JSON-LD vs RDFa vs Microdata (SEO snippets)

4 min readMay 19, 2023

Which one is the best option in 2023?

It may sound like hocus-pocus and abracadabra, and you’re right. Rich data is becoming more and more important in SEO.

Some WordPress plugins — like RankMath Pro — do this underwater. But, what are the differences between these snippets? And what do they do?

JSON-LD snippet data — (Source: Search Engine Journal)

What are rich snippets?

So, first things first. What are rich snippets?

Rich snippets are those tiny information blocks that are displayed in search engine results pages (SERPs). Usually together with the (meta) title and (meta) description.

For instance, when you Google ‘what is SEO’, you will instantly see a tiny explanation block. This creates credibility.

Rich markup in SERP — (Source: Banklinko)

Google uses these snippers to give users a better understanding of the content of a webpage. They include things and information like:

Ratings
Reviews
Prices
Images
Recipes

Why do we SEO specialists even care about this?

Wow, seriously? If you didn’t know the answer to this you’ll be pleased! From an SEO perspective, rich snippets can help improve click-through rates!

They can do this by providing more detailed information about a webpage in search results this will result in making it more likely that users will click through to the site. It gives online authority and credibility.

Why it is important for SEO — (Source: Search Engine Land)

Additionally, having rich snippets may also improve the visibility and ranking of a webpage in search results by making it more attractive to both users and search engines.

Implementing rich snippets

How can you incorporate these snippets properly? Well, you need to add structured data markup code to your website. Embedded into HTML code.

This way search engines like Google will understand your content and context better. This can lead to obtaining more rich snippet positions. And you already know what that means. More website visitors.

There are a couple of structured data types that can be used for different types of content. Google has terrific guides and docs on this how to format your markup for things like:

Products
Recipes
Podcasts
Events
JobListing

(PLUGINIC about FAQ Schemadata for WordPress)

Different kinds of structured data

It’s good to know that there are multiple different kinds of structured data. There are three main formats for adding structured data markup:

JSON-LD
RDFa
Microdata

We will dive deeper into these topics and explain briefly how they are used.

JSON-LD

JSON-LD is a script-based method of adding structured data markup to a webpage.

JSON-LD is used by 44.9% of all the websites.

On top of that it is the most recommended format by Google and is considered the easiest to implement.

JSON-LD uses a JavaScript object to define the structured data, which can be placed in the <head> section of a webpage or in a separate script file.

A cool thing is that JSON-LD is easy to read and understand. Not only for humans but also for (Google) crawlers.

RDFa

RDFa is another format for adding structured data markup to a webpage.

Resource Description Framework in Attributes

RDFa uses attributes in the HTML code to define the structured data.

It makes more complex relationships between the structured data possible. And other content on the webpage. It can be used for both human-readable and machine-readable content.

A downside is that RDFa can be more complex to implement than JSON-LD or Microdata.

Microdata

Last but not least: Microdata. Microdata is a format for adding structured data markup to a webpage that uses HTML5.

Microdata uses attributes in the HTML code to define the structured data. Kinda similar to RDFa.

But, microdata is less flexible than RDFa and can be more difficult to understand and implement. On top of that, it can sometimes cause issues with the validation of the HTML code. Which is frustrating. Especially when your mailbox is filled with Google Search Console warnings.

Which one is the most used?

In summary, all three formats (JSON-LD, RDFa, and Microdata) can be used to add structured data markup to a webpage for the purpose of implementing rich snippets! (Hooray)

JSON-LD is the most recommended format by Google and is considered the easiest to implement, while RDFa offers more flexibility for complex relationships between structured data and other content on a webpage.

Microdata, on the other hand, is less flexible and can be more difficult to understand and implement.

Your choice for any of these will depend on the website and developer's specific use case and preferences.