Google Structured Data Schema and SEO

Schema allows websites to make information, which should exist on the page, unambiguous.

... Schema feeds Google's Knowledge Panel

The Google Knowledge Panel is the information box that mostly appears on the right side of Google search for people, places, and things. It appears when Google has confidence the intent of the search should include this information, to provide a quick snapshot of information, which provides a topic based on Google's understanding of the topic. It is generated for terms Google has enough traffic to be of interest to Google. The information is based on numerous sources, (including schema). Each panel is associated with a unique ID or machine-readable entry ID (MREID), or kgmid.

Website and Organization Schema

Website and organizational schema structures information so it is unambigous. This information can be used in Google's Knowledge Panel.

Actual Site Name not Domain Name

Description of the site in more about and knowledge panel

Navigational Site Links

... Site Structure Breadcrumbs

Visual breadcrumbs help in site navigation ... for SEO they help to determine the interrelationship between pages on a website. In short provide the entity relationship information of the site.

... Byline published date and author

Google refers to the published date snippet in the page's link and description as a byline date, although many refer to the byline as the link to the author's information. Often these are the same. However, the author information is what ties into E-E-A-T and the date is the snippet used as a rich search feature.

It is important to consider that the information in schema should exist on the page! Schema makes the information unambiguous. It can be considered a cofactor, SERP features can be enabled when schema is used and there are also cases of SERP features that do not require a schema cofactor. Pages with only schema are an incorrect implemation but have appeared in search -- the content relevancy is the factor and schema can help to make its relevancy unambiguous.

It isn't always obvious when looking at the coding of a page which parts shown on the page belong or are part of what should be considered as part of the page, and the content which should not be considered as part of the page. Schema clarifies the content.