skills

skills · Not mentioned by Google

Appears in

Organization

What is it?

skills declares specific competencies, abilities, or expertise that an organization (or person) possesses. Unlike knowsAbout, which signals topic familiarity, skills asserts actionable capability. An organization with skills: "penetration testing" is claiming it can perform that service, not just that it has knowledge of the subject.

The field accepts plain text strings or DefinedTerm objects for more structured skill taxonomies. It also appears on JobPosting and Occupation types, where it describes required qualifications.

Why this matters for AEO

When a user asks "companies that can do [specific task]" or "firms with [capability]", AI answer engines look for capability assertions in structured data. skills provides a direct, machine-readable answer to "what can this organization do?" This matters most for service businesses, agencies, and consultancies where the line between topic knowledge and actionable skill determines whether the company appears in capability-focused queries.

For staffing and recruiting contexts, skills on Person and JobPosting types helps AI engines match candidates to positions based on structured skill data rather than keyword matching in resume text.

What the specs say

Schema.org: Expects DefinedTerm or Text. "A statement of knowledge, skill, ability, task or any other assertion expressing a competency that is either claimed by a person, an organization or desired or required to fulfill a role or to work in an occupation." Source

Google: Not listed in Google's structured data documentation for Organization. Source

How to find your value

• Service pages — Named services and capabilities
• Team capabilities — Technical skills across the team
• Case study outcomes — Demonstrated competencies
• Industry certifications — Skills validated by third parties
• Technology stack — Tools and platforms the team operates

Format and code

Plain text array:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Thoughtbot",
  "skills": [
    "Ruby on Rails development",
    "React development",
    "product design",
    "user research",
    "agile project management"
  ]
}

DefinedTerm objects (for linking to a taxonomy):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Accenture",
  "skills": [
    {
      "@type": "DefinedTerm",
      "name": "Cloud migration",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing"
    },
    {
      "@type": "DefinedTerm",
      "name": "SAP implementation"
    }
  ]
}

Webflow implementation

Static pages

Add skills in Page Settings > Custom Code (before </head>):

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Your Agency",
  "skills": ["skill one", "skill two", "skill three"]
}
</script>

CMS template pages

For agency directories or team member profiles, reference a plain text CMS field that stores skills:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "{{wf {"path":"name","type":"PlainText"} }}",
  "skills": "{{wf {"path":"skills-list","type":"PlainText"} }}"
}
</script>

In Schema HQ

Support is available for skills in the Organization schema editor. Enter skills as a list, and Schema HQ outputs them as a string array in the published JSON-LD.

Real examples

No live implementations of skills on Organization markup were found during research.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "IDEO",
  "skills": [
    "design thinking",
    "human-centered design",
    "rapid prototyping",
    "organizational transformation",
    "brand strategy"
  ]
}

Related fields

• knowsAbout — topic familiarity (broader than skills)
• hasCredential — formal certifications that validate skills
• keywords — topical tags (less action-oriented than skills)
• description — free-text summary that may mention capabilities

FAQ

Should I use skills or knowsAbout for an Organization?

Use knowsAbout for domain knowledge and topic areas. Use skills for specific, actionable capabilities. In practice, either field signals expertise. For organizations, knowsAbout is the more conventional choice since skills was originally designed for Person and JobPosting types. Using both is valid if the lists cover different information.

Can skills include soft skills like leadership or communication?

For organizations, focus on service capabilities and technical competencies. Soft skills make more sense on Person types. An organization claiming skills: "leadership" is vague; skills: "executive coaching" is actionable and useful for search matching.

How granular should skills be?

Match the level of specificity that a potential client or partner would search for. "Web development" is too broad. "Shopify Plus custom theme development" is specific enough to match targeted queries without being so narrow that it misses related searches.