In short
- The action
- Not "call us" but a described contact action with an address in it. A human reads the first, an agent can execute the second.
- Already useful today
- The same structure already makes you more readable for assistants that only answer. The agent comes later; the gain arrives now.
- What not to do
- Hard-wiring one vendor's protocol. That is a bet on who wins; described actions are not.
Which actions can an agent recognise at all?
Thirteen, grouped by what someone wants to achieve. They live in a public vocabulary, so it is not one vendor's invention and it works with anyone reading that vocabulary.
| What an agent wants to do | schema.org action |
|---|---|
| Reserve or book | reserveaction · scheduleaction · bookaction · rsvpaction |
| Order or buy | orderaction · buyaction · subscribeaction |
| Ask or request | askaction · requestaction · quoteaction |
| Get in touch | communicateaction · contactaction |
| Search within your site | searchaction |
On what is a page judged when an agent reads it?
On four things, and the heaviest is not readability but whether there is anything to do. That is precisely the new layer: a site can be perfectly comprehensible and still offer zero actions a machine can take hold of.
| Dimension | Weight | The question behind it |
|---|---|---|
| readability | 25 | Can a machine take your page apart at all? |
| actionability | 35 | Is there an action in machine language, or just a phone number in an image? |
| reliability | 20 | Does the answer stay the same when the question is asked again tomorrow? |
| evidence | 20 | Is there anything under the claim, or must the machine take your word for it? |
Does this pay off today or is it a bet on later?
It pays today, and not for the reason you would expect. Agents that genuinely pay on someone's behalf are still the exception; what already happens is that assistants which only answer use the same structure to understand what you offer and what it costs.
That makes the work risk-free in the most literal sense: the cost is repaid today in readability, and whatever comes later is upside. That is a different kind of investment from implementing a protocol that only has value if a particular party wins.
Do I have to pick an agent protocol now?
No, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a delay. The protocols through which agents genuinely act two-way are not settled; hard-wiring one today builds a connection that may not exist in a year. What is settled is the vocabulary for describing an action, and that costs nothing extra.
Frequently asked questions
Does this mean an agent can order from me without me knowing?
No. A described action states that an action exists and where it begins; it does not bypass your ordering process. What an agent does next goes through the same steps as a human — payment, confirmation, and whatever conditions you set there.
My site runs on a standard platform. Can I do anything about this?
Usually yes, and more often than people think without a developer. Many platforms already lay down part of this structure for products and opening hours; what is then missing are the actions. Whether that is a setting or needs work differs per platform — and that is exactly what a scan tells you before you call anyone.
Read on
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