Increase your visibility on Google by using schema markup, and learn how you can improve your SEO and attract more clicks by displaying relevant data directly in search results.
Danni Jessen
Schema Markup is quickly becoming one of the most important elements when it comes to SEO optimisation for your website.
Schema Markup is a piece of code you add to your website, and there are many different types, each serving its own purpose. However, they all share the same main goal: to provide search engines with more detailed information about the content on your website.
Schema Markup helps Google read and index your landing pages correctly, making it possible to achieve enhanced search results such as rich snippets on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
In this blog post, I will cover the following:
Schema Markup is, in short, a piece of code you add to your website, which is used to give search engines more in-depth information about your blog post, your product, or your business. Schema Markup helps search engines such as Google understand your website correctly and therefore index it better.
There are three different formats or “languages” you can use when adding Schema to your website: Microdata, RDF-A, and JSON-LD.
Microdata refers to attributes that can be added directly to HTML5 elements. This means it is code that must be implemented within your website’s current code.
<p itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Person”>
Hi, I’m
<span itemprop=”name”>Alice</span>. </p>
RDF-A is essentially the same as Microdata. The main difference is that while Microdata is exclusively for HTML5, RDF-A can be used with other languages.
<p vocab=”http://schema.org/” typeof=”Person”>
Hi, I’m <span property=”name”>Alice</span>.
</p>
JSON-LD is the method we recommend you use, and it is also the most widespread way to add Schema Markup to your pages. JSON-LD is the industry standard for Schema Markup, and it is the format recommended by Google. JSON-LD is fundamentally different from the other two, as it is a script and not an addition to your existing code.
<p>
Hi, I’m Alice.
</p>
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “http://schema.org”,
“@type”: “Person”,
“name”: “Alice”
}
</script>
You can read more about these types of Schema Markup in this article from Google.
Search engines are now so sophisticated that they understand most of what they read. However, they do not think like humans (yet), so there are still things they cannot fully comprehend. For this reason, it is sometimes necessary to spell out your content for search engines. This is where Schema Markup becomes relevant and, in some cases, essential.
Schema Markup opens up a wealth of opportunities in search engines such as Google and can help expand your search results with various rich snippets. Rich snippets are extended information that appears alongside the search result and can highlight individual entries for the user. Google does not support all rich snippets, but it does support the vast majority of them.
Rich snippets can, for example, be:
Depending on which rich snippet you have set up, this opens up countless possibilities for displaying your content directly in the search results.
Some of the rich snippets mentioned above can look like this:
Aggregate Rating enables Google to display reviews from your users in your search results, as seen in the example below.
A Featured Snippet shows an excerpt from your landing page that Google believes answers the user’s query in a comprehensive way. For example, it may look like the example below, where the search was for “nedsunken forfod”.
These two examples are just a small selection of all the rich snippets that Google can display with the help of Schema Markup.
There are 4 simple steps you should follow if you want to implement Schema Markup on your website. Of course, there are different requirements depending on the type of website you have. In general, however, you can follow these steps.
If you go through these 4 simple steps, you are well on your way to having a fully Schema Markup optimised website.
As with so many other things, it is important to understand your needs before you start. This is also true when implementing Schema Markup on your website.
For example, if you run an online shop, you will need to implement different types of Schema Markup, such as Organisation and Product.
Homepage – Organisation
Product pages – Product
To get an overview of all your landing pages, you can use either a sitemap or a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your website. Of course, you don’t need to create Schema Markup for every single page on your website, but rather create a template that can easily be implemented everywhere.
As mentioned earlier, there are three different languages in which you can implement Schema Markup.
I recommend using JSON-LD, as this is recommended by Google.
You may think you need to be proficient at coding to build a template for Schema Markup, but it’s actually not that difficult. Google has helpfully created a tool that guides you through the process and ensures you can quickly and easily build the correct structure for your template.
You can find and use Google’s tool here.
As with everything else, it is important to test your pages before publishing them. This also applies when implementing Schema Markup on your pages. Google has also created a tool here that tells you whether it has been implemented correctly.
This tool provides two types of error messages:
If you receive the latter message, you will need to find and correct the error.
Depending on the purpose of your website, Schema Markup is a must-have for SEO. The easier it is for search engines such as Google to understand the content on your website, the greater the chance that Google will rank your search results better. There are several considerations to make before starting to implement Schema Markup, but overall, it is not as difficult as it sounds.
If you have any questions or would like help implementing Schema Markup on your website, you are very welcome to contact us.
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