Organization, Person & Brand Schema

Organization, Person and Brand markup tell search engines who stands behind a website: the company, the people who write or lead it, and the brands it sells. Google says that adding organization structured data to a home page “can help Google better understand your organization’s administrative details and disambiguate your organization in search results”, and that some properties can influence visual elements such as which logo appears and details in a knowledge panel (Google’s Organization structured data documentation). The markup clarifies identity. It does not create a knowledge panel on demand, and Google’s documentation describes understanding and display effects for it, not a ranking effect. The work that matters is consistency: one identity per entity, described the same way everywhere it appears.

What Google supports

Organization. Google’s documentation states “There are no required properties”; site owners add the recommended properties that apply. It recommends placing the markup on the home page or a single page that describes the organization, such as an about page, and using “the most specific schema.org subtype of Organization” that fits (for example OnlineStore, NewsMediaOrganization, or a LocalBusiness subtype for local businesses). Useful properties include:

• name, alternateName, url, logo;
• sameAs, which Google describes as the URL of a page on another website with additional information about the organization;
• contact details (telephone, email, address);
• administrative identifiers; Google’s examples include vatID, iso6523Code and NAICS codes;
• for merchants, return and shipping policies, which can feed a merchant knowledge panel.

Person. Google does not offer a standalone Person rich result. Person markup appears inside other types: as the author of an Article, in ProfilePage markup for creators in online communities, and as founders or employees referenced from an Organization. Google’s ProfilePage documentation describes it as designed for sites “where creators (either people or organizations) share first-hand perspectives” (Google’s ProfilePage documentation).

Brand. Schema.org’s Brand type describes a brand associated with a product or organization. In Google’s documented features it appears inside Product markup (brand), not as a standalone feature.

Consistent identity across pages

A modeling problem to avoid is describing the same entity differently on different pages: the organization’s name spelled one way in the footer markup and another in Article publisher markup, or three different logo URLs. Use a stable identifier for each entity with @id and reference it elsewhere.

A multi-entity JSON-LD example

The example below describes a fictional company, its founder and its product brand on the home page. All names and URLs are placeholders.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization",
      "name": "Northwind Analytics",
      "alternateName": "Northwind",
      "url": "https://www.example.com/",
      "logo": "https://www.example.com/images/logo-512.png",
      "sameAs": [
        "https://www.linkedin.com/company/northwind-analytics-example",
        "https://github.com/northwind-analytics-example"
      ],
      "founder": { "@id": "https://www.example.com/about/jane-doe/#person" },
      "brand": { "@id": "https://www.example.com/#brand-pulse" },
      "contactPoint": {
        "@type": "ContactPoint",
        "contactType": "customer support",
        "email": "[email protected]"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "@id": "https://www.example.com/about/jane-doe/#person",
      "name": "Jane Doe",
      "jobTitle": "Founder and CEO",
      "url": "https://www.example.com/about/jane-doe/",
      "worksFor": { "@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization" },
      "sameAs": ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe-example"]
    },
    {
      "@type": "Brand",
      "@id": "https://www.example.com/#brand-pulse",
      "name": "Pulse",
      "logo": "https://www.example.com/images/pulse-logo.png"
    }
  ]
}

On an article page, reference the same entities instead of redefining them (the Article markup guide covers the rest of that type):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "How to Read a Cohort Retention Chart",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "@id": "https://www.example.com/about/jane-doe/#person",
    "name": "Jane Doe",
    "url": "https://www.example.com/about/jane-doe/"
  },
  "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization" },
  "datePublished": "2026-10-02"
}

The author object repeats the name and URL next to the @id. Google’s Article documentation recommends author markup that includes the author’s name and a URL that identifies them (Google’s Article structured data documentation), and repeating them keeps those properties on the article page itself instead of relying on a reference to the home page. Validate both pages with the Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator (what each tool’s result means).

Rules that keep the markup trustworthy

• Match visible content. Google’s structured data guidelines say not to mark up content that is not visible to readers (structured data general guidelines). The organization name, logo and contact details in markup should appear on the site.
• Use real profiles in sameAs. Link only profiles the organization or person controls or that clearly describe them.
• Do not invent credentials. A jobTitle, award or affiliation in markup is a factual claim; it must be true.
• Keep identifiers consistent with the organization’s legal registrations and its Google Business Profile, if it has one.

What the markup does not do

• It does not guarantee a knowledge panel. Google states that knowledge panels are generated automatically from information across the web (Google’s knowledge panel help). Markup is one input among many.
• It does not guarantee a logo or other visual element. Eligibility is not appearance.
• It is not documented as a ranking factor. Google describes it as helping it understand who the organization is.

Entity markup checklist

• [ ] Organization markup on the home page or about page, using the most specific subtype.
• [ ] Stable @id for each entity, referenced from other pages.
• [ ] logo points to a crawlable image that represents the organization.
• [ ] sameAs lists real, controlled profiles.
• [ ] Person markup for authors and leaders whose names appear on the site, with accurate titles.
• [ ] Brand markup used where products carry brands.
• [ ] Details match the visible site and other official listings.
• [ ] Validated in the Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator.

Entity markup is identity bookkeeping. Kept consistent and truthful, it helps search engines connect the organization, its people and its brands; inflated or contradictory, it misdescribes the entity and runs against the guidelines that say markup must not be misleading.