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Reference Glossary

Schema.org markup

A shared vocabulary of structured-data types (ImageObject, VideoObject, Product, etc.) launched jointly by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, used to describe page content in a form search engines parse directly.

Last verified

7 Aug 2026

figures re-checked

Method

How we work

applied to every figure

Why it matters in a DAM

When a DAM publishes assets through a public brand portal or press site, Schema.org ImageObject/VideoObject markup is what lets Google surface licensing status directly in Google Images — since 2020 Google has offered a 'Licensable' badge that reads either embedded IPTC metadata or page-level Schema.org markup to show a license link. A DAM's rights metadata is only as useful externally as the markup that exposes it, so teams publishing from a DAM need that pipeline to stay in sync automatically rather than being hand-coded once.

A worked example

@type ImageObject
license URL to license terms page
acquireLicensePage URL where a user can buy/request a license
creditText / creator Photographer or agency name

Common mistake

Hand-coding Schema.org markup once at page build time and letting it drift out of sync with the DAM's actual rights record — an asset's license changes or expires in the DAM but the published markup still advertises the old terms, which is precisely the kind of stale data Google's own licensable-image guidance warns against.

Schema.org launched on June 2, 2011, as a joint project of Google, Microsoft (Bing), and Yahoo, with Yandex joining later that year. Before it existed, each search engine promoted its own structured-data vocabulary, forcing site owners to markup content multiple times for multiple engines; Schema.org gave publishers one vocabulary to implement once, with different search engines consuming it as they saw fit. It started with roughly 297 types and has grown substantially since, now covering everything from creative works and products to events and organizations.

For DAM-adjacent use, the relevant types are ImageObject and VideoObject, which carry properties like license, creator, copyrightNotice, and acquireLicensePage. Google specifically uses these — or equivalent IPTC Photo Metadata embedded in the image file — to power the ‘Licensable’ badge in Google Images search results, giving searchers a direct path to licensing information. Google has documented that when both embedded IPTC metadata and page-level Schema.org markup exist and disagree, the structured data on the page takes precedence, which makes the page-level markup the higher-stakes source of truth for anyone syndicating DAM content to the open web.

The operational implication for a DAM team is that this markup should be generated from the DAM’s live rights and creator metadata at render time, not authored by hand in a template — otherwise every rights change, embargo lift, or license expiry in the DAM has to be manually re-propagated to every public page referencing that asset.

Frequently asked

What is Schema.org markup?

A shared vocabulary of structured-data types — ImageObject, VideoObject, Product, and others — launched jointly by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, used to describe page content in a form search engines parse directly.

How does Schema.org markup connect to a DAM's rights metadata?

When a DAM publishes assets through a public brand portal or press site, ImageObject/VideoObject markup is what lets Google surface licensing status directly in Google Images — since 2020 Google has offered a 'Licensable' badge that reads either embedded IPTC metadata or page-level Schema.org markup to show a license link.

Why does the markup need to stay synced with the DAM's actual records?

A DAM's rights metadata is only as useful externally as the markup that exposes it, so teams publishing from a DAM need that pipeline to stay in sync automatically rather than being hand-coded once.

What's the risk of hand-coding Schema.org markup?

Hand-coding it once at page build time lets it drift out of sync with the DAM's actual rights record — an asset's license can change or expire in the DAM while the published markup still advertises the old terms, which is exactly the kind of stale data Google's licensable-image guidance warns against.

What Schema.org types are most relevant to DAM-published assets?

ImageObject and VideoObject are the types most directly tied to DAM asset publishing, since they're what search engines use to read licensing and rights signals for images and video specifically.

Who originally created the Schema.org vocabulary?

Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo launched it jointly as a shared vocabulary that search engines could parse consistently.

Sources