Structured data in the AI search era: what still matters for a SaaS or tool site

Two opposite myths circulate: that schema is now the key to AI citations, and that schema is dead because Google retired several rich results. Google’s documentation supports neither. Structured data is what it always was — explicit clues about what a page is — and its visible payoffs have narrowed.

What does structured data still do?

Google: “You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page.” It can make a page eligible for rich results when required properties are present and guidelines are followed, but eligibility is not a guarantee. Google recommends JSON-LD where your setup allows.

Does structured data help with AI search?

For Google, there is a direct answer: “Structured data isn’t required for generative AI search, and there’s no special schema.org markup you need to add.” Google adds that it remains useful for your wider SEO and for rich results. For other AI engines, we found no vendor documentation naming schema.org as an input to citations. It may help a system understand a page, as it helps Google; that is different from being a lever you can pull.

Schema describes the page you already have. If the page does not answer the question, no markup will make it.

Adnan Arodiya, Crawlwise

Which rich results has Google retired?

Google’s documentation log records that FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search from May 7, 2026, and the documentation was removed on June 15, 2026. Practice problem markup was retired in January 2026, and in September 2025 Google removed documentation for course info, estimated salary, learning video, special announcement and vehicle listing results after a June 2025 simplification. The vocabulary still exists on schema.org; the Google display does not.

Which types still matter for a SaaS or tool site?

Type	Why keep it	Watch out for
Organization	Name, logo, URL and official profiles in one place	Keep it consistent with your about and contact pages
WebSite	Helps Google pick your site name	One per site, on the homepage
BreadcrumbList	Breadcrumb display and site structure	Must match the visible breadcrumb
Article / BlogPosting	Headline, author, published and updated dates	Dates must match the visible dates
SoftwareApplication	Describes the product, category and price	Ratings only if they are genuine and shown on the page

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "SoftwareApplication",
  "name": "Example Invoicing",
  "applicationCategory": "BusinessApplication",
  "operatingSystem": "Web",
  "offers": { "@type": "Offer", "price": "9.00", "priceCurrency": "USD" }
}

Skip anything you cannot keep true. Markup that disagrees with the visible page is against Google’s guidelines and does more harm than no markup.

What should you do instead of chasing schema for AI?

Make sure the crawlers that feed AI answers can read the page at all, and that the answer is in the HTML. Our AI Crawler Access Report does not measure structured data; it measures access, and in the Crawlwise AI Crawler Access Report (top-10000 run, 2026-Q4: the first 10,000 domains of the Cisco Umbrella top-one-million list, each probed once on October 1, 2026), 4,159 of 10,000 domains refused at least one AI crawler. The list ranks hostnames by DNS popularity, so it includes API, CDN and update hosts that never serve a web page, and only the homepage path was probed. Treat the shares as a description of that list, not of the whole web. Start with checking AI crawler access, then what you can control in AI Overviews.

How Crawlwise tests this

The schema validator reads the JSON-LD in your source HTML and reports each block as eligible, ineligible or not applicable against the Google feature requirements we have recorded. It does not parse Microdata or RDFa, and eligibility is never a promise of a rich result. To write markup from scratch, use the schema generator.

Every verdict, what counts as a block, and what the checks cannot see are written up on the methodology page.

What a plan actually costs

The free tools stay free. You can open them, run them, and leave without an account. A plan is for the moment you want the report saved, a few sites watched, or the same checks from the API. The price on this table is the price at checkout. A yearly plan is ten months of the monthly price, so two months are on us.

A single-page audit is about 1.25 credits, and that includes the live probe of answer-engine crawlers. You see the estimate before anything runs. If a hold is not used, it comes back to your balance. Extra credits, when you already subscribe, are $9.99 for 20.

Frequently asked questions

Should I remove FAQPage markup now that FAQ rich results are gone?

You do not have to. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results from May 7, 2026; markup left in place is simply not used for that feature. Remove it if it no longer matches visible content.

Does structured data make ChatGPT or Perplexity cite me?

No vendor documents that. OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity crawler docs do not mention schema.org as a citation signal, so treat any claim that it does as unproven.

JSON-LD, Microdata or RDFa?

Google accepts all three and recommends JSON-LD where your setup allows, because it is easiest to implement and maintain.

Sources

Vendor documentation was read on 2026-10-05. Vendors change these pages without notice, so check the original before you act on a detail.

• Google Search Central — Introduction to structured data markup
• Google Search Central — AI optimization guide
• Google Search Central — AI features and your website
• Google Search Central — Latest documentation updates (FAQ rich result removal)
• OpenAI — Overview of OpenAI crawlers
• Anthropic — Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler?
• Perplexity — Perplexity crawlers
• Crawlwise — The AI Crawler Access Report (top-10000 run, 2026-Q4)