# Does structured data change AI search citations?

> Open question with a proposed method. Google states no special schema.org markup is required for its AI features. This entry is a research proposal and reports no results yet.

- URL: https://geo.casa/playbooks/schema-ai-citations/
- Research · Hypothesis
- Reviewed: 2026-10-24

## Question

Does adding valid schema.org JSON-LD (e.g. `Article`, `FAQPage`, `HowTo`) to existing pages change how often they are cited as sources in AI search answers?

## What is already documented

> **Officially documented:**
> Google says there is no special schema.org structured data needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that structured data should match the visible text on the page.
>
> Sources: [Google Search Central: AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)

## Hypotheses

- **H0:** Citation rate does not differ between pages with and without added markup.
- **H1:** Pages with added markup are cited more often.

## Proposed method

| Element | Design |
|---|---|
| Sample | ≥ 60 existing, indexed pages on 2+ sites; matched pairs by topic and traffic |
| Treatment | Add JSON-LD to one page per pair; no visible-content changes |
| Control | Paired page unchanged |
| Prompts | Fixed panel of ≥ 100 queries, written before treatment, stored in the repo |
| Engines | Google AI Overviews / AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity; logged separately |
| Window | 4 weeks baseline, 8 weeks after treatment |
| Metric | Share of prompts in which the page is cited, per engine |
| Analysis | Paired difference-in-differences; report confidence intervals, not single runs |

## Known threats to validity

- AI answers are volatile run to run, so single samples are noise.
- Re-crawl timing differs per page. Check when each page was last fetched.
- Engines change during the window. Log dates of announced updates.

## Status

Awaiting a second reviewer of the method before data collection.

## Sources

- [Google Search Central: AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)