Are you too moving around wondering what Schema markup, Structured data, Schema.org means? Are you too feeling left behind in the race of SEO?
Well, no more scratching your head! I’m about to pull the curtains from it. Let’s discover what are they, why they matter, and how can you make benefit from them?
So, Let’s Get Going!
What is Structured Data SEO?
Search engines try their best to completely understand the content of the page. But it’s not that easy. That’s where schema markup (or structured data) comes into play.
Structured data helps search engines like Google understand the content of the page easy and better.
What is Schema.org?
Now in order to do that, you’ll require a vocabulary that offers content in a manner that search engines can understand. And that vocabulary is called Schema.org.
Schema.org is used by giant search engines. It changes your content into a piece of code that Google bots can easily process and understand. Search engines use that code to display search results in a richer way.
Imagine an Ecommerce website with a lot of products. If you add schema markup to a page with a product, the representation of your result in the search engine would change.
It will become more descriptive and beautiful with respect to the other results of the website. For this reason, these results are called rich results or rich snippets.
You can too add structured data to the pages of your website to get a rich result.
Types of Schema Markup
The vast vocabulary of Schema.org offers forms for structuring data for all types of content, places, things etc, on the internet.
The entire list of items that Schema.org offers schema markups for can be found here.
Common conditions where schema markups are used include:
- Articles
- Products
- Events
- People
- Local Businesses
- Reviews
- Organizations
- Medical conditions
- Recipes
When you add these markups to your site, they help search engines better understand what your site wants is offering. Then the search engine showcases the information on search results via Rich snippets.
Schema Markup Supported Formats
A number of data formats are supported by Schema.org. But the most common ones include JSON-LD, RDFa and Microdata. Let’s get the basic overview of these three formats for structured data in SEO.
JSON-LD
JSON-LD is the most preferred format by Google and webmasters. As it uses a Javascript element and inserts the markup into the top of your page. The reason it is most preferred is that is a lightweight, simple format and can be added without breaking anything.
RDFa
RDFa isn’t much of a hassle too. It used HTML5 format to publish the code linked in HTML5 documents. This ain’t the first choice of webmasters as Google doesn’t prefer it.
Microdata
Now, microdata was the preferred SEO format until JSON-LD comes into the game. Microdata integrates the structured data into the main HTML of your page. And that’s the reason it is a bit risky. As if implemented improperly, it can crash the whole page. If your hands are good on code, then there’s no issue But if not, then I suggest to not push your luck.
Is Structured Data Markup Important In SEO?
The importance of schema markup in SEO cannot be ignored.
As it helps Google know what your pages, products and website are about in brief. And that helps Google to present you to more relevant users.
Plus, structured data also makes your search result (or snippet) look better. Schema SEO makes search engines offer more relevant and specific information to the user.
That increases the chances of a user clicking on your search result. More clicks help you gain higher rankings. In 2022, schema markup is considered among the must-to-do On-Page SEO techniques.
So, ultimately it’s worth your time and efforts!
Does Schema Markup Make Your Site Rank Higher?
To be true, it is not a direct signal to obtain higher organic search rankings.
But, rich snippets do help your web page appear more often in search results. Plus, it is seen that it improves the click-through rate of the web page.
As per a study, around 70% of the Google search results do not use a Schema.org markup. And that opens a huge opportunity for you.
A very handful of things can show their effect quickly in SEO. This can.
How To Generate Your Own Schema Markup For Your Website
There are a number of tools out there to help you generate and implement schema in JSON-LD or microdata easily. My favourite among them all is Google structured data markup helper. Let’s see how it works:
You just have to highlight all the elements on the web page that you would like to mark. Label them according to that then click Create HTML and the desired code will be generated. You can choose in which format you want to create the code (JSON-LD to Microdata) and implement it on your site.
Below is an example of the auto-generated JSON-LD script, ready to be copy-pasted to the site.
Well, this was just one, there are other tools too, that you can use to create your own schema markup.
Here are a few of them.
Generators
Not a code freak, use plugins.
For WordPress people, these are a few useful plugins.
WordPress Plugins
Wrapping Up
Schema Markup shouldn’t be overlooked as it offers a huge opportunity to thrive in the search results through rich snippets.
Schema is actually much easier to implement in real than it looks. And it’s one of the rare things in SEO that can offer you fast results.
The process may seem a little boring. But putting in the right amount of time and effort can turn it into a game-changer for your website.
Not sure how to start? Talk to ItsGeekynerd.
Mail us your queries at [email protected]. We will be more than happy to help you.
Also, Thank You For Reading Along. It means a lot to us.
FAQs
Why is Structured Data important for SEO?
Structured data helps Google know what your pages, products and website are about in brief. And that helps Google to present you to more relevant users. Plus, structured data also makes your search result (or snippet) look better. Schema SEO makes Google show more relevant and specific information to the user.
What is Structured Data in a website?
Structured data is any data that is organized in a specific way. In terms of SEO, structured data is the organized data that is tagged with a specific bunch of text to help search engines better grasp the context of the information available on the webpage. And that helps it to return more accurate results to the users.
Where do I put Schema Markup?
The Schema Markup of a specific page must be added to the part for which the markup was created. Adding the markup of a different piece of content to other pages can confuse Google as to what the structured data actually want to represent.
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