Structured data
Also known as: Schema markup
org markup) that tells search engines what the content is.
Publishers use it to declare paywalled content correctly (isAccessibleForFree) so Google can index subscription articles without treating them as cloaking.
Why it matters for publishers
Structured data is how you tell Google that content behind your paywall is legitimately restricted rather than cloaked. Get it right and paywalled articles can be indexed and shown in Top Stories; get it wrong and you either lose indexing or risk a manual action.
How publishers use it in practice
- Use NewsArticle or Article with hasPart, cssSelector and isAccessibleForFree: false on the paywalled section.
- Serve the full article body to Googlebot while showing the wall to readers — this is Flexible Sampling and is explicitly permitted.
- Validate with the Rich Results Test after any template change; wall implementations break silently.
- Add Organisation, BreadcrumbList and FAQPage markup elsewhere on the site for additional SERP real estate.
Frequently asked questions about structured data
- Is showing Googlebot the full article cloaking?
- Not when you declare the paywalled portion with isAccessibleForFree markup. Google documents this as the supported way to index subscription content.
- Which schema type should a paywalled news article use?
- NewsArticle, with a hasPart WebPageElement identifying the paywalled section by CSS selector.