Speakable Structured Data: Complete Implementation Guide

Why Use Speakable Schema?

• Position your content for voice search results delivered by Google Assistant and other TTS-enabled platforms
• Control exactly which sections of your page are read aloud, ensuring the most relevant information is presented
• Gain a competitive advantage in voice search, an increasingly important channel as smart speaker adoption grows
• Improve accessibility for users who rely on screen readers or audio-based browsing
• Future-proof your SEO strategy as voice-first interfaces become more prevalent across devices

Required Properties

These properties are required by Google for Speakable structured data to be eligible for rich results.

Recommended Properties

Adding these properties improves your chances of appearing in rich results and provides more context to search engines.

JSON-LD Example

Here is a complete Speakable structured data example you can use as a starting point. Or use our Speakable generator to create one automatically.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebPage",
  "name": "Spring Budget 2026: Key Announcements Summary",
  "speakable": {
    "@type": "SpeakableSpecification",
    "cssSelector": [
      ".article-headline",
      ".article-summary"
    ]
  },
  "url": "https://example.com/news/spring-budget-2026-summary",
  "mainEntity": {
    "@type": "NewsArticle",
    "headline": "Spring Budget 2026: Key Announcements Summary",
    "datePublished": "2026-03-10",
    "author": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "James Thornton"
    },
    "publisher": {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "UK Finance Daily",
      "logo": {
        "@type": "ImageObject",
        "url": "https://example.com/images/logo.png"
      }
    },
    "image": "https://example.com/images/budget-2026.jpg"
  }
}
</script>

How to Implement Speakable Schema

1. 1Identify the concise, self-contained sections of your page that would make sense when read aloud — typically headlines and summary paragraphs of 2-3 sentences.
2. 2Add semantic CSS classes or IDs to the HTML elements containing your speakable content, such as 'article-headline' or 'article-summary'.
3. 3Create a JSON-LD block using the WebPage type with a speakable property containing a SpeakableSpecification that references your CSS selectors.
4. 4Ensure the speakable content is concise and informative — Google recommends roughly 20-30 seconds of audio per speakable section, which equates to approximately 2-3 sentences.
5. 5Validate the markup using Google's Rich Results Test and check for any warnings related to the speakable specification.
6. 6Submit your page for re-indexing via Google Search Console and monitor for any speakable-related enhancements in the Search Appearance report.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Marking up the entire article body as speakable — Google expects concise, summary-level content that works well as a standalone audio snippet, not full articles.
• Using speakable on non-news or non-informational content where voice search results are unlikely to surface, reducing the value of the implementation.
• Specifying CSS selectors that do not match any elements on the page, resulting in empty speakable content that Google cannot process.
• Forgetting that Speakable is currently limited to English-language content for US users — implementing it for other languages or regions will not yet produce results.
• Neglecting to include a parent NewsArticle or Article type alongside the speakable specification, which reduces Google's ability to contextualise the content.

Testing & Validation

Before deploying your Speakable structured data, validate it using these tools:

1. 1Google Rich Results Test — Paste your page URL or code snippet to check if your structured data is eligible for rich results.
2. 2Schema Markup Validator — Validates your JSON-LD syntax against the schema.org specification.
3. 3Google Search Console — After deployment, monitor the Enhancements report for any errors or warnings.

Frequently Asked Questions