A page can carry two kinds of hidden description. Schema.org structured data tells search engines what the page is about. Open Graph and X card tags tell social platforms how to draw a link preview. Both live in the HTML, and both are invisible to the visitor. So they often get one ticket and one test. They are different jobs, read by different systems. This article explains each one and gives a separate, repeatable check for both.
Structured data describes the page for search engines
Structured data is a standard way to describe the content of a page: this is a product, this is its price, this is the author of an article. Google supports three formats: JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa. Its introduction to structured data recommends JSON-LD and says all three formats are equally fine for Google as long as the markup is valid. JSON-LD sits in its own script block, so it does not have to be woven into the visible HTML.
Google can use this markup to show a rich result, such as a review rating or a price under the link. It is a possibility, not a promise. The structured data general guidelines state that Google does not guarantee your structured data will show up in search results.
The same guidelines set the rule that matters most for an analyst. Your structured data must be a true representation of the page content. Do not mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page. A breach can lead to a structured data manual action, which removes the page's eligibility for rich results. You can see such actions in the Manual Actions report in Search Console.
Social metadata describes the link preview
Open Graph is a separate protocol. Its job is to turn a URL into a preview card when someone shares it. The lists four required properties: , , and . The tags go in the page head as meta tags with a attribute. should be the canonical URL, because platforms use it as the permanent ID of the shared object. Optional image properties such as width, height and help the platform render the image correctly.
