Chapter 18 — Quiz

Twenty-four self-check questions: sixteen multiple choice, then eight short answer. Answer them before you open the key at the bottom. This quiz tests the two things that matter most in this topic: what structured data can and cannot buy, and the honesty to tell those apart.

Part 1 — Multiple choice

Q1. Structured data's two jobs are: - A. Ranking the page higher and blocking competitors - B. Making meaning explicit, and making the page eligible for rich results - C. Speeding up the page and shrinking the images - D. Replacing the title tag and the meta description

Q2. The relationship between Schema.org and JSON-LD is best described as: - A. Competing standards; you pick one - B. Schema.org is the vocabulary; JSON-LD is the syntax you write it in - C. JSON-LD is older and being phased out - D. They are two names for the same thing

Q3. Google's recommended format for structured data is: - A. Microdata - B. RDFa - C. JSON-LD - D. A meta keywords tag

Q4. "Adding schema makes a page eligible for a rich result" means: - A. Google will definitely show the rich result - B. The page qualifies to be considered; Google decides per query whether to show it - C. The page will rank #1 for the query - D. The rich result is guaranteed for 30 days

Q5. As of the chapter's writing, adding FAQPage markup to an ordinary business's pages will: - A. Produce the expandable FAQ rich result, as it always has - B. Not produce the FAQ rich result — that was restricted in 2023 to authoritative government/health sites - C. Trigger a manual action automatically - D. Boost the page's ranking

Q6. What happened to HowTo rich results in 2023? - A. They were expanded to all devices - B. They were first limited to desktop, then deprecated (removed) entirely - C. They became a ranking factor - D. Nothing; they are unchanged

Q7. A business marks up its own five-star testimonials with AggregateRating on LocalBusiness. Google will show: - A. Gold star ratings in the SERP - B. No review stars — Google doesn't show self-serving business reviews (since 2019) - C. A knowledge panel - D. A featured snippet

Q8. LocalBusiness schema's relationship to the local pack (the map with three businesses) is: - A. It is the main thing that gets you into the local pack - B. It helps entity understanding and NAP consistency, but the Google Business Profile drives the pack - C. It has no effect on anything - D. It replaces the need for a Google Business Profile

Q9. The sameAs property is used to: - A. Copy content from another site - B. List authoritative URLs that refer to the same entity (social profiles, Wikipedia, etc.) - C. Mark two pages as duplicates - D. Set the canonical URL

Q10. Which is the cleanest, lowest-risk first markup for most sites? - A. FAQPage - B. HowTo - C. BreadcrumbList - D. Self-serving AggregateRating

Q11. Structured data as a ranking factor: - A. Is confirmed by Google as a strong direct signal - B. Is not a direct ranking factor, per Google; it affects eligibility and can affect CTR - C. Was added as a ranking factor in 2023 - D. Doubles your rankings if valid

Q12. A page's JSON-LD claims facts (a price, a rating) that do not appear anywhere visible on the page. This risks: - A. Nothing; markup is separate from the page - B. A manual action for spammy structured markup (markup must describe visible content) - C. A faster page - D. A featured snippet

Q13. The Rich Results Test answers which question best? - A. "Is my whole site fast?" - B. "Is this page eligible for a Google rich result, and is the markup valid to Google?" - C. "How many backlinks do I have?" - D. "What is my keyword difficulty?"

Q14. The Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org) differs from the Rich Results Test because it: - A. Only checks Google rich-result types - B. Validates any valid Schema.org markup, whether or not Google shows a rich result - C. Is a paid tool - D. Measures Core Web Vitals

Q15. A valid Service markup shows "no rich results detected" in the Rich Results Test. This means: - A. The markup is broken - B. There is no Google rich result for Service; the markup is fine and doing meaning-only work - C. Google banned the page - D. You must switch to Microdata

Q16. Structured data injected only by a tag manager (after JavaScript runs) is riskier because: - A. Tag managers are against Google's guidelines - B. Google must render the page to see it, and rendering can be delayed or imperfect (Ch 19) - C. It always causes duplicate content - D. It slows the server

Part 2 — Short answer

Q17. In one sentence each, name structured data's two jobs and say which is more durable.

Q18. Explain the difference between a page being eligible for a rich result and getting one — and who decides.

Q19. Give the honest, dated story of FAQ and HowTo rich results: what changed in 2023, and what it teaches about building a strategy on a single SERP feature.

Q20. Why won't marking up your own testimonials give you star ratings in Google, and where do the stars next to a local competitor usually come from?

Q21. Distinguish what LocalBusiness schema does from what the Google Business Profile does for local visibility.

Q22. Name the three free tools for testing/monitoring structured data and the distinct question each answers.

Q23. Describe two things you must never do with structured data, and name the penalty they risk.

Q24. Complete and explain: "Structured data buys __, not ____."

Answer key (try every question first) **Part 1 — Multiple choice** 1. **B** — Explicit meaning, plus eligibility for rich results. 2. **B** — Schema.org = vocabulary; JSON-LD = syntax. 3. **C** — JSON-LD; Google recommends it. 4. **B** — Eligible = qualified to be considered; Google decides per query. It's never guaranteed. 5. **B** — FAQ rich results were restricted in 2023 to authoritative government/health sites. 6. **B** — Limited to desktop, then deprecated entirely. 7. **B** — No stars; Google stopped showing self-serving business reviews in 2019. 8. **B** — It aids entity/NAP; the Business Profile drives the local pack. 9. **B** — Authoritative URLs referring to the same entity (Ch 4). 10. **C** — `BreadcrumbList`: near-universal, low effort, low risk. 11. **B** — Not a direct ranking factor; affects eligibility and CTR. 12. **B** — Markup must describe visible content; mismatch risks a spammy-structured-markup manual action. 13. **B** — Eligibility + validity to Google, on one page. 14. **B** — Validates any Schema.org markup, beyond Google's rich-result subset. 15. **B** — No `Service` rich result exists; the markup is valid and doing meaning-only work. 16. **B** — Google must render to see it; rendering can be delayed/imperfect (Ch 19). **Part 2 — Short answer** 17. **Job one:** make meaning explicit (help Google understand the page / connect it to entities) — the more durable job, since it doesn't depend on a Google feature. **Job two:** make the page *eligible* for a rich result — visible but never guaranteed and revocable by Google. 18. *Eligible* means the page qualifies to be considered for the rich result; *getting* one means Google actually displays it, a decision Google makes per query and can reverse at any time. Google decides, not you — which is why marking up never guarantees the feature. 19. In 2023 Google restricted FAQ rich results to a narrow set of authoritative government and health sites, and removed HowTo rich results entirely (first desktop-only, then deprecated). The lesson: SERP features are Google's to give and take, so never build a strategy on one — the durable value of markup is meaning (job one), which no announcement can revoke. 20. Because Google stopped showing rich results for "self-serving" reviews (a business rating itself, via `LocalBusiness`/`Organization`) in 2019. The stars you see by a local competitor almost always come from Google's own ecosystem — the Google Business Profile and its reviews (Chapter 25) — not from schema the business wrote about itself. 21. `LocalBusiness` schema helps Google understand the business entity and reinforces NAP (name, address, phone) consistency — a modest, mostly invisible contribution on the site. The **Google Business Profile** — its categories, reviews, proximity, and prominence — is what actually drives ranking in the local pack. 22. **Rich Results Test** ("Is this page eligible for a Google rich result, and is the markup valid to Google?"); **Schema Markup Validator** ("Is my markup valid Schema.org at all?"); **Search Console** ("Is it working across my real pages, over time?"). 23. Never mark up content that isn't visible to users, and never mark up facts that aren't true (invented ratings, prices, or hidden FAQ text). Both violate Google's structured-data guidelines and risk a manual action for **spammy structured markup**, which removes rich results and can suppress the page. 24. "Structured data buys **eligibility**, not **outcomes**." Marking up qualifies a page to be considered for a rich result and to be understood better; it does not guarantee the feature, the click, or the ranking — Google decides.