Schema Markup

Schema markup is structured data following the schema.org vocabulary, embedded in a webpage so search engines can read it directly rather than guessing. For restaurants, the relevant types are Restaurant, Menu, MenuItem, Event, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, and LocalBusiness.

Restaurant schema tells Google your business name, address, phone, hours, cuisine type, accepted payments, price range, and link to menu. Menu schema describes the menu structure — sections and items. MenuItem schema covers individual dishes with name, description, price, allergens, and (optionally) photos.

Schema is delivered most commonly as JSON-LD inside a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag in the page head or body. JSON-LD is preferred over older microdata because it lives separate from the visible HTML and is easier to maintain.

Done well, schema can drive rich results — the price-and-rating snippets in search results, knowledge-panel data, menu carousels. It also feeds relevance signals by making your menu and concept legible to Google in a structured way that natural prose alone does not. It is one of the highest-leverage technical SEO tasks for restaurants.

Most restaurant websites ship with no schema markup at all. Adding correct Restaurant + Menu schema is a one-time technical task that produces ongoing relevance benefit and unlocks rich results. It is the kind of work that separates a 'has a website' restaurant from one that actually ranks.