Schema.org HowTo markup for AI-cited tutorials

Schema.org HowTo markup tells search engines and AI retrieval systems that your page contains a structured sequence of steps to accomplish a specific task. When implemented correctly, HowTo schema makes your tutorial eligible for Google's rich result step-list display and dramatically increases citation frequency in AI-generated answers — because the model can extract individual steps without having to parse unstructured prose.

When to use HowTo instead of Article schema

Use HowTo schema when your content is genuinely task-oriented: 'How to set up Cloudflare DNS for a custom domain', 'How to export your WordPress posts', 'How to create a paywall in VeloCMS'. Keep Article schema for opinion pieces, analyses, and informational posts that don't have discrete steps. Using HowTo on an essay-style post confuses the retriever and doesn't help your ranking.

The HowTo schema structure

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HowTo",
  "name": "How to connect a custom domain to VeloCMS",
  "description": "Step-by-step guide to adding your own domain to a VeloCMS blog.",
  "totalTime": "PT15M",
  "step": [
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 1,
      "name": "Add a CNAME record",
      "text": "In your DNS provider dashboard, create a CNAME record pointing www to proxy.velocms.org."
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "position": 2,
      "name": "Enter your domain in VeloCMS",
      "text": "In Admin Settings Custom Domain, paste your domain and click Verify."
    }
  ]
}

The totalTime field uses ISO 8601 duration format — PT15M means 15 minutes. It's optional but Google shows it in rich results when present, which improves click-through rate. The name field in each HowToStep maps to the heading shown in the step list in search results, so make them short and action-oriented.

How AI models use HowTo steps

Language models retrieve HowTo steps individually — each step's name and text are treated as discrete facts. This means your step text needs to be self-contained and precise. 'Click the button' is too vague. 'Click Save Changes in the top-right corner of the Settings page' is retrievable. Think of each step text as a sentence that could be quoted verbatim in an AI-generated tutorial without losing meaning.

Implementation in VeloCMS articles

VeloCMS auto-generates HowTo schema for blog posts that qualify — a post tagged with anything matching how-to-* , or one whose content contains both an ordered list (<ol>) and h3 headings, automatically gets a HowTo JSON-LD block appended alongside its Article schema. Nothing to configure: if your post has that structure, or you add a how-to- prefixed tag to force it, the schema ships on publish.