Your SEO Company Schema Guide
Any SEO company will tell you that SEO is an area of digital marketing that can help to improve your brand’s online presence and visibility. It’s essential for your business to optimise your SEO in order to create more opportunities to be found in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This will give your business credibility and generate more organic leads. We use Schema in our SEO Cape Town guides.
Schema markup and structured data should be an important focus in your SEO strategy. An SEO company can aid you in optimising the use of these effectively to create descriptions that appear in online search results. In this SEO Company Schema Guide, we look at how to implement structured data correctly to boost rankings.
SEO Company Schema Guide – What is schema markup?
Schema markup is essentially implementing a type of code that enables you to embed features within a Google search. Rich snippets are also an example of an embedded feature. Schema markup is formed using HTML tags that are added to your website’s code, in order to generate short descriptions displayed beneath your website title on search engine results pages.
Schema markup has two main purposes. The first is providing your potential customers with essential information about your business by giving more details in search results. The second is to help the search engines understand more about what the content on your website actually means. Both of these can boost your SEO ranking and credibility overall.
By implementing schema markup, you can ensure that you give the search engines the information they need to provide the best results possible. There are different types of HTML tags that add different information depending on the product or service you need to describe. For example, you can add schema markup to describe an event by indicating the location, schedule, and organiser.
Search engine bots crawl over the coding of your website, looking for information that can be indexed and displayed on search engine results pages. The main advantage of using schema markup is that it is easily retrieved, analysed, stored, and displayed making it easier for the search engine bots to make sense of your coding. It essentially labels the information on your website so it’s clearer for search engines to interpret and display it.
Schema markup was also developed with the user in mind because it gives them more information about your company in the search engine results. This is good for business as users are more likely to click on your site if they have a clear idea of the product or service you provide. An SEO company can help you implement the use of this semantic vocabulary so that you really enhance the way your site appears on the SERPs.
SEO Company Schema Guide – What is structured data?
Structured data, also known as metadata, is the basis of schema, which is why the terms are often interchangeable. Structured data is the concept of adding certain values to items of information in order to improve its structure and accessibility. It’s created using a predefined schema of terms organised in a tabular format.
Structured data can be used to further describe a product, for example, by adding tags related to its name, price, and availability, but can also include things like reviews and ratings. This gives potential customers plenty of information straight away in the results pages when they search for a particular product online. For this reason, adding structure can help you generate more organic leads.
Schema.org is the official name or the vocabulary, or language, most commonly used to create structured data. Structured data and schema are used with the same meaning in this sense. Both are about adding terms to items to better structure information. Schema markup essentially means the implementation of structured data, using the schema vocabulary.
How can an SEO company use schema to boost ranking?
An SEO company can help you boost your ranking by successfully implementing schema markup. It may sound quite fiddly and technical, but with the right expertise and resources, an SEO company can improve how your site appears on the search engine results pages. By adding these little extra snippets of coding, you can provide more information about your business.
Using schema markup means that search engines are able to show richer results, also known as rich snippets. If you use schema markup to create rich snippets your site will be more noticeable due to the extra information provided. An SEO company can help you successfully implement this structured data so that Google will display the right information and make your business stand out on the SERPs.
Schema has a positive impact on your SEO because it improves your click-through-rate (CTR). This a factor used in ranking your site. You will draw more attention with added rich snippets and attract more visitors to your site. Targeting and bringing in the right customers also helps to boost your SEO ranking.
If more people click on the link to your webpage, this indicates to the search engines that your content is valuable and that you’re an authority in the field. This results in a higher ranking on the SERPs. The problem with SEO is that it can be very competitive, so you need to monitor your results to ensure you optimize the right structured data, and an SEO company can help you with this.
Schema markup is just one of the ways you can really optimise your SEO. It makes your site stand out above the rest on the search engine results pages. Imagine a potential customer
looking up a particular service you provide, if they see a list of FAQs attached below the link to your site, this will instantly draw their attention as you’ve already managed to provide this information. There are types of schema used for FAQs and many other features.
SEO Company Schema Guide – Types of Schema markup
There are literally hundreds of types of schema markup relating to all kinds of fields. Schema can be added to describe local businesses, books and film reviews, events, software, and technology. Here are some popular examples of types of schema markup.
The product review markup is very effective because it allows customers to immediately see a review of your product on the search engine results pages. You can also add a star rating. This is often very successful in creating trust in potential customers and generating conversions.
The product review markup can also include a range of eye-catching information, such as offers, price comparisons, and whether it’s available for delivery, and how long this might take, for example. This is a great way to attract attention from potential customers looking for a bargain. An SEO company will be able to advise on what information is best to include.
The FAQ markup we already mentioned is also a great tool. Why not add a list of common FAQs under your site title? This has many proven benefits.
First of all, it makes you appear transparent about your business, which is very appealing to potential customers. It also provides them with all the information they might want to know about your products, services, and how you conduct your business. The questions and answers appear in a drop-down list directly in the search results so customers can read them.
Another fun type of markup is recipe instructions. You can entice users to read more by introducing them to the first part of the recipe. This is only useful for cooking and food-related sites of course.
Whatever your product or service may be, an SEO company can help you optimize the right structured data for you. You can ask them for advice on what typically works for competitors, or about creating something unique. There’s a markup for just about anything, so you’ll definitely be able to build richer search results, whatever your business.
How to use schema markup on your website
In order to create schema markup on your website, you can try using Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper. This tool helps you in selecting a data type and adds the code automatically to your URL. You can also select the content that you want to appear with the markup.
It’s fairly easy to use and you can get by without much knowledge of coding. The main thing is knowing how to choose the right markup for your business, which an SEO company can help you with. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper helps you create the HTML for your new and improved website, however.
You can add a variety of markup depending on what type of service your business provides. First, you select the type of business, product, or service, for example, restaurants. You can then choose from a list of markup options to enhance how the restaurant appears in search results. These may range from the name and location of your restaurant to the entire menu along with booking options.
This is a good example of how structured data really makes your site stand out on Google. Potential customers will be introduced to checks things like your menu and availability as soon as they arrive on the results page. An SEO company can really make this information eye-catching for your business, to maximise customer interest.
How to test schema markup on your website like an SEO company?
Now that you’ve learned how to add schema markup to your website, it’s also important to know how to test it. What good is all that effort if you don’t even know if it works? Google also has a tool for this, aptly named Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
This tool will let you know if the code you implemented is correct. You can do this by simply entering your URL and clicking on “run test”. Sometimes data can be misunderstood by Google, so you need to ensure yours is working correctly.
You can also use Google Structured Data Testing Tool to view what the website with the new coding will look like when it appears in the Google search results. You can do this by copying and pasting your HTML code into the tool and click on “preview”. This should hopefully show any errors in coding as well.
It’s vital to ensure that you’ve implemented the structured data correctly, otherwise, you won’t be able to reap the benefits. An SEO company will also be able to assist you in the constant monitoring of your schema markup and assess whether it’s working or not. They will also be able to provide helpful suggestions to improve it.
What is the future of schema markup?
Schema markup is now more commonly used and so much so it’s almost considered the future of SEO. While there are still more important factors to consider such as keyword optimisation, mobile customisation, crawlability, and CTR, structured data is now up there as a vital part of your SEO strategy.
It may appear simple to implement but schema markup can go wrong if you’re less experienced. It’s advisable to only markup visible content, for example, rather than anything hidden, and knowing how to implement structured data in the most effective way can be complicated. For this reason, it’s better to speak to an SEO company with the knowledge and expertise to help you.
One of the biggest advantages of schema is that it’s also user-focused. This is the great thing about SEO, often customer experience is directly linked to your ranking. By optimizing the way your site appears in the search engine results pages, you’re also providing your customers with useful information at the same time. Creating this eye-catching material not only attracts customers but improves their overall experience.
Schema is a great asset to your SEO campaign and well worth taking the time to implement. Not many businesses use it and it could give you the edge over the competition on the search engine results pages. An SEO company will be able to improve your ranking by optimizing the appropriate structured data for you. You’ll be able to make your business really stand out.