JSON-LD, enrich search engine results

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In the previous tutorial Microdata, enrich search engine results we learned that microdata are HTML attributes used to make search engines understand a web page.

JSON-LD, LD standing for "linked data", is the way recommended by Google in order to describe the content of a web page. You can use JSON-LD as an alternative to microdata.

JSON-LD is not just an SEO tool, it's a widely used format, supported by the W3C, designed to add context to all kinds of web resources. Search engines use this format for building their knowledge graph. By putting a JSON-LD schema in the header of your page, you make it understandable by Google and its friends.

As suggested by its name, JSON-LD is based on JSON. It adds a syntax to some special attributes used to describe the fetched web resource: its type, its ID and so on...

Following the example previously seen with the microdata:

TechArticle described with JSON-LD
<script type="application/ld+json">
    {
        "@context": "https://schema.org",
        "@type": "TechArticle",
        "headline": "Microdata, enrich search engine results",
        "description": "How to customize the way a result is displayed by Google, Bing and their friends? Make search engines understand the content of a web page.",
        "datePublished": "2020-11-08",
        "dateModified": "2020-11-08",
        "author": {
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "Nicolas Gautron",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://tuto4.dev/authors/NicolasGautron.jpeg"
            }
        }
    }
</script>

All the types and properties are available in the JSON-LD documentation, it's actually the same documentation used for the microdata.

Before reading the entire documentation, go read Google's recommendations on structured data.

Like for microdata, don't forget to test your page with a tool like Google's structured data tester.

Have a nice day :)