SEO GLOSSARY

What is a Schema Markup?

Schema markup is a way to add additional structured data to your website pages through the use of code. By adding schema markup, you provide search engines like Google with extra information about your content.

This can help search engines better understand your pages and display them prominently in search results.

How does schema markup work?

Schema markup uses schema.org vocabulary to categorize and describe your content. Schema.org provides a collection of schemas you can use to markup your pages. For example, there are schemas for people, places, events, products, reviews, and more.To add schema, you simply add HTML tags and attributes that align with the schema vocabulary. Here’s a simple example of schema markup for a blog post:

<article itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting">  <h1 itemprop="headline">My Blog Post</h1>    <p>This is the content of my blog post.</p>  <p>Posted by <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">        <span itemprop="name">John Doe</span>    </span> on <time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2023-01-01">January 1, 2023</time></p>  </article>

As you can see, it uses HTML tags and schema.org attributes to identify the headline, author, and date published. This gives Google extra details about the blog content.

Why use schema markup?

• Improve SEO and visibility in search results – Schema can help your pages stand out by enabling rich results like star ratings, images, or reviews. This extra content can catch users’ attention.
• Enhance Google’s understanding – By clearly explaining your content with schema, you aid Google’s ability to classify and index your pages correctly. This can improve rankings.
• Power voice assistants – Schema markup helps voice assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant better comprehend your content for voice-enabled searches.
• Aid accessibility – The structured data can improve page accessibility for visually impaired users relying on screen readers.

So in short, schema markup helps search engines make sense of your content. In turn, this can better connect users to your pages by improving rankings, enhancing snippets, and enabling rich results.

Best Practices for Implementation

Here are some top tips for adding schema markup effectively:

Focus on high-value pages

• Prioritize important and popular pages like your home page, product pages, blog posts, etc. Schema is more impactful on pages with higher visibility and traffic.

Use accurate and specific markup

• Take time to understand schema.org vocabulary and use the most applicable terms. For example, don’t just mark up your “About” page as an Article. The more precise your markup, the more value it provides.

Test your implementation

• Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate your markup and spot any errors to fix. Well-structured data is key.

Keep your schema markup consistent

• Use the same markup for similar pages and content types. Consistent, predictable patterns aid search engines.

Focus on review and aggregate ratings markup

• Mark up ratings, reviews and aggregate scores prominently. This markup really makes pages stand out in rich results.

Complement other optimization efforts

• Schema works best when combined with other SEO best practices like optimized titles, descriptions, headings and quality content.

Getting the Most Value from Schema Markup

To maximize the impact of schema markup, keep these tips in mind:

• Monitor which rich results get displayed for your important pages and refine markup to trigger more of them. The results can take time to appear.
• Consider enhancing pages with more supporting media like images, videos and author bios marked up via schema. This adds more rich snippet potential.
• Use tools like Google Search Console and analytics to evaluate if schema markup is improving performance and visibility over time.
• Stay on top of schema markup best practices as they evolve. Google occasionally adds new rich result features.
• Use schema markup to complement other marketing initiatives, like social media sharing and email campaigns.

With strategic implementation and ongoing optimization, schema markup can significantly improve SEO and user experience. By providing search engines with structured data, you help them better interpret and represent your content across various platforms.