Structured data and GEO: the role of structured information in AI findability

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is all about improving your findability in AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.

Where traditional SEO focuses on keywords and rankings, GEO is increasingly about comprehensibility: does a language model analyze your content correctly, summarize it well and use it correctly in a generated response? One of the most powerful but often underestimated elements in that process is structured data.

What is structured data?

Structured data is a piece of code (usually in JSON-LD) that you add to the HTML of a page. By doing so, you give search engines and AI systems explicit information about what’s on the page. Consider:

• Who the author is
• What the subject of the page is
• When it is published
• What type of content it is (e.g., article, product, FAQ)

For Google, structured data helps show rich results (such as stars, prices or breadcrumbs).

For AI systems like ChatGPT or Gemini, structured data is primarily a tool to understand the meaning and context of your content faster and better.

Why structured data is important for GEO

In an AI context, speed of comprehension is essential. An LLM does not want to waste time guessing what your text is about. Structured data speeds up this process.

I often see that pages that are richly structured are better interpreted by AI systems. Even if the content of two pages is similar, the model is more likely to use the page with clear entity signals in a generated response.

Specifically, structured data helps with:

• Linking your content to entities in the knowledge graph
• Signaling authoritative information (such as author, source, date)
• Reinforcing topical authority within a topic

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How I apply structured data within GEO

Structured data is not an end in itself, but a strategic tool. I use it only when it adds content. I always make sure it is consistent with the content on the page.

1. Article and BlogPosting

For blogs and content pages, I use Article of BlogPosting. I include in these:

• author: my name or organization
• headline: the H1 of the page
• datePublished and dateModified
• mainEntityOfPage: the canonical URL
• about and keywords: entities and themes

These fields allow AI systems to understand who the author is, what the topic is and when it was topical.

2. FAQPage

When I handle frequently asked questions, I also structure them with FAQPage. This allows the model to understand not only that a question is being answered, but which question and what the answer is. That increases the likelihood of reuse in a generated response.

3. Person and Organization

For bio and contact pages, I use Person of Organization. This structured data is important to support expertise and trustworthiness. AI systems use this type of data when deploying E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

4. Product or Service

For commercial pages where I offer services (such as SEO audits or link building), I add Product or Service. As a result, a model like Perplexity recognizes content as bringing a particular solution.

Structured data combined with entities and context

Structured data works best when combined with clear entities in the text itself. If I write a page about SEO for real estate agents in Utrecht, I use in the structured data, for example:

“about”: [

{ “@type”: “Thing”, “name”: “SEO” },

{ “@type”: “Thing”, “name”: “Realtors” },

{ “@type”: “Place”, “name”: “Utrecht” }

]

This creates a strong match between content and the way AI systems structure and retrieve information.

Specifically, what does this provide?

In practice, I see that well-structured content:

• More often is recognized in SGE blocks from Google and Gemini
• More likely to be quoted in AI replies (ChatGPT, Claude)
• Stronger scores on semantic analysis within tools such as InLinks or WordLift
• Performs better in AI-first search engines such as Perplexity

Structured data thus strengthens not only the visibility but also the reliability of content within the AI ecosystem.

Summary

As AI systems increasingly determine what content is or is not shown, it is not enough to just write well. You have to make your content understandable to search engines. Structured data is not a luxury in this, but a fundamental part of modern SEO and of GEO in particular.

Want to know if your website already contains structured data in the right way? Want to implement targeted structured data to strengthen your AI findability? Feel free to send me a message. I’d be happy to take a look with you.