Does Schema Markup Really Help AI Citations? What Local Businesses Should Know
Local SEO & GBP Expert Many SEO discussions in 2026 are focused on AI search. Businesses now want to appear in: Google AI Overviews ChatGPT answers AI summaries conversational search results Because of that, schema markup has become a major topic again. Some marketers now claim: “Schema helps websites get cited by AI.” But is that actually true? A recent Ahrefs study gives us a better picture. What Ahrefs Tested Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD schema markup. Then they compared those pages against similar pages that did not add schema. The goal was simple: Would adding schema increase AI citations? The platforms included: Google AI Overviews Google AI Mode ChatGPT The results were surprising. Most platforms showed little or no measurable improvement. Google AI Overviews even showed a slight decline compared to control pages. That does not mean schema is bad. But it does mean the relationship is more complicated than many people thi...