The schema types Google actually rewards
Schema.org has hundreds of types. Google supports a much shorter list for rich results, and an even shorter list for high-value ones. Knowing which types trigger SERP features versus which just sit in the head untouched is the difference between a schema strategy that drives traffic and one that wastes engineering time.
Organization and LocalBusiness
Organization is the foundation. It powers your knowledge panel, links your social profiles, and gives Google the entity signal that connects your domain to your brand. For brick-and-mortar businesses, extend it with LocalBusiness, which unlocks the Google Business Profile integration and the local pack. Get the @type right, get the address right, and you've already done more than 60% of sites.
Product, Offer and AggregateRating
For commerce, the Product schema with nested Offer (price, availability, currency) and AggregateRating (ratingValue, reviewCount) is the rich result that drives the highest CTR uplift. Sites that ship it correctly see 30-50% higher CTR on commercial queries. The pitfalls: aggregate ratings must reflect real reviews, the currency must match the page locale, and the availability must be live data, not a hardcoded 'InStock'.
Article, NewsArticle, BlogPosting
For editorial, Article (or its subtypes) powers the Top Stories carousel, the article rich card on mobile, and feeds the Discover surface on Android. Include author with @type Person and url, publisher with @type Organization and logo, datePublished and dateModified. The image property must be at least 1200px wide on the longest edge or Google ignores it.
BreadcrumbList
BreadcrumbList replaces the URL in the search result with a human-readable hierarchy. It's a 5-minute implementation that lifts CTR by 8-15% across most templates. Ship it on every page that sits below the root in the site hierarchy.
FAQPage and HowTo: the restricted club
Google heavily restricted FAQPage rich results in 2023. They now only surface for government, health and select editorial sites. HowTo was deprecated entirely for non-recipe content. Don't waste engineering time on these unless you're in the eligible verticals — the schemas will validate but won't render in search.
VideoObject
For sites with significant video content, VideoObject unlocks the video carousel on the SERP and the video preview on mobile. Include thumbnailUrl, uploadDate, duration in ISO 8601, and contentUrl pointing to the actual video file. Hosting on YouTube alone doesn't get you the schema — you need it on your own page too.
Event, JobPosting, Recipe
These are the three vertical-specific schemas with the highest ROI in their respective categories. Event drives the event card on the SERP, JobPosting drives the Google for Jobs surface, Recipe drives the recipe carousel with images and ratings. Each has strict required fields — read the Google documentation carefully before shipping.
Validation and monitoring
Ship schema validation in CI. The Rich Results Test API is free and rate-limited generously. Monitor your rich result coverage in Search Console weekly. A broken schema is invisible until impressions drop — by then, you've lost a month of traffic.