What Is Schema Markup & Why It’s Important For SEO

SCHEMA MARKUP IS ONE OF THE LATEST AND MOST ADVANCED SEO ADD-ONS. THIS IS A FAIRLY NEW TECHNIQUE THAT CAN BE USED TO MAKE YOUR SEO BETTER.

At first glance, it may look daunting, but once you become familiar with what it is and how you can use it to your advantage, you can achieve amazing results when it comes to ranking on the first page of search engines. Many people leave it behind because they don’t know what schema markup is or what’s the purpose of using it?

What is Schema Markup?

It is a way to tell the search engine bots or crawlers about the context of your content so that they can understand.

This can give context to a web page that would otherwise seem difficult for search engines to read.

The way this is done with tagged HTML (semantic dictionary) is understandable to search engines.

These tags cannot be seen by users, and only for the search engines and their algorithms that crawl on your pages.

The use of Schema markup is recommended especially in the age of RankBrain and Hummingbird.

Schema.org

Schema.org, according to the website “… a collaborative, community-based activity with a mission to create, maintain and promote structured data schemas on the Internet, on web pages, in e-mail and beyond …”

It was founded by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Yandex, which are some of the top ranked search engines in the world.

The site states that over 10 million sites worldwide use Schema.org to mark up their pages and email messages.

Schema Markup benefits

It’s no coincidence that Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex created Schema.org.

The main reason is that they believe it will really help with the overall search experience when used correctly.

There are quite a few benefits to using Schema Markup and structured data.

1. Better understanding

One of the main benefits of using Schema Markup and structured data is that you provide search engines with a better understanding of the content that is published on your site.

Sometimes content can have a double meaning and search engine algorithms can misunderstand the meaning of the content, which can lead to worse ranking results.

Let’s take a simple example of one word. Avatar. In the content, an Avatar can mean an icon or it can mean a movie Avatar.

If you are reading the article, you can understand the meaning from the context.

But algorithms and machines do not have the same human capabilities, and in some cases they can misunderstand certain information.

This makes the number one advantage of using a scheme to provide a clear idea of ​​what content on your web page is going to the search engines.

This way, people looking for content will be presented with more relevant results.

While Google’s algorithms, for example, are very advanced and probably know the general theme of your site, the schema tells it a lot of specific details about the content.

When you think about it, this in itself is a very good reason why to use a circuit, but of course there are other benefits to it as well.

2. Rich fragments

Another benefit of using schema is rich snippets that draw attention to search results in a sea of ​​others.

There are many types of rich snippets and more are being created all the time.

To make it clearer, I’ll take reviews as an example. If you are looking for a product or service and want to see how satisfied previous customers are, you are probably interested in having reviews.

Awesome, huh?

There are different types of data displayed for events, documents, music, videos, etc.

3. Knowledge graphs

A good way to improve your brand’s presence is through a knowledge graph that can give you a good boost.

Everyone knows what a knowledge graph is, even if you may not know what it is called.

When you search for something on Google and the result that comes up on the right side of the search engine is knowledge of the graph.

For example, if you search for the word “omelet” on Google, you get a very thorough knowledge graph.

First you will see the definition of what the omelet is, then you will see the main ingredients. But the information does not end there.

Plus, you can see nutritional facts about omelet and you can see it in detail.

Once you are towards the end of the knowledge graph, you can even see what people are looking for, what is related to it.

This is very useful when we are talking about business too, as their knowledge of graphics tell all the important details to clients in one glance.

A business can have its own address, email, business hours, reviews, etc. presented in advance.

Google can be very careful about displaying these types of information because it wants to be absolutely sure that the data is correct.

That’s where schema comes in. By labeling these types of information as structured data on your site, you make it easier for Google to recognize your information as correct.

The same goes for Top Stories too.

4. Get more followers

Increasing the number of followers can be achieved through markup scheme too. If you go ahead and tag your social accounts, you can get the badges shown in Google results.

When clicked, they will lead to your business’s social media platform.

This can be a very good way to increase your following in a very simple and organic way.

5. Frequently asked questions chart

Another form of structured data that was introduced last year that many marketers disliked in the beginning.

For users, this is very helpful because it gives them information that they might be interested in and it gives it quickly.

If you google anything, some Frequently Asked Questions Outline will appear with related questions that people ask are connected to your search.

It can be very helpful for your web page to ask these questions.

6. Fragments

This is a different type of snippet, and this is the first result you showed on Google when you ask a specific question.

This snippet has a much higher CTR than regular results, and it could be an item, list, or table.

These types of snippets were selected by Google as the best rank, but the implementation of the scheme is known to help in this case too.

There are many other benefits when it comes to Schema Markup, like getting a CTA in Google search results, positioning your site for voices , getting more job seekers, getting more views or playing for your video or song, etc.

Will Schema Markup Improve Your Search Rankings?

So far, there is no evidence that microdata can directly improve your organic search rankings.

But, rich snippets will surely make your web pages more prominent in SERPs.

Also, another good point is that users will end up getting more relevant results from search engines, which can mean lower bounce rates and more time spent on page for your business.

How important is schema markup?

Structured data offers you the opportunity to become more conspicuous in the SERPs. For example, by displaying rating stars, images or price information in the SERPs, users can be animated to click exactly on your snippet. By using structured data, the CTR in the SERPs can be sustainably increased. This effect should not be underestimated. It is best to think of your own experience in finding articles. Don’t you rather click on a search result with a picture or rating stars?

Google is now very good at reading and processing content on websites. Keep in mind that you don’t just make Google’s indexing of information easier with the help of markup. Therefore, pay attention to the following aspects when optimizing on-page:

• Use bulletpoint lists for a brief summary of product or item highlights.
• Create overview tables for product comparisons.
• Use h-tags to make your headings meaningful.
• Offer Google short definitions and summaries on specific issues.
• Put specific questions in headings. Use questions that a user could actually ask.

As you can see, in addition to structured data, there are other ways to make it easier for users and Google to search for information. Therefore, you should not lose sight of these aspects in your efforts to get structured data!

How do I find the schema markup?

Structured data can be stored automatically with the data highlighter of the Google Search Console . This option is particularly suitable for markup starters. Beginners can call up a page of your website and mark data with the mouse. The data highlighter is best used only when the markup is simple and you do not have access to the HTML code yourself .

With the Structured Data Markup Helper , Google offers another useful tool for creating structured data. Here, the data can be used as the more accurate Data Highlighter ge day be gt. In addition, information that was not captured with the mouse can be entered manually. However, this only makes sense if this information is also available on the website . Then the created tool a code , which can be downloaded for implementation. You can choose between the output as Microdata or JSON-LD.

In both tools , only a fraction of all possible markups are available to the user . They are helpful for the first steps in the area of ​​technical SEO with markups , but not for specific awards.

What is schema markup WordPress?

Now you fully understand what Schema is and the popular ways in which it is used by businesses, eCommerce sites, bloggers and many more, it’s time to take a look at how you can add this to your WordPress website. Would it be WordPress without a plugin? Of course not! So, the first and perhaps most simple option for adding Schema markup to your site is through a plugin, these will help you to create rich and relevant meta descriptions. There are several plugins available, including:

Yoast SEO

Automatically add your Schema.org info with Yoast. The plugin adds your site information with JSON-LD such as your site name, logo, articles, socials, search, etc.

All In One Schema Rich Snippets

This free plugin allows you to work through each page and post adding information about the content within.

Schema App Structured Data
This plugin does the hard work for you by automatically configuring Schema settings and data on your posts and pages.

Schema & Structured Data for WordPress & AMP

There is a paid-for version of this plugin which gives you more options for creating Google rich snippets.

Schema Pro

Made by the same people that created All In One Schema Rich Snippets, this plugin is a bit more costly but comes with 13 different schema types and 1-click customization.

What is structured data markup in SEO?

Before we go any further, it’s important to clarify the difference between Search Engine Optimization and the work of Schema markups. SEO is all about rankings and visibility, but there is currently no evidence that adding microdata through Schema can have a direct impact on the organic search rankings of your site. So essentially what we’re saying is that Schema is often misunderstood as a way to improve rankings and it is not that.

While Schema does optimize your pages and posts and helps your content to appear in more relevant SERPs, it doesn’t inherently increase your natural rankings like SEO. That said, the more context you give to your WordPress site and the content you share on it (through reviews, thumbnails, ratings, products etc.) the more likely you are to drive click-throughs and traffic to your site. Which in turn, can help to boost the visibility of your pages and improve the overall performance of your website.

Conclusion

The structuring of data is not a must in order to be found easily on Google, but it increases the possibility that your search results will be displayed more prominently and that you will be perceived by Google as a reference. This in turn increases the likelihood that the content of your page will be displayed as part of the knowledge graph. Even if your rankings do not improve directly, you benefit from a better CTR (click rate), more visitors to your website and you are one step ahead of the competition. Above all, thanks to the relatively new possibility of transferring your content to the Google Index in a structured manner via the Google Tag Manager , you can quickly amortize the implementation effort.