Schema markup and structured data are the new “buzzwords” in the SEO industry – and with good reason. The most talented SEOs in the world are taking advantage of structured data because it has proven extremely successful.
This article will cover what the Schema markup is and how you can use it to increase the click-through rate and drive more organic traffic to your websites.
What’s the Schema Markup?
Schema.org is a joint project between various search engines to make it easier for webmasters to provide information about their blogs, articles, and search engine pages to make it easier for them to understand your content.
Adding Schema Markup to your HTML site can also make your page eligible for a variety of different rich snippet forms – this is something we’ll discuss in more depth later in this article.
Forms of Schema Markup
Now that we’ve discussed exactly what the Schema markup is, you may be wondering – for what sort of content are actually structured data?
Some of the most widely known available forms include:
- Articles of association
- Local company
- Restaurants
- TV episodes and ranking
- Reviews of Book
- Movies, movies
- Applications for apps
- Events:
- Products Products
But here is an up-to-date, official & full list of all available Schema Markup forms. There are literally hundreds to choose from, so be assured, the chances are that if you have a certain form of data on your site that is useful to searchers in any way, there will be a related itemcope and itemtype.
What is RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD?
RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD are all code languages that can be applied to HTML to embed structured data (such as Schema Markup) to a web page.
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Objects – JSON-LD
JSON-LD stands for JavaScript Object Notation for Related Objects and is generally recognized as the recommended language for structured data markup. JSON-LD can be applied by pasting directly to the <head> or <body> tag of a website, which is a major part of why it is considered the easiest way to enforce the Schema.
Google officially suggests using the JSON-LD markup over every other markup whenever possible:
How do I create your HTML Schema?
There are a variety of ways you can incorporate structured data into your website. Luckily, suppose you’re using WordPress. In that case, it’s also used to power the blog you’re reading this very article on, so it’s obviously our first recommendation – it’s really simple.
And in addition to that, Gutenberg blocks have now been added to make it much easier to add HowTo and FAQ Schema to posts and sites, so you don’t really need to tinker with HTML and hope for the best.
Here are the following methods that you can use to validate your schema markup.
Markup Validator Schema
If you do not use WordPress and are unable to use Rank Math, any typos or minor errors will result in your site not being qualified to win a rich snippet, which is ultimately the final aim of adding structured data to your website.
This can be achieved easily with a variety of tools:
- Google Structured Data Testing Tool
- The Google Rich Results Testing Tool
Both tools will show you if your website is qualified for rich results – below are two examples of the good implementation of the Schema markup:
Here’s the product of the Google Rich Results Testing Tool.
Structured Data & Semantic Search
The main aim of using structured data is to better communicate your website to search engines. This is because if Google is able to comprehend entities and content, it will provide searchers with the best possible results.
The added advantage is that your site is eligible for rich results – like rich cards, rich snippets, information graphics, and more – that have been shown to improve click-through rates. The very rational deduction considering that they all render your website and pages occupy a greater amount of space on the search screen so that they are by default more likely to click on your results than on another one.
Does Schema support the Rank?
This is a burning topic. Does the use of the Schema markup actually help you rank?
To date, there are no studies to indicate that the use of standardized data actually helps to rank your site. While not helping your site rank, as described above, there have been studies that have shown that rich results increase organic click-through rates (CTRs), which means that you are likely to see an increase in search traffic, which is still the desired end result.
What are Organized Data Benefits?
Winning rich snippets is advantageous as it helps improve your website’s overall popularity when searching (occupying additional real estate on the search engine results pages) and – as in the case of FAQ Schema – provides users with an additional form of interaction.
By design – a page that is eligible for rich FAQ results will be given additional space below the standard search snippet in the form of FAQ tabs added using the in-page markup. As you would imagine, additional space in Google search results appears to equal more clicks on your blog, resulting in a higher click-through rate.
Beyond this, the use of structured data will also make your site eligible for a Google Assistant action that can help your site become a source of information when people use voice search to ask questions…
Start Taking Benefit from Schema
Let us hope that any concerns you may have had when you heard the word “Schema” or “Structured Data” had been put to rest.
Schema is much easier to implement than it appears to be, and it’s the best technique you need to integrate into your web pages.
The job can seem tiresome. But with time and effort, you’re able to reap the fruits of your labor.
I hope that this guide will answer any questions or concerns you have had whenever you heard the words “Schema Markup” or “Structured Data” tossed around you.
Thanks to strong content management systems like WordPress (and plugins like Rank Math), implementing Schema on your web pages is much less time-consuming than it used to be.
The best way to use this right away is to spend some time browsing your existing content to see if there are areas where you could potentially add Schema to make it easier for search engines to understand your content and potentially make your site eligible for rich search results.
If you have any concerns about structured data or Schema markups that were not included in this article, please feel free to leave a comment below.