Schema markup is structured data or microdata that you place on your website to help search engines return more informative results for users. When added to a webpage, schema markup creates an enhanced description known as a rich snippet, which appears in a search result; this gives a very important function to schema in SEO toolkits along with other great tools. It’s a great way to help your website stand out from your competition.
Schema.org makes an agreed-on set of code markers that tell a major search engine how to process the data on your website. Web pages with schema markup use HTML code while adding schema.org vocabulary (semantic vocabulary) to HTML microdata. The more content you mark up on your website, the better.
Schema helps your website rank better when focusing on content types. There are hundreds and hundreds of different markup types ranging from cooking recipes to software applications. Once you really start getting to know the full extent of item types, you can see how much content you can actually mark up on your web pages.
Schema Markup: How to Improve the SEO of Your Website
Schema markup is a form of microdata. It’s a great way to help your website stand out from your competition in a search result.
Once you understand the concept and methods for schema in SEO, you’ll see your ranks rise quickly in the search engines result pages (SERPs.)
Read on to learn more about schema markup, why it’s important, and tips for improving your SEO strategy.
Schema Markup: What is it?
Schema markup is structured data or microdata that you place on your website to help a search engine return more informative results for users.
When added to a webpage, structured markup creates an enhanced description known as a rich snippet, which appears in a search result.
Top search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo – started collaborating to create Schema.org back in 2011.
Although a like from visitors will not be able to give specific information about your efforts, it will provide your with a good overview of the overall health of your .
With this , you can see any changes in growth; stagnation or decline becomes easy to identify, allowing you to make improvements quickly and easily.
There are two types of visitors that your gets: new visitors and returning visitors.
Search results
With schema markup, some of the content of your website gets indexed and returned differently than in standard search results.
The schema type tells search engines more information about what that website content means. Putting the structured markup around specific details, like the author’s name, provides better and more specific information for the search results.
Microdata format
Right now, schema implementation may sound more complicated than it is, but don’t worry. You don’t have to learn any new coding skills to use schema SEO.
Schema.org makes an agreed-on set of code markers that tell a major search engine how to process the data on your website.
Web pages with schema markup use HTML code while adding schema.org vocabulary (semantic vocabulary) to HTML microdata.
User-focused
Schema markup is a user-focused practice. It allows users to see what a website is all about, including where they are, what they do, what they have, etc. You to gain more specific information when searching.
Why is Schema in SEO important?
Schema helps your website rank better when focusing on content types. There are hundreds and hundreds of different markup types ranging from cooking recipes to software applications.
Schema markups are commonly used to indicate:
- Articles
- Events
- FAQs
- Local Businesses
- Medical conditions
- Organizations
- People
- Products
- Recipes
- Reviews
There’s a good chance that any data on your website has an associated itemscope and itemtype.
Web pages that use schema markup will be more visible in SERPs than companies without markup.
For example, the result of a page implementing the schema markup for ‘recipes’ – you can see rich snippet recipes that have images, title, rating, and a sentence of information. Recipes show up in the rich snippet because their schema was marked up accordingly.
A third of Google’s search results incorporate rich snippets, which include schema markup. Still, less than one-third of websites use schema markup.
That means there are millions of websites missing out on a huge source of SEO.
Using schema markup should give you a leg up on the majority of your competition.
The Quick and Dirty on How to Improve your SEO Using Schema Markup
You want to improve your on-page SEO. We all do. It’s an important way to bring organic traffic to your website- but it can be hard to get to that coveted first page in the SERPs.
Schema markup can be that little extra push that finally gets you to your search rank goals.
Follow these 8 steps to improve your SEO using schema markup:
- Go to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
- Select the Type of Data
- Paste the URL You Want to Markup
- Select the Elements to Mark Up
- Continue Adding Markup Items
- Create the HTML
- Test Your Schema
You can use the Structured Data Testing Tool to find out what your page will look like with the added markup. The testing tool shows you what the article will look like in Google search results. You can also inspect every markup element that you added.
Tips for Using Schema in SEO
The point of structuring your data is to communicate better with search engines like Google.
Google has stated that properly structured data can enhance your appearance in search results.
Going back to our previous ‘recipe’ example, with structured reviews, Google will show recipes with the highest ratings and quantity at the top of their results.
The steps listed below will help you determine how to get the most out of schema and improve the SEO of your website.
Get to know the commonly used schemas
Schema.org is your best friend regarding schema resources because it provides a list of the most common types of schema markup. To find the list, visit the Organization of Schemas page. Get familiar with the types best suited to your business.
It can't hurt to use a lot of markups
The folks at Schema.org explicitly state that the more content you mark up on your website, the better.
Once you really start getting to know the full extent of item types, you can see how much content you can actually mark up on your web pages.
But be careful; don’t waste your time by marking up content that is hidden in divs or other hidden pages. Only mark up the content that is visible to your visitors.
Today, an astounding 93% of online experiences start with a search engine. It’s a valuable way for people to find businesses, products, and services they are looking for.
We know it may seem complicated, but schema markup is easy to incorporate into your website once you know the basics. It’s surprising how few websites have taken advantage of it.
Schema markup is not going anywhere anytime soon. It is an SEO technique that will most likely be around for a long time. That being so, now is the time to get familiar with it and implement microdata to improve your search results.
If you are overwhelmed with the idea of schema markup and SEO, our team at MK Way can help you with how to improve the SEO of your website by using best practices.
We can help you navigate the digital realm. Email us today to schedule a free discovery consultation!
