Markup
vs Markdown

Ai crawlers interpret Markdown tables and schema tables differently because these serve distinct purposes:

Markdown Tables:

Markdown tables are primarily for human-readable content and are often converted into HTML for websites. Once converted, crawlers analyze them like any other HTML content but do not inherently grasp semantic relationships within the data.

Schema Tables:

Schema tables, using structured data markup like JSON-LD or Microdata, are explicitly designed for machine readability. They define clear relationships between data points, enabling enhanced features like rich snippets and knowledge panels in search engines.

Key Differences:

Feature	Markdown Tables	Schema Tables
Purpose	Human-readable formatting	Machine-readable semantic data
Interpretation	Treated as general HTML content	Explicitly parsed and categorized by crawlers
Use Case	Visual presentation	Enhancing SEO and rich search features
Semantic Context	None or implicit	Strongly defined relationships

Creating custom microdata schema markup can combine human readability with SEO optimal goals.