Article Schema: Making Your Content AI-Readable

Your content is solid. Your research is thorough. Your writing is clear. But there's a checkbox you might be missing—the structured data that AI engines verify before citing anyone.

You can write the most comprehensive guide on your topic, optimize every heading, back every claim with sources. But if AI systems can't parse what type of content it is, who wrote it, or when it was published, you're asking them to guess.

Article schema removes the guesswork. It's the difference between handing someone a business card and expecting them to remember your name from a conversation three months ago.

What Article Schema Actually Is

Article schema is a specific type of structured data markup using the schema.org vocabulary. When you add it to your HTML, you're giving AI engines and search engines explicit information about your content—not just what it says, but what it is.

Think of it this way: when you read an article, you instinctively understand it's an article. You see the headline, the author name, the publication date. Your brain processes those signals without conscious effort.

AI engines don't have that instinct. They need explicit markers. Article schema provides those markers in a machine-readable format, telling them: "This is an article. Here's the headline. Here's who wrote it. Here's when it was published."

Why AI Engines Need Article Schema

When ChatGPT or Perplexity evaluates your content for citation, they're not just reading the words. They're looking for signals that establish credibility, recency, and authority.

Article schema provides three critical signals AI engines need:

Core Properties That Matter (for AI Citations)

Article schema has dozens of possible properties. But for AI visibility, only 7-8 properties significantly influence citation likelihood.

How to Implement Article Schema (Step-by-Step)

You don't need to be a developer to add Article schema. AI tools can generate it for you in seconds.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "Your Article Title",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Author Name",
    "url": "https://example.com/about"
  },
  "datePublished": "2025-12-16",
  "dateModified": "2025-12-16",
  "image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
  "wordCount": 2400,
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Your Site",
    "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png"
  }
}
</script>

Schema Quality vs Schema Presence

Here's something that surprised researchers at Search Engine Land: having schema isn't enough. The quality of your schema implementation appears to influence AI Overview visibility.

They conducted a controlled experiment with three nearly identical pages:

The researchers acknowledge these results are "promising, but inconclusive"—there could be unseen variables. But the pattern is clear: schema quality, not just presence, appears to matter.

Common Mistakes That Kill Citations

Most Article schema implementations are technically valid but strategically incomplete. Here's what people get wrong:

FAQ