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One of the latest evolutions in SEO is called schema markup. This new form of optimization is one of the most powerful, but least-utilized forms of SEO available today that helps boost your website in the search engine result pages (SERPs). This post explains how schema markup can help make your website more appealing to users by adding more information to the SERP.
What is Schema markup?
Schema is a type of microdata that makes it easier for Google and other search engines to parse and interpret the information on your web pages more effectively so they can serve relevant results to users based on search queries.
Adding structured data is a simple strategy that allows search engines to not only crawl your site, but to truly understand it. This helps the search engine to return more valuable search results to users and helps you get your website in front of people who are looking for it.
For a more in depth explanation of what schema markup is, read our page on the topic.
How Schema Markup Affects Click Through Rate
With Schema markup, your listings become more eye-catching and informative, which can lead to an increased organic CTR.
In this example, the Drake Hotel utilizes schema markup for their events page, making their result more helpful to users and more appealing to users looking for live music. In comparison to the other listings, the Drake Hotel stands out in the search results and would draw users in to learn more about their concert listings.
Schema markup adds more information to your search result, making it more attractive to users, and making it more likely that people will click on it. While adding schema markup does not improve ranking, you can show valuable information from your webpage instantly which helps users to decide whether to click or not to click.
Schema could help most with local businesses that would gather reviews as you can display them in your markup. Yelp does this already, however your own website could stand out in the way that Yelp reviews do with schema markup. Having reviews of your business online helps you look more creditable and encourages people to visit your website over others that may not have reviews.
As your website search results look more appealing and meaningful, more users tend to engage with it. Google is constantly working on providing better search results. You can help them by using schema, and reap the benefits from Google.
While schema markup may not be a ranking factor right now, it may become one in the future. Implementing this markup now means that you’ll be at the forefront of this technology rather than trying to play catchup.
1 comment. Leave new
“Schema is a type of microdata”
Schema is neither “schema” nor “a type of microdata.”
“Schema” is a word with different meanings in psychology, database design, taxonomic development and other disciplines. As per your title, you obviously mean schema.ORG. I acknowledge that this is something a pet peeve as this is a common method of referring to schema.org in shorthand, but nevertheless I wish I’d just once see a blog post that used “Schema” explain to its readers that the writer is taking a shortcut on the reader’s behalf. 🙂
Far more egregious is the claim that schema.org is “a type of microdata.” It is not: that’s like saying that “English is a type of sentence.” It is a *vocabulary* that can be expressed in a variety of syntaxes, including the syntaxes officially sanctioned by schema.org and the sponsor search engines: microdata *and* RDFa *and* JSON-LD.