member

member · Optional

Appears in

• Organization

What is it?

member lists the people or organizations that belong to the current organization. It is the inverse of memberOf. A trade association uses member to list its member companies. A professional body uses it to list its certified practitioners. A standards organization uses it to list participating companies.

The expected value is an Organization or Person. Multiple members are expressed as an array. The inverse property, memberOf, is declared on the member entity to point back to the hosting organization.

Why this matters for AEO

AI answer engines answer questions about organizational membership from both directions. When a user asks "Which companies are members of the World Economic Forum?" or "Is Toyota in the Responsible Business Alliance?", AI systems look for structured member declarations on the hosting organization's page.

The member field also helps AI systems answer queries about organizational credibility and peer validation. A standards body that lists its member organizations gives AI systems verifiable data about who participates in a given industry framework. This is distinct from marketing claims in body copy.

For professional associations and certification programs, a machine-readable member list provides a queryable source for questions like "Is this professional firm certified?" or "Which companies meet this standard?".

What the specs say

Schema.org:member expects an Organization or Person value. A member of an Organization or a ProgramMembership. Organizations can be members of organizations. ProgramMembership is typically for individuals. [Source: https://schema.org/member]

Google: Not mentioned in Google's structured data documentation for Organization as a specific rich result trigger. May contribute to entity knowledge graph construction. [Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization]

How to find your value

For trade associations and standards bodies: list current member organizations with their name and URL. For professional associations: list certified practitioners with name and, where appropriate, a profile URL or sameAs link for disambiguation. For program memberships: list individuals or companies enrolled in the program.

Do not include former members. member implies current active membership. For past affiliates, use alumni if the entity type is an educational or alumni-style organization.

Format and code

Trade association with member companies

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Cloud Native Computing Foundation",
  "url": "https://www.cncf.io",
  "member": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Google LLC",
      "url": "https://www.google.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Microsoft",
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Amazon Web Services",
      "url": "https://aws.amazon.com"
    }
  ]
}

Professional body with individual members

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Association for Computing Machinery",
  "url": "https://www.acm.org",
  "member": [
    {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Tim Berners-Lee",
      "sameAs": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee"
    }
  ]
}

Standards body with program members

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "W3C",
  "url": "https://www.w3.org",
  "member": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Apple Inc.",
      "url": "https://www.apple.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Mozilla Foundation",
      "url": "https://foundation.mozilla.org"
    }
  ]
}

Industry consortium with mixed membership

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "OpenID Foundation",
  "url": "https://openid.net",
  "member": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Google",
      "url": "https://www.google.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Ping Identity",
      "url": "https://www.pingidentity.com"
    }
  ]
}

Webflow implementation

Static pages

Add in Page Settings > Custom Code on the association or organization's main page:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Your Association",
  "url": "https://yourassociation.org",
  "member": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Member Company Name",
      "url": "https://membercompany.com"
    }
  ]
}
</script>

CMS template pages

For associations with large member lists managed through a CMS, create a members collection in Webflow CMS with fields for member name and URL. Reference those fields in a custom code embed on the organization's main template to generate the member array dynamically.

In Schema HQ

Inside Schema HQ, the organization schema editor supports member as a repeatable field. Add each member organization or person through the UI and Schema HQ generates the correct nested structure in the JSON-LD.

Real examples

Linux Foundation:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Linux Foundation",
  "url": "https://www.linuxfoundation.org",
  "member": [
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Meta",
      "url": "https://about.meta.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Intel",
      "url": "https://www.intel.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Organization",
      "name": "Samsung",
      "url": "https://www.samsung.com"
    }
  ]
}

Related fields

• memberOf
• alumni
• subOrganization
• funder

FAQ

What is the difference between member and subOrganization?

subOrganization is for organizations that are structurally part of the current entity (like subsidiaries or divisions). member is for external organizations or individuals that belong to an association or program but are independently governed. Member companies of a trade association are not subOrganizations of that association.

Can member include both organizations and people in the same array?

Yes. Schema.org allows a heterogeneous array where some entries are Organization and others are Person. This is valid JSON-LD and useful for professional bodies that have both individual practitioners and corporate members.

Should member lists be exhaustive?

For small organizations with a fixed member count, an exhaustive list is appropriate. For large associations with thousands of members, consider listing only founding members, board members, or the most notable members. An excessively large structured data block can slow page parsing without proportional benefit.