The largest SEO potential your company is missing out on may perhaps be schema markup! In this article, my aim is to explain how schema markup can organise data on a webpage in a way that improves its value to search engines and helps the website’s SEO, discuss the different techniques for including schema markup in web content and how to evaluate its results.
So, sit back and let me take you through schema markup, how to use it and why it should be part of every web designer, content creator and digital marketers daily routine.
Schema Markup: What is it?
Schema markup is web code that explains to search engines the function of a webpage’s content. Search engines can then employ the proper presentational elements to provide the material to the right users. For the level of assurance they require to offer content in unique ways, such as a featured snippet or voice search result, search engines significantly rely on structured data.
How Does Schema Markup Work?
Schema markup explains the function and characteristics of specific webpage content sections. Schema markup in a webpage’s source code can alter how a search engine uses the content of the page.
Structured data has no impact on how a webpage appears to users or functions. The lexicon of the terminology used in structured data, known as schema markup, is derived from microdata. All three search engines – Google, Bing, and Yahoo! – can read schema markup and utilise online material in certain ways based on its rules.
How Does SEO Benefit From Schema Markup?
From the standpoint of SEO, schema markup can be a substantial improvement.
36.6% of search phrases, according to research, have at least one highlighted snippet that is derived from schema markup. This typically involves featured snippets at the top of search results with a “0 ranking.”
Only a small portion of registered domains frequently use schema markup, with estimates as low as 0.3%, despite the predominance of schema-marked content in top search results. In other words, just a small percentage of webmasters are focusing on schema markup, which is a huge chance to push your content to the top of the SERPs.
Schema markup appears to have significant overall SEO benefits. According to a study by Searchmetrics, websites that employ schema markup often rank four pages higher than those that don’t.
Adding schema markup to a website…
If you want to add schema markup to web content, there are two different methods.
If you are a web developer or have access to their talents, you may decide to manually add schema markup to web content by modifying the source code of the website. Although this method offers you precise control over your schema markup, it might not be the best choice.
For a variety of content kinds, Google provides thorough instructions on how to construct schema markup. The new HTML can then be added to your webpage to update it. You might be able to accomplish this on your own using the HTML editor in your CMS, or you might need to submit a support ticket to your development team.
Use a plugin to automate the development of schema markup…
Installing a schema markup plug-in on your content management system will make the process of adding schema markup to a webpage easier (CMS). This will give you a convenient way to include schema into your content as you create and upload it in the backend of your website. Depending on the CMS you choose, there will be a different range of plugins available to you.
Using a schema markup tester, verify your work…
It is recommended that you use a schema markup tester to validate your markup before deploying it. The Google Structured Data Testing Tool is the one we recommend most. This tool is not only free and simple to use, but it is also obviously made with the most significant search engine (for most businesses) in mind.
This tool is simple to use for both validating published web pages with structured data and checking pending web page code with newly added schema markup. When you arrive at the Google Structured Data Tool, choose “Fetch URL” or “Code snippet,” as appropriate.
The development of schema markup…
Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yandex worked together to develop schema markup to meet their shared need for better technology to support advanced capabilities like voice search and highlighted snippets. At Schema.org, you can learn more about schema markup, its guidelines, and its continuing development.
In order to determine whether your schema markup is resulting in increased visibility in featured snippets, you can analyse keywords that are associated with your content that has additional structured data.
