A statement expressed as a subject, a relationship and an object, used to describe how two things are connected.
A semantic triple breaks a statement into three parts: what the statement is about, the relationship being asserted and the value or thing connected to it. RDF is a formal framework that uses this subject-predicate-object structure to describe resources.
The structure encourages precise thinking about website claims. A company can provide a service, employ a person or own a brand, but those are different relationships. Merely placing two names near one another does not explain which relationship applies. In formal data, identifiers also help distinguish things with similar names.
A triple is a way of representing a claim, not proof that the claim is true. Incorrect information remains incorrect when placed in structured data. Use the model to check the accuracy of your content and markup, rather than adding unsupported relationships because they sound useful for SEO.
Takeaway: Write explicit, factual relationships. Clear statements help customers understand who does what and make structured information easier to maintain.
Example
For a hypothetical manufacturer, “Northstar Tools manufactures the N20 drill” contains a company, a manufacturing relationship and a product. “Northstar Tools is the N20 drill” would confuse the organization with the thing it makes.
What to check
For important relationships, record the evidence and review owner. If a distributor stops carrying a brand, update the visible content and any corresponding structured relationship together.
For more detail, see W3C: RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax.