A web page shows words and pictures to people, but to a machine it is mostly undifferentiated text. Schema markup is a small block of structured code (usually JSON-LD) that labels the page: this is a business, here is its name and address, this is a list of services, these are the questions and answers, this is a review with a 5-star rating.
When search engines can read those labels cleanly, they can do more with your page: show rich results like star ratings and FAQ drop-downs in Google, and, increasingly, pull your information confidently into AI-generated answers. It is one of the highest-leverage technical steps for AI search, because it removes the guesswork about who you are and what you offer.
You never see schema as a visitor. It lives in the page’s code. But it is a big part of why one business gets a tidy rich result with stars and hours while a competitor gets a plain blue link.
The FAQ drop-downs and star ratings you sometimes see right inside Google results are powered by schema markup on that page. No schema, no rich result.
Go deeper: What Is GEO? Generative Engine Optimization for Local Businesses.
This is part of our AI search (GEO) work.