search — Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT search, and what comes next — has made schema markup significantly more consequential. These systems do not just parse text. They build understanding from structured signals: what entity you are, what category of business or service you represent, how you relate to other entities the user is researching, and what authoritative sources confirm about you.

Businesses with well-implemented schema are better positioned to be cited in AI-generated answers. Businesses without it are, at best, leaving a communication layer empty. At worst, they are letting AI systems make uncertain guesses about what they do and who they serve.

This is not speculative. I run Salterra Digital Services and build custom schema systems for client sites. I have seen the difference in how structured sites perform in AI-influenced results versus unstructured ones.

What the Workshop Covers

Schema fundamentals: What structured data is, how JSON-LD works syntactically, and why JSON-LD is the implementation format Google recommends over Microdata or RDFa. Participants do not need a development background, but they do need to be comfortable looking at code by the end of the session — we get there together.

LocalBusiness schema: For any business that serves customers at a location or within a geographic area, this is the most impactful schema type. We build a complete LocalBusiness object together: name, address, hours, service area, geo coordinates, identifier, and the nested properties that most implementations miss.

Service schema: How to describe specific services as structured entities, link them to your business entity, and communicate service areas and pricing where applicable.

FAQ schema: One of the most accessible schema types for non-developers, and one that directly influences how content appears in results — and how AI systems recognize your content as an authoritative source for specific questions.

Breadcrumb and SiteLinks schema: How to implement site structure markup that helps both search engines and users understand how your content is organized.

Entity relationships and the Knowledge Graph: The conceptual layer that ties all of this together. Schema is not just about individual page markup — it is about building a coherent picture of who you are across your entire web presence. This section covers how to think about entity coverage, what the Knowledge Graph is, and how schema markup contributes to or detracts from how clearly you appear in it.

Validation and testing: Google’s Rich Results Test, Schema.org validator, and how to read validation output. Common errors, how to fix them, and how to know when your implementation is actually correct versus just passing surface-level checks.

AI search and schema: How AI answer engines use structured data signals, what types of schema appear to correlate with citation in AI-generated answers, and what to prioritize if AI search visibility is a specific goal.

Workshop Structure

The workshop runs half a day (three to four hours) for a focused single-topic version, or a full day for the comprehensive version that includes entity strategy and AI search.

Participants should bring a laptop with access to a site they are responsible for or can use for practice. We work with real schema throughout — not just slide examples. By the end of the session, each participant has written at least one complete, validated schema block that they can deploy to their own site.

I keep workshop groups small enough that I can review individual work. Questions mid-exercise are encouraged, not deferred to the end.

Who Should Attend

This workshop is appropriate for:

  • In-house SEO specialists or digital marketers responsible for technical SEO
  • Web developers who implement content changes and want to understand schema requirements
  • Marketing agency staff who manage SEO for multiple clients
  • Business owners who manage their own web presence and want to understand what their developers or agencies should be doing

It is not the right format for audiences who want a high-level introduction to SEO generally. For that, the SEO masterclass or a keynote session is a better fit.

Teaching From Real Practice

The schema systems I build for clients through Salterra are not generic implementations. They are custom-designed for the specific entity relationships, service categories, and geographic scope of each business. That practitioner experience is what I bring into the workshop — not just how schema syntax works, but how to make strategic decisions about what to implement, in what order, and what it is reasonable to expect as an outcome.

For the broader context of how this workshop fits into a speaking or training engagement, visit the SEO speaker page.