Does your site describe itself to AI in the format Google recommends?
Confirms your pages carry a clean machine-readable description so AI tools understand what they are reading.
What this signal tests
We look for a small block of metadata called JSON-LD embedded in each page. JSON-LD is the format Google and other AI tools prefer because it describes your page using the Schema.org vocabulary, which is the shared dictionary the web uses for things like articles, products, and businesses.
Why it matters for your visibility in AI
Without this metadata, AI tools must guess what your page is about by reading the visual text the way a human would. That guessing is unreliable, so your content is more likely to be skipped, summarised incorrectly, or attributed to the wrong source when ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews answer a question. This is not the same as the SEO meta tags you may already have. JSON-LD describes the meaning of your content, not the search snippet. A product page might rank fine in classic search yet still be invisible to an AI shopping agent because that agent only quotes pages it can parse with confidence.
Pass criteria at a glance
| Criterion | Passes when |
|---|---|
| At least one valid JSON-LD block with Schema.org @context and @type. |
How we test it
We download the page and look for a small script block tagged as JSON-LD inside the page source. We then read that block to confirm it is valid JSON, that it points to the Schema.org vocabulary, and that it declares at least one type such as Article, Product, or Organization. If any of those checks fails, or no block is present, the signal fails.
Show technical detection method
Parse <script type="application/ld+json">; JSON.parse inner text; verify @context contains schema.org and at least one @type.
If your site fails: how to fix it
- Decide which page templates need structured data first: homepage (WebSite and Organization), articles or blog posts (Article), product pages (Product), and location pages (LocalBusiness). Each template only needs the block added once.
- If you use a CMS like WordPress, Shopify, or Webflow, install or enable the built-in structured data feature or a reputable plugin such as Yoast, Rank Math, or Shopify's native Schema support, then turn on JSON-LD output.
- If you have a custom build, ask your developer to add a JSON-LD script block to each template's head section, pointing to https://schema.org and declaring the matching type for that page.
- Validate the result with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator. Both are free, and they will list any required fields you have missed.
- Re-run the AI Ready Test scan to confirm the signal now passes across the page types we sample.
Quick facts
| Maturity | ESTABLISHED |
|---|---|
| Weight | high |
| Category | Structured Data |
Primary sources
Related signals
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as adding SEO meta tags or Open Graph tags?
No. Meta tags and Open Graph describe how a link previews in search results and social media. JSON-LD describes what your page actually is, in a vocabulary AI tools can reason about. You should have all three, but they serve different jobs and are not interchangeable.
Will adding JSON-LD slow my site down?
No. JSON-LD is a small text block, usually a few hundred bytes, embedded in the page source. It is not rendered visually and has no measurable impact on page speed. Even sites with multiple JSON-LD blocks per page rarely add more than one or two kilobytes.
Do I need to add JSON-LD to every page on my site?
Not every page, but every page template. A site usually has a handful of templates: home, article, product, category, contact. If each template emits the right structured data for its content type, every page on the site is covered automatically. Pages with no obvious type can be left as plain WebPage.
What if my CMS already adds some structured data automatically?
Many platforms add basic JSON-LD by default, but it is often incomplete. Run a Google Rich Results Test on a representative page to see exactly what is present. If important fields are missing, you can usually extend the platform output through a plugin, theme setting, or developer override.
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