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So you think you’re pretty good at SEO? If you’re nodding your head I can only hope that you’re using structured data and schema.org. Schema.org is fast emerging as the best practice for semantic SEO and offers a great opportunity for any business that has a website. If you aren’t using structured data and schema.org, here are 5 tips on how to get started:
- Structured data should be expressed using the most specific applicable type and property names defined by schema.org. The data may be embedded in your webpage using any of three supported formats: JSON-LD, RDFa, and microdata.
- Use the Structured Data Markup Helper to show you where you can add markup and how to do it. The tool shows you how to update your site so that Google—and potentially other companies’ products—can understand the data it contains. Google is sharing information that will actually improve your results both in their search results and in other search engine results in a very simple way.
- Before publishing your website with schema markup, test it with theStructured Data Testing tool. The tool shows the information that a search engine can pull from the schema code and offers a quick diagnosis of any errors in the code.
- Find the schemas that are most commonly used. Schema.org provides a list of the most common types of schema markup. You can visit the Organization of Schemas page to see this list. Check out the types that are best suited to your business.
- The more content you markup the better. In the schema.org instructions is specifically says“the more content you mark up, the better.” When you start understanding the vast array of itemtypes, you begin to see just how much there is on your web page that you can mark up. Keep in mind the disclaimer, however: “You should mark up only the content that is visible to people who visit the web page and not content in hidden div’s or other hidden page elements.”
To get a handle on what you can mark up, visit the Type Hierarchy on the schema.org website.
- Schema.org website
- Google’s free rich snippet tool
- Google’s Schema.org FAQs
2 comments. Leave new
Good post! A point of clarification, though. You say:
“The data may be embedded in your webpage using any of three supported formats: JSON-LD, RDFa, and microdata.”
If one of the reasons you’re employing structured data markup is to facilitate the generation of rich snippets in Google, it’s worth noting that JSON-LD is (at time of writing) not yet supported for all rich snippet types.
For example, if was one to review the Google Developers page on “Enabling Rich Snippets for Products” one would find this warning:
“We are in the process of implementing JSON-LD support for this Rich Snippet type. At the current time, we recommend using microdata or RDFa.”
So if rich snippets are a desired outcome, one should definitely consult the Google Developers documentation to make sure JSON-LD is supported for the desired snippet type.
Hi Aaron,
Right on. We have been tracking Google Features in a spreadsheet which includes a column for JSON-LD support. Look for that featured post soon!