When to use each type
Article or BlogPosting is for a dated piece of writing with a headline. FAQPage is for a page whose visible content is questions and answers — not a dump of hidden Q&A. Organization describes the company. BreadcrumbList describes the trail already on the page. WebSite belongs on the home page (name and url). SoftwareApplication describes an app, including a free one with price 0.
Required fields on this form are what you need for a coherent object with @context and @type. They are not “required for rich results.” Google’s gallery and documentation change. Paste the output into the schema markup checker before you ship.
A short Article example
A coherent Article needs a headline. Author, dates, and image are optional here even when Google’s Article feature lists them as recommended. Valid JSON-LD is parseable. It does not make the article eligible for a rich result by itself, and it does not raise a ranking.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How we ship the monthly mix",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex Rivera" },
"datePublished": "2026-11-11"
}
</script>What this does not decide
Do not mark up content that is not visible on the page. Do not generate FAQPage JSON-LD for questions the HTML does not show. Google limited HowTo rich results in 2023 and later retired FAQ rich results; as of 2026 the FAQ documentation is gone. Leaving unused types in the HTML does not, by itself, help or hurt Search, and it is not a reason to invent markup.
The generator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. After you copy the script, the schema markup checker is the property-level audit against Google’s remaining documented features.
Next: the schema markup checker, the on-page SEO checker, and the llms.txt checker. The free tools index lists the rest.