Structured data for iGaming affiliate sites: what to use, what to skip

Structured data is a way of describing a page to search engines in a format they can read reliably. Used well, it removes ambiguity. Used badly, it is ignored — or treated as spam.

The rule that matters most: mark up only what is visible on the page.

Types worth using

Organization and WebSite

Describe who publishes the site once, on every page, and reference it from everything else. This anchors authorship and brand identity.

BreadcrumbList

Breadcrumbs describe where a page sits in the site’s hierarchy. They are simple to generate from a well-structured site and should match the breadcrumb trail readers see.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
  "itemListElement": [
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://example.com/" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Guides", "item": "https://example.com/guides/" },
    { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Payment methods" }
  ]
}

Article

For guides and editorial, Article markup states the headline, author, publisher and dates. Keep dateModified honest — update it when content genuinely changes, not on every save.

Review

When you publish an editorial review of an operator, Review markup can describe it. The review must be your own, visible on the page, and the rating must match what readers see.

What to skip

Ratings you don’t have. Never add AggregateRating without a real, visible set of user ratings behind it.
FAQ markup for rich results. Google has limited FAQ rich results to a small set of authoritative government and health sites, so it rarely produces a visible result for affiliate sites.
HowTo as a rich-result tactic. Google no longer shows HowTo rich results. HowTo markup can still describe genuine step-by-step content, such as real login steps — just don’t expect a visual result from it.
Markup for hidden content. If readers can’t see it, don’t describe it.

Rich results are never guaranteed, even with valid markup. Structured data improves understanding; it does not buy rankings.

Generate it, don’t hand-write it

Hand-written JSON-LD drifts out of sync with the page. The robust approach is to generate structured data from the same fields that render the page — which is another argument for structured content models.

Test before and after launch

Use the Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator on one page of each type, then watch Search Console’s enhancement reports for errors as the site grows.

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